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WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY: OCTOBER 2, 2017.
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As this - the fourth Wrongful Convictions Day - is commemorated around the world, it is important to note that the idea of holding such a day was conceived by Win Wahrer of Toronto. Win had led a group of citizens in Queensville, Ontario who believed that Guy Paul Morin was innocent, and persevered until Morin was ultimately exonerated after a lengthy battle in the courts. After the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (AIDWYC) was created on the foundation of the original group Win has devoted her life to assisting the wrongly accused - both through AIDWYC and Innocence Canada, the organization into which AIDWYC evolved. So my personal Wrongful Conviction Day project is to highlight Win's stellar contributions at much self sacrifice to freeing the innocent - and to proving that one dedicated person with a great idea, can help advance the cause of justice, and make the world a much better place. Well done Win.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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STORY: "Is Chicago really the false confession capital." by Matt Masterson, published by Chicago Tonight on September 22, 2017.
GIST: "Adam Gray took his first steps as a free man in more than 20 years in
May. Now in his late 30s, Gray was only 14 years old when he was
arrested in 1993 in the arson death of a brother and sister in Brighton
Park. Gray was convicted three years later – in part because investigators
relied on flawed forensic evidence that pointed to arson – but also
because Gray himself confessed after seven hours of interrogation.
Though he later recanted, his confession was introduced at trial and
Gray was sentenced to life in prison. Only after advancements in forensic fire investigations were made years later was Gray’s conviction called into question. Gray is one of 11 Illinois inmates who has been exonerated so far in
2017. False confessions were involved in some way in six of those cases. Innocence Project co-founder Peter Neufeld, in a 2012 “60 Minutes”
segment called “Chicago: The False Confession Capital,” described the
rate of false confessions in the city in stark terms: “Quite simply,
what Cooperstown is to baseball, Chicago is to false confessions. It is
the Hall of Fame.” That statement was met with controversy and blowback at the time – including a letter to CBS from then-Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who was included in the segment. But a question lingers about the claim: do the numbers back it up? The National Registry of Exonerations – a project at the University
of Michigan that seeks to document and study exoneration cases based on
publicly available information – has logged nearly 2,100 wrongful
convictions nationwide. Of those, 193 – some 37 percent – came from
Illinois. Based on those numbers, Illinois has a false confession rate
more than three times higher than the national average of 12 percent. In fact, of the roughly 250 recorded cases in the U.S. involving a
false confession, more than 28 percent come from the state of Illinois.
And nearly 1 in 4 come from Cook County. “There seemed to be a culture in Chicago of solving cases by
confession,” said Maurice Possley, a senior researcher at the National
Registry of Exonerations. “And once you got that confession, everything
that might have pointed to someone else was considered a red herring or
was just discarded.”.........It’s been a few years since he left the Tribune, but Possley has no
trouble rattling off case after case he covered locally that included a
false confession or a wrongful conviction. There was Daniel Taylor,
who gave a false confession to a 1992 double homicide that occurred
while he was already in police custody for disorderly conduct. He was
convicted anyway and spent 20 years in prison before he was eventually
exonerated. There was Eddie Huggins, a 15-year-old who spent more than a
year in prison awaiting trial after confessing to stabbing a woman, even though the medical examiner found “no evidence of a stabbing.”
