April 30, 2005
Kudos to California Lawyer Magazine
The April 2005 edition of California Lawyer magazine has a great article on false confessions. It's encouraging to see an effort to raise awareness amongst attorneys about this issue. Among the "Top 10 False Confessions" listed in the article is the Central Park jogger case where NYPD interrogators coerced confessions from five teenage boys in the rape and beating of a white investment banker. Thirteen years later, serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the crime while in prison on other charges. Mr. Reyes' DNA matched sperm samples found at the crime scene. He was never convicted, howevever, due to the running of the statute of limitations. Needless to say, the Central Park jogger case was a bad result: the innocent were convicted and imprisoned, and the guilty escaped punishment. The legislature should consider legislation requiring requiring police interrogations to be videotaped. Such legislation presents a drafting challenge: it is in everyone's interest to videotape police interrogations, but a valid confession should not be thrown-out because no video tape was available, or the machine malfunctioned. The article does a great job of explaining just how false confessions occur. Attorneys representing persons susceptible to police pressure must make an extra effort to properly investigate false confession claims.
Posted by Tim Warriner at 08:09 AM