Pedro Hernandez: New York City murder trial: Discovery News story reports on "the problem with confessions," in the trial which has just wrapped up. "A man named Pedro Hernandez is on trial for Patz’s murder, but the prosecution has a problem," reorts Benjamin Radford. "The boy’s body was never found and there is no direct evidence connecting Hernandez to Patz — only a confession. Hernandez initially denied any involvement in the disappearance of Patz, but after a full day of police interrogation he finally broke down and tearfully confessed that he had lured the boy into his New Jersey basement and strangled him, later disposing of his body in plastic bags." (Stay tuned. HL);

STORY: "New York City trial: The problem with confessions," by Benjamin Radford,  published by Discovery News  on April 14, 2015.

GIST:  "Arguments in a sensational murder trial wrapped up yesterday in a New York City courtroom. The victim was 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose 1979 disappearance shocked and riveted the city. A man named Pedro Hernandez is on trial for Patz’s murder, but the prosecution has a problem: The boy’s body was never found and there is no direct evidence connecting Hernandez to Patz — only a confession. Hernandez initially denied any involvement in the disappearance of Patz, but after a full day of police interrogation he finally broke down and tearfully confessed that he had lured the boy into his New Jersey basement and strangled him, later disposing of his body in plastic bags. In fact Hernandez had given that confession (though notably never identifying Patz as his victim) several times before, in somewhat different versions, to people including a Catholic prayer group a few years after Patz’s disappearance. No one from the prayer group reported his statement to the police until years later.  For many people that would be enough evidence: Why would anyone confess to a horrible crime he or she didn’t commit? But psychologists know that it can and does happen. According to a The New York Times article on the trial: “In a closing argument that lasted nearly five hours, the lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, portrayed the suspect, Pedro Hernandez, as a mentally ill loner with a low I.Q. who wanted to please the detectives and ended up in a tearful group hug with them after confessing to a crime he did not commit.” Whether Hernandez’s confession was true, false confessions played a key role in another high-profile New York City murder case exactly a decade later when five youths were arrested and imprisoned for an attack on a jogger in Central Park......... Confessions don’t need to be beaten or tortured out of a person; sometimes they can come after hours of psychological pressure and exhaustion. When someone is put under sustained pressure, they may tell their interrogator whatever they want to hear to make it stop, whether truthful or not. In a 2004 article on the psychology of false confessions published in the journal “Applied Cognitive Psychology,” researchers Linda Henkel and Kimberly Coffman noted that “Suspects who offer coerced-internalized false confessions do so for crimes that they are innocent of but come to falsely believe that they committed … the literature is replete with case studies and compendiums of reports showing that innocent people can come to believe in their own guilt and even create ‘memories’ for their alleged crimes.” That is what Hernandez’s lawyer claims happened here, and there is some evidence suggesting that another man — a child predator who was the prime suspect before Hernandez’s confession surfaced — may have killed Etan Patz. The truth in this case may never be known, but the New York jury may be reluctant to convict a man based solely on his confession."

The entire story can be found at:

http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/nyc-murder-trial-the-problem-with-confessions-150414.htm

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.
 
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;