And there was Rolando Cruz, who was on death row when he won an appeal at the state Supreme Court for a third trial only after some turnover on the bench. DNA evidence later proved Cruz was not guilty of a 1983 rape and murder. “To me, it demonstrated the fragility of the system,” Possley said. “Here is a case where, because one justice retires and another one gets appointed, this case comes back – not because of some new discovery prior to then. I keep using the word fragile, but it’s just, it was a fluke in a way. And for me it demonstrated that maybe some of these cases deserve a closer look.” In response to the false confession findings, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “Judicial and investigative integrity is perhaps one of the most important values for the CPD.” He also referred questioning to the state’s attorney’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment. In explaining her own “false confession capital” claim, (Karen) Daniel (director of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions) pointed to the prevalence of the Reid Method of interrogation – a common technique used by officers for decades – which she said can be used to psychologically coerce almost anybody into giving a confession, particularly younger suspects or those with mental handicaps. The technique was created by John Reid, a former Chicago police officer. And John E. Reid & Associates, which offers nearly a dozen different training programs on the technique to police, military and attorneys, is headquartered in downtown Chicago. Instead of using violence or intimidation, officers using the Reid Method can break suspects down through hourslong interrogations and a multistep process in which a suspect is repeatedly told the evidence of the case proves their guilt. Reid & Associates say that when used properly, this interrogation method can be extremely effective. A survey on Reid’s website notes a majority of their clients reported seeing confession rates jump more than 25 percent after using their technique. But Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates – a consulting and interrogation training firm that’s worked with CPD and other departments across the country – announced earlier this year it will no longer teach the Reid Method after more than 30 years of instruction. In doing so, the firm noted that almost one-third of U.S. convictions since 1989 overturned through the use of DNA evidence have involved a false confession. Though it said the technique can be effective when used correctly, WZ acknowledged that its improper use, coupled with intense emotional pressure, can have “catastrophic results.” In response, Reid & Associates said its method is still seen as “the gold standard” by the law enforcement community, adding that the company also works with the Innocence Project to help free wrongfully imprisoned suspects who gave a false confession after the Reid technique was used incorrectly. Daniel added that it’s hard to say whether there really have been that many more wrongful convictions in Chicago, or if authorities here are just better at rooting them out. And Possley said it’s impossible to tease out a single cause for the number of false confessions. “It’s easy to say yeah, cause I think just about everybody used the Reid technique,” he said. “I wasn’t there, you know? We didn’t have video tape of interrogations, so it’s hard to know.”
The entire story can be found at:
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/09/22/chicago-really-false-confession-capital
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
And there was Rolando Cruz, who was on death row when he won an appeal at the state Supreme Court for a third trial only after some turnover on the bench. DNA evidence later proved Cruz was not guilty of a 1983 rape and murder. “To me, it demonstrated the fragility of the system,” Possley said. “Here is a case where, because one justice retires and another one gets appointed, this case comes back – not because of some new discovery prior to then. I keep using the word fragile, but it’s just, it was a fluke in a way. And for me it demonstrated that maybe some of these cases deserve a closer look.” In response to the false confession findings, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “Judicial and investigative integrity is perhaps one of the most important values for the CPD.” He also referred questioning to the state’s attorney’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment. In explaining her own “false confession capital” claim, (Karen) Daniel (director of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions) pointed to the prevalence of the Reid Method of interrogation – a common technique used by officers for decades – which she said can be used to psychologically coerce almost anybody into giving a confession, particularly younger suspects or those with mental handicaps. The technique was created by John Reid, a former Chicago police officer. And John E. Reid & Associates, which offers nearly a dozen different training programs on the technique to police, military and attorneys, is headquartered in downtown Chicago. Instead of using violence or intimidation, officers using the Reid Method can break suspects down through hourslong interrogations and a multistep process in which a suspect is repeatedly told the evidence of the case proves their guilt. Reid & Associates say that when used properly, this interrogation method can be extremely effective. A survey on Reid’s website notes a majority of their clients reported seeing confession rates jump more than 25 percent after using their technique. But Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates – a consulting and interrogation training firm that’s worked with CPD and other departments across the country – announced earlier this year it will no longer teach the Reid Method after more than 30 years of instruction. In doing so, the firm noted that almost one-third of U.S. convictions since 1989 overturned through the use of DNA evidence have involved a false confession. Though it said the technique can be effective when used correctly, WZ acknowledged that its improper use, coupled with intense emotional pressure, can have “catastrophic results.” In response, Reid & Associates said its method is still seen as “the gold standard” by the law enforcement community, adding that the company also works with the Innocence Project to help free wrongfully imprisoned suspects who gave a false confession after the Reid technique was used incorrectly. Daniel added that it’s hard to say whether there really have been that many more wrongful convictions in Chicago, or if authorities here are just better at rooting them out. And Possley said it’s impossible to tease out a single cause for the number of false confessions. “It’s easy to say yeah, cause I think just about everybody used the Reid technique,” he said. “I wasn’t there, you know? We didn’t have video tape of interrogations, so it’s hard to know.”
The entire story can be found at:
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/09/22/chicago-really-false-confession-capital
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
