False Confessions

Wrongfully Imprisoned 29 Years, Stanley Wrice Wins Second Chance

David Protess | Posted 04.03.2012

Read More: Wrongful Convictions, Jon Burge, Chicago Blackhawks, False Confessions, Chicago Crime, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Police Torture, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls, Jon Burge Torture, Stanley Wrice Ruling, Chicago Police Brutality, Stanley Wrice Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News
David Protess

The justices flatly rejected prosecutors' arguments that Stanley Wrice's conviction should stand even if he had been tortured by two of Jon Burge's cops. The language was a ringing victory for all police torture victims.

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Convicted Hitman Says 14-year-old's Confession To Four Murders Was False

AP | By ED WHITE | Posted 01.30.2012

Read More: Detroit Murders, Vincent Smothers, Vincent Smothers Hit Man, Runyon Street Murders, Detroit Crime, False Confessions, Davontae Sanford, Detroit News

IONIA, Mich. -- A Detroit hit man in prison for eight murders said he's willing to publicly take responsibility for four more to help clear a young ma...

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When Juveniles Confess to Murders They Didn't Commit

David Protess | Posted 01.18.2012

Read More: Dna Testing, Wrongful Conviction, Chicago News, Central Park Jogger, False Confessions, Anita Alvarez, Ryan Harris, Chicago News
David Protess

False confessions happen all the time. They are particularly common in cases involving juveniles. What is distinctive about the Englewood Four case, and deeply troubling, is that State's Attorney Alvarez will not acknowledge the mistake.

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Innocent, But Forced to Confess -- To Murder

Rashad Robinson | Posted 10.22.2011

Read More: Criminal Justice, Youth, Prison, Enhanced Interrogations, Dixmoor Five, Coercive-Interrogation, Englewood Five, False Confessions, Confession, Politics News
Rashad Robinson

Every day, many law enforcement officials treat Black youth as criminals, denying them their right to due process and basic dignity. The consequences of these practices are life-threatening.

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Radley Balko

Myths Of The Criminal Justice System: Part 2

HuffingtonPost.com | Radley Balko | Posted 08.22.2011

Read More: Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, False Confessions, Criminal Justice System, Bill O'Reilly, Innocence Project, Nancy Grace, Cops, Crime News

Note: As part of this week's launch of the HuffPost's Crime vertical, senior writer and criminal justice reporter Radley Balko outlines 10 popular myt...

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The Truth About False Confessions

Katy Welter | Posted 07.23.2011

Read More: Criminal Justice, Death Penalty, Illinois, False Confessions, Chicago, Videotaping Interrogations, Interrogation, Wrongful Conviction, Murder Conviction Overturned, Dna Evidence, Chicago News
Katy Welter

Understanding the conditions that give rise to false confessions will help prevent a phenomenon that implicates innocent people.

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Torture Apologists Should Beware

Andrea Lyon | Posted 07.10.2011

Read More: Osama Bin Laden Dead, False Confessions, Osama Bin Laden Death, Torture, Osama Bin Laden, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Politics News
Andrea Lyon

We don't need torture to get information. We need intelligence, perseverance and professionalism. We have that in our intelligence community, our soldiers and our commander in chief.

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After 28 Years In Prison, Convict Talks His Way Out Of Four Life Sentences

Chicago Reader | Tori Marlan | Posted 07.06.2011

Read More: False Confessions, Jon Burge, Mark Clements, Police Torture, Chicago News

One sunny March morning, freed murder convict and tireless rabble-rouser Mark Clements was getting the kind of attention that had eluded him in the ne...

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Why Do Innocent People Confess to Crimes They Did Not Commit?

Judge H. Lee Sarokin | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: False Confessions, Governor Tim Kaine.DNA Exoneration, Frontline, Michelle Bosko Case, Coerced Confessions, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Politics News
Judge H. Lee Sarokin

The answer all too often is coercion, intimidation, deceit and trickery. All of those techniques were employed to obtain the conviction of four innocent sailors for the rape and murder of a woman in Norfolk, Virginia.

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Donny McGee Awarded $1.3M After Police MADE UP His Confession

Chicago Tribune | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Made-Up Confession, False Confessions, Cpd, Donny Mcgee False Confession, Chicago, Donny Mcgee, Chicago Police Department, Chicago Police, Chicago News

Donny McGee, who was arrested for the gruesome 2001 murder of his 76-year-old neighbor three days before his wedding, was awarded $1.3 million after a...

