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.’ 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 physical violence, even physical and mental torture. Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog: ——————————————————— PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "According to Marshall, detectives took turns coming into the room, writing something on a legal pad, asking him if that was what happened, and then asking him to sign it. When he refused, the detective would leave, and two others would come in and punch and kick him while he was handcuffed. He said this happened at least four times. At one point, when Marshall asked for a lawyer, a detective refused, but offered to get a priest. At another point, two detectives talked about getting an electrical device to shock his testicles, but they said that it would take two hours to retrieve it. The device was not used, but it had been described by other torture victims as a hand-cranked generator with alligator clips that defendants claimed Burge and his officers had used, along with cattle prods, near-suffocations with plastic bags, and fake executions to obtain confessions." ——————————————————————————— PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "During the closing argument, assistant state’s attorney Jacqueline Perkins conceded that Marshall’s statement was at times contradictory and inconsistent. “I ask you to look in between the lines of that confession that he gave, and you will see the truth coming out as to what really happened,” Perkins said. “That what happened was that as he raped her, he had that paddle on her neck and that she fought with all that a 14-year-old's strength could give her. Judge, I submit to this Court that the Court should take with a grain of salt that confession that the defendant made in terms of the consensual act of sex.” On February 6, Judge Heyda convicted Marshall of both charges. On February 22, 1991, Judge Heyda sentenced him to 60 years in prison. The convictions were upheld on appeal. In November 1991, Lieutenant Burge was suspended from the police department following allegations that he and detectives under his command had tortured defendants during interrogations at the Area 2 station and at the Area 3 station where Marshall was interrogated. Burge had become commander at the Area 3 station in January 1988, about 10 months prior to Marshall’s interrogation. Over time, scores of other defendants raised similar claims of torture, including mock executions, electric shocks to genitals from the hand-cranked generator, and beatings. In one case, a suspect suffered burns after he was strapped naked to a radiator until he confessed. The allegations of torture all focused on Burge and detectives under his command, who were known as the “Midnight Crew” because they worked the night shift. Burge ultimately was fired, and in 2010, he was convicted in federal court of perjury for denying torture allegations during questioning in federal lawsuits brought by other torture victims. He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison. As part of the re-examination of the torture allegations, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission was established to investigate claims of police torture. Ptak, Duffin, Breska, and Almanza were implicated in torture and other physical abuse in other murder investigations." —————————————————————— PARAGRAPH FOUR OF THE DAY: "Prior to the retrial, a new hearing was held on a defense motion to suppress his confession. In August 2023, Judge Atcherson ordered the confession suppressed and unavailable at the retrial. Judge Atcherson noted that the detectives had engaged in similar misconduct in other cases and that in the case of Marvin Reeves, “there was a threat to throw him out the window.” The judge added, “I find it hard to believe this systemic abuse that occurred at [A]rea three was never observed, talked about or even suspected by any of the witnesses called by the State.” Judge Atcherson said that Marshall’s testimony during the suppression hearing about his physical abuse was credible. The judge declared, “I believe Mr. Marshall when he said that after being brought to Area three, detectives, who included Detective Vallandigham, came in. He was beaten initially. He was grabbed around the [waist] by one detective and grabbed by the ankles by another detective and leaned out the window sill and out the window." ------------------------------------------------------------------- GIST: "On June 17, 2024, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sophia Atcherson acquitted James Marshall of murder and criminal sexual assault charges stemming from the 1988 murder of 14-year-old Theresa Quinn, the daughter of his ex-wife. It was the second trial for Marshall; he had been convicted in 1991 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. He had been granted a new trial in 2019 based on evidence that he had falsely confessed to the crime after Chicago police detectives working under the command of Lieutenant Jon Burge had beaten him. Marshall had said that during the nearly 24 hours he was interrogated, detectives at one point hung him out a third-floor window, and threatened to drop him unless he confessed. With his acquittal, Marshall joined a group of nearly 30 other men and women with similar claims who either saw their convictions vacated and the charges later dismissed or were acquitted at a