STORY: "Confession expert in ‘Making a Murderer’ sees parallels with Moorhead case," by reporter Grace Lyden, published by The Grand Forks Herald.
GIST: "Clarence Burcham just wanted to go on his family camping trip. He thought if he told police what they wanted to hear, they would let him. So after a pair of interrogations lasting more than six hours in 2009,
Burcham confessed to the 1993 rape and strangling of Sharon Stafford, a Moorhead prostitute and his next-door neighbor. It's
a plotline that might sound familiar to viewers of the highly
publicized Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer," which
considers whether then-16-year-old Brendan Dassey falsely confessed to
the gruesome 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Lawrence
White, a psychology professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin, was hired
as a false confessions expert in both cases, and said he sees several
parallels. Of course, there's at least one crucial difference. Burcham was found not guilty. Dassey was convicted.
Vulnerable suspects: Burcham and Dassey both had low IQs, of about 70 or below. "That's
an important similarity between the two cases because we know from
studies that low intelligence individuals are at risk for giving false
confessions," White said. People of low intelligence are
more easily induced into confessing and less aware of the consequences,
he said. That's why both Dassey and Burcham thought they could return
to their usual lives afterward. After he confessed to
helping his uncle rape and kill the photographer, Dassey asked police if
he could go back to school to make his 1:30 class; amid a similar
admission, Burcham asked if he could go on a family camping trip. "To
me, that's pretty clear evidence that they don't really understand
what's going on here," White said. The men maybe thought, " 'I'm not
going to go to prison for this, because I'm innocent. It'll all get
straightened out.' And they're very naive to think that." Burcham
was older than Dassey -- he was in his 40s when he confessed -- but
both were vulnerable and unassisted by a lawyer or family member, White
said. "And then you combine that vulnerability ... with really skilled
interrogators."
Powerful interrogation: Police
used the Reid technique when interrogating both Dassey and Burcham, a
method that White said is "so psychologically powerful" it can convince
innocent people to falsely confess. The technique boils
down to confronting the suspect ("we know you did it, just tell us
why"), minimizing the seriousness of the offense and persistent
questioning, White said.........."They tell you at the very beginning, don't
use it unless you're sure the guy is guilty," said Tracy
Eichhorn-Hicks, the attorney who defended Burcham. "Don't use it on
children, don't use it on people who are mentally impaired, don't use it
on people who are intoxicated. It's a form of coercion to get people to
confess." When they ultimately confessed, neither
Burcham nor Dassey demonstrated so-called "guilty knowledge," or facts
known only to the perpetrator and police, White said in an email.
Rather, they regurgitated facts that police "inadvertently 'fed' ... to
the suspects.".........
Significant difference: One
major difference between Burcham's and Dassey's cases is that White
didn't testify in Dassey's trial. In fact, no false confessions experts
did...Late last year, Dassey's lawyers
filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which aims to prompt a
federal judge to determine whether his arrest and conviction were legal.The lawyers argue his rights were violated due to ineffective assistance of counsel and an involuntary confession."
The entire story can be found on:
http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/crime-and-courts/3921035-confession-expert-making-murderer-sees-parallels-moorhead-case
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: A recent post of this blog on the Dassey case contained some quotes by Buckley: The post, link provided below, read as follows: "In the past
several years, a number of false confession cases have received
extensive publicity,"
Buckley
wrote in a published paper for the University of Wisconsin. "In several
of these cases the convicted individual has been exonerated by DNA
testing and the actual perpetrator, in turn, has been identified. In
these cases it is important to examine in detail exactly what happened;
what went wrong; what are the lessons to be learned, and what are
potential safeguards that can be put into place to prevent future
mistakes." Buckley goes on to say that most cases of false
confessions are linked to juveniles, which Dassey was at the time of the
interview, and those with mental impairment, which also fits Dassey's
profile."
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2016/01/false-confessions-making-murderer.html
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
Harold Levy: Publisher;
The Charles Smith Blog