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Are Cook County's Interrogation Techniques Foolproof? The Reid Technique Examined

HuffPost Eyes&Ears Local | Diana Novak | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Wrongful Convictions, False Confessions, Michael Tillman, Cook County Crime, Jon Burge, The Reid Technique, Cook County Interrogation, Enhanced Interrogations, Waterboarding, Chicago Police Department, The Reid Method, Chicago News

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit Following his January 14 release from prison, convicted murderer Michael Tillman became th...

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Recording Interrogations is a Public Safety Imperative

John Terzano | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Wrongful Conviction, Electronic Recording, Exoneration, The Justice Project, Criminal Justice, False Confessions, Home News
John Terzano

Last month, Frank Sterling was exonerated by DNA evidence after being incarcerated 18 years for a crime he did not commit. Sterling was wrongfully con...

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Our Justice System Needs to Protect Children's Human Rights

Bernardine Dohrn | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Center-on-Wrongful-Convictions-of-Youth, Central Park Jogger, Human Rights, Chicago News, False Confessions, Criminal Justice, Northwestern University, Exoneration, Steve Drizin, Juvenile Justice, Anthony Caravella, Chicago News
Bernardine Dohrn

Routine police interrogation methods have elicited an outrageously high proportion of false confessions -- coerced confessions given by innocent suspects, especially children, who quickly recant.

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DNA: The Freedom Fighter (Part III of III)

Cari Shane | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Forensic Science, Snitches, False Confessions, Dna, Prison, Paul-Enzinna, Eyewitness Identification, Morrison Bonpasse, Alfred Trenkler, Criminals, Exoneration, Inmates, Innocence Project, Judicial System, Politics News
Cari Shane

Since 2006, Maine resident Morrison Bonpasse has worked tirelessly for the exoneration of a man he had never met or even heard of until just a few years ago.

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True Stories of False Confessions

John Maki | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: False Confessions, Chris Ochoa, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Rob Warden, Beverly Monroe, Steve Drizin, Criminal Justice Reform, Dna Testing, John Grisham, Alex Kotlowitz, Chicago News
John Maki

In most police and courtroom dramas, crimes are solved as soon as a character confesses. However, as a new book shows, a confession is sometimes only the beginning of the real story.

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Why Young People Falsely Confess to Police

Steve Drizin | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Exoneration, Thaddeus Jimenez, West Memphis Three, Center-on-Wrongful-Convictions-of-Youth, Central Park Jogger, Lacresha Murray, Bernardine Dohrn, False Confessions, Juvenile Justice, Steve Drizin, Marty Tankleff, Ryan Harris, Criminal Justice, Northwestern University, Video, Chicago News
Steve Drizin

I've seen police lie to children in all manner of ways, telling one child that his dead sister's blood was found in his bedroom and a different boy that his father had awakened from a coma and told police the boy was his assailant.

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A Truly Shocking Guantanamo Story: Judge Confirms That an Innocent Man Was Tortured to Make False Confessions

Andy Worthington | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ahmed Al-Darbi, World, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Guantanamo Detainees, Guantanamo, Fbi, War on Terror, Survival Evasion Resistance Escape, World News, Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Habeas Corpus, Politics News, False Confessions, Cia, Sere, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Fouad Al-Rabiah, Habeas Corpus Guantanamo, Fouad Al-Rabia, Guantanamo Bay, US Torture, Guantanamo Torture, Korean War, Sleep Deprivation, Advocacy, Torture, Politics News
Andy Worthington

The U.S. government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth.

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False Confessions: What Would It Take to Make You Confess?

John Terzano | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: False Confessions, Criminal Justice System, The Justice Project, New York Times, Reform, Texas, Policy, Chicago Tribune, Electronic-Recording, Home News
John Terzano

Most people find it hard to understand how anyone could ever confess to a crime they did not commit. But it happens over and over again. False confessions are a well-documented reality.

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ACLU: Government Using False Confessions To Justify Confinement Of Detainee Captured When He Was 12

Washington Post | Del Quentin Wilber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mohammed Jawad, ACLU Torture, ACLU Detainees, False Confessions, Politics News

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the confinement ...

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Historically, Eight-Year-Old Killers Have Been Mythical

Rob Warden | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Juvenile Crime, Elijah Henderson, Romarr Gipson, False Confessions, Melvin Dean Nimer, Ryan Harris, 8 Year Old Kills Father, Politics News
Rob Warden

The confession of an eight-year-old boy to the murder of his father and another man last week in St. Johns, Arizona, is shocking. It also may be false.

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