False Confession Information

Wondering whether you have a false confession on a case? Worried about a coerced confession? Need a false confession expert? Look no further than False Confessions.org. The website is an information gem that includes sections about how false confessions happen, case notes from actual false confession cases, information on experts, and information on confession reform. The site further has a blog with updates on false confession cases including media links to current cases and information. Of particular use is the research section which includes briefing on cases. Additionally, the expert section has a detailed list of experts that includes contact information, links to articles the experts have published, and cases of note the experts have worked on.

Innocence Speaks

The Center for Wrongful Convictions has this interesting podcast on the story of innocence and a new book "True Stories of False Confessions". This episode of Innocence Speaks features a conversation with Rob Warden and Steve Drizin of the Center on Wrongful Convictions discussing their new book. The book presents 39 stories of false confessions and this conversation touches on a few of the compelling stories. (direct mp-3 download here.)

Nassau County in New York Announces It Will Start Video Taping Interrogations

An interesting thing about listening to police testify about interrogations is often the he said/she said that goes something like this in trial or in a motion to suppress statements:
Officer: "Then the defendant said 'Fill in the blank with confession.'"
Client (whispering): "I never said that"
Of course it always begs the question, if you want the best record of what actually took place wouldn't a recording be better evidence? Well, Nassau County, New York has decided that it is

From Newsday.com, full article here
BY ANN GIVENS
Nassau police are about to start videotaping all interrogations in homicide and serious robbery cases, a move that both law enforcement officials and defense lawyers say will make prosecutions more fair.

Police and prosecutors said the videotapes will be useful tools at trial, and that they will also help protect police against false allegations that they denied defendants their rights. Defense lawyers also applauded the move, saying that it will protect their clients from coerced confessions and police abuse.

"We don't want to tell jurors what happened," said District Attorney Kathleen Rice at a news conference Friday. "Ideally, we want to show them."

FBI Agents Call for Release of "Norfolk Four"

A group of more than two dozen retired FBI agents have requested the state of Virginia to pardon four men who say they were wrongfully convicted of a murder of a nineteen year old woman in 1997. The "Norfolk Four" are four Navy men who say they falsely confessed to involvement in the rape and murder of the girl. Forensic evidence at the scene suggested the presence of just one man; a man named Omar Ballard confessed to the murder after the conviction of the four sailors; and most importantly, DNA evidence supports that Omar Ballard alone committed the crime. Nevertheless, three of the four "Norfolk Four" are still in prison. 

The FBI Agents sent a letter back in July requesting the Virginia Governor pardon the men; on November 10, 2008, the FBI men held a press conference after not receiving a response on the letter.

At the news conference, Cochran said the Richmond chapter of the retired FBI agents was approached by the lawyers for the Norfolk Four with a request to 

examine the case. They were not paid. He said that they brought a skepticism to the case that is natural for a group of men with 700 collective years in law enforcement and that "the best interests of justice demanded that we speak out."

Cochran said the agents did not meet or speak with the Norfolk prosecutors or investigators who handled the case. Those officials have maintained that all five men convicted in the case were properly prosecuted.

The confessions given by the four convicted sailors conflicted with the physical evidence, Cochran and the other agents said.

Retired agent Thomas O'Donnell said the confessions were obtained under duress by Detective Glen Ford and that Ford was later "disciplined and demoted for having elicited false confessions" in another case. He said this case caused Norfolk police to begin videotaping interrogations. Ford has denied coercing any confessions.

Full article here from The Washington Post

An evaluation done by Dr. Richard Ofshe is a useful primer in the problems that existed with the coercive interrogation techniques used in the case and can be a useful starting point for evaluating your own confession cases. Look also at The Innocence Project's materials on false confessions in the story of the Norfolk Four case.