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 (especially young suspects) are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including inducement. deception (read ‘outright lies’) physical violence, and even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Friesen says she just wants recognition that the conviction impacted the life she was able to provide for her other children. "For the government to admit that was wrong, that would just free us and we'd be able to raise our heads up and look people in the eye and be able to make something of our lives and do something positive in society," she says."
----------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Mother cleared of killing her baby has bid for compensation blocked by Justice Minister," published by Newshub.
SUB-HEADING: "A mother who was cleared of killing her baby has had her bid for compensation blocked by the Minister of Justice."
SUB-HEADING: "Terri Friesen is now looking at her legal options to review the decision."
GIST: "There were tears of joy three years ago when Terri Friesen had a manslaughter conviction quashed in the Court of Appeal.
They're in stark contrast to the tears of disappointment now after Justice Minister Kris Faafoi sent her a letter ruling out compensation.
"After I'd been vindicated then I got slammed again with that - I just felt like he wanted to put me back in the hole," Friesen says.
For 27 years, Friesen lived with the wrongful conviction for the death of her baby after she gave police a false confession in 1989.
Faafoi cited that as a reason compensation would not be in the interests of justice.
The team who worked to overturn Teina Pora's wrongful conviction say false confessions are complex.
"In Terri's circumstances she was clearly vulnerable, she was a grieving mother who had just lost her baby, she was in an extremely violent relationship and she was under enormous pressure in the police station," says investigator Tim McKinnel.
But the Ministry is also questioning Friesen's innocence, based on evidence from a neighbour who heard her yell loudly the night baby Chantelle died.
Friesen's partner at the time later confessed that he had shaken the baby, and in 2011 he was convicted of killing the seven-week-old.
At the time the sentencing judge said "Chantelle's mother in fact had nothing to do with Chantelle's death".
Ten years on, two justice ministers have now looked at Friesen's compensation bid.
In a statement to Newshub, Faafoi said the substantive decision had been made by Andrew Little and he did not see grounds to overturn it.
Friesen says she just wants recognition that the conviction impacted the life she was able to provide for her other children.
"For the government to admit that was wrong, that would just free us and we'd be able to raise our heads up and look people in the eye and be able to make something of our lives and do something positive in society," she says.
"We don't even feel like we should take part because of the stigma they are still trying to put on me."
A stigma Friesen is now vowing to remove once more."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/10/mother-cleared-of-killing-her-baby-has-bid-for-compensation-blocked-by-justice-minister.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
For full understanding of the horrific pressure put on Friesen to confess read this Newshub story on the quaking of the conviction three years ago by Reporter Melissa Chan-Green, published on September 8, 2019, at the link below:
'A Taranaki mother has had her conviction for manslaughter quashed by the Court of Appeal, nearly 30 years after she was convicted for killing her baby.
Terri Friesen has always denied she was responsible for the death of seven-week-old baby Chantelle, but says she lied to police in the days following because she thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
According to Ms Friesen, one night in March 1989, her baby Chantelle wouldn't stop crying. She passed the baby to her partner at the time, Brownie Walter Broughton, and went to sleep.
When Ms Friesen woke, Chantelle was dead. The pathologist later found she died from non-accidental injuries from being shaken.
Chantelle suffered from a brain injury and cracked ribs - an injury her mother says she knew nothing about.
When interrogated by police, Ms Friesen claims she was told that her elder daughter would be taken away if she didn't confess. She also claims she was told a judge and jury would be more likely to let her off than if her partner confessed.
So she told police she did it.
At the trial in November 1989, Ms Friesen plead not guilty to manslaughter using a defence of 'infanticide', which is available to women who can prove their minds were temporarily 'disturbed'. She spent six weeks in remand and was sentenced to six months supervised detention.
"It was a make or break situation, the hardest thing was knowing that what I'm about to say was a lie, that my baby and God... that they would know that this is going to be a hideous lie to come out my mouth," she told Newshub Nation.
In 1991 Broughton went to police in New Plymouth to confess that he had shaken baby Chantelle.
The statement from the detective he spoke to concluded: "I was satisfied from the method he described to me that he did not contribute towards the death of the child" and that the "case does not need to be reopened".
In 2001, Broughton went to confess again. This time it was referred to former Detective Sergeant in New Plymouth Grant Coward who told Newshub: "from my dealings with the pair in 2001, Terri Friesen told me that she had nothing to do with it and he told me that he was responsible so at the end of the day that was the line we took - he was responsible and she had nothing to do with it."
Ms Friesen thought her conviction would be automatically wiped but it wasn't. However when her story was featured in the documentary I am Innocent, Canterbury law student Kelly Phillips got in touch.
Ms Phillips put her in touch with private investigator Tim McKinnel, who helped secure Teina Pora's release from prison."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL, FINAL, FINAL WORD: “It is incredibly easy to convict an innocent person, but it's exceedingly difficult to undo such a devastating injustice.
Jennifer Givens: DirectorL UVA Innocence Project.
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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL, FINAL, FINAL WORD: “It is incredibly easy to convict an innocent person, but it's exceedingly difficult to undo such a devastating injustice.
Jennifer Givens: DirectorL UVA Innocence Project.