retrial. They were among more than 100 defendants who had asserted they were tortured in one of the longest-running police scandals in Chicago history. Marshall’s ordeal began several hours after Theresa’s body was discovered shortly after noon on November 7, 1988, lying in an alley in the 5000 block of South Seeley Avenue on the south side of Chicago. At the time, the police did not know who she was because she carried no identification. Although she was clothed, the zipper of her jeans was open. She was missing a shoe. Later that afternoon, the girl’s mother, Barbara Quinn, called police to report that Theresa had not come home from Kelly High School. When detectives came to Quinn’s apartment, they showed her a photograph of the girl’s body, and she confirmed the girl was Theresa. At the time, Marshall was Quinn’s ex-husband and was living with Quinn and Theresa, who was Quinn’s daughter from a prior relationship. They resided in a rear first floor apartment in the 5000 block of South Paulina Street. Marshall identified himself to police as Harry Jones. He agreed to accompany detectives to the medical examiner’s office where he identified the body as Theresa. Detectives then took Marshall, then 32 years old, to the Area 3 detective station. There, detectives determined that his true name was not Harry Jones. Marshall explained that he had used a fake name because he thought there was an outstanding arrest warrant for burglary under his real name. Meanwhile, Quinn told police that about a month earlier, she had confronted Marshall after Theresa said he had kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth. Quinn said he claimed it was an accident—that he hugged Theresa and when he went to give her a kiss, she opened her mouth. Quinn said she had warned him to not have physical contact with Theresa. Quinn also said that Theresa was sexually active and had two boyfriends. There would be no records showing that police tried to contact the boyfriends. Quinn said that on the morning of the crime, she and Marshall got up at 5 a.m. to get ready to go to work. At 6 a.m., as they were leaving, she awoke Theresa to get ready for school. Marshall and Quinn picked up a neighborhood couple who worked at the same place. When they stopped for gas, the van stalled. Marshall got it started, and they drove back to the apartment so that Quinn could drive to work in her car. She left with the couple, and Marshall called in to say he was not working so he could get the car fixed. The window was open in the third-floor interrogation room, and the room was cold, according to Marshall. He said that five detectives came into the room. They were later identified as Thomas Ptak, Michael Duffin, Victor Breska, Leroy Almanza, and Richard Vallandigham. According to Marshall, Vallandigham held him by the neck and began to hit. Then the other detectives joined in. Then, two of the detectives left the room, and the other three grabbed him and dangled him out the window, threatening to drop him. One of the detectives drew his gun and said that if they dropped him, they would say Marshall was shot while trying to escape. One of the detectives then threatened to give his gun to Quinn and let her come upstairs and shoot him. Marshall claimed he was not read his Miranda warnings and that his requests for a lawyer were ignored. The detectives took head and pubic hair samples, a mouth swab, and fingernail scrapings without his consent. He was forced to give up his clothes and given a paper suit to wear. Clothes were later retrieved from his apartment for him to put on. After the initial round of questioning, Marshall gave his consent to search his apartment. Officers found nothing of value in the home, but seized his van. According to Marshall, detectives took turns coming into the room, writing something on a legal pad, asking him if that was what happened, and then asking him to sign it. When he refused, the detective would leave, and two others would come in and punch and kick him while he was handcuffed. He said this happened at least four times. At one point, when Marshall asked for a lawyer, a detective refused, but offered to get a priest. At another point, two detectives talked about getting an electrical device to shock his testicles, but they said that it would take two hours to retrieve it. The device was not used, but it had been described by other torture victims as a hand-cranked generator with alligator clips that defendants claimed Burge and his officers had used, along with cattle prods, near-suffocations with plastic bags, and fake executions to obtain confessions. On the morning of November 8, 1988, Dr. Eupil Choi performed an autopsy and informed police that Theresa had died of suffocation with a flat object pressed against the front of her throat. Quinn had told police that she had a paddle that had Theresa’s name carved on it that she used to discipline the girl. According to the detectives, when Duffin returned to the station later that day, Vallandigham told him that the murder weapon was the stick of the paddle. Duffin said that he had noticed a broken piece of wood in the garbage can behind Quinn’s apartment the day before. Duffin claimed that at 6 p.m., he went back and found the paddle, broken into three pieces, in the garbage can in the alley behind the apartment. At 1:30 p.m. on November 8, according to Vallandigham, Marshall confessed to having consensual sex with Theresa. He said that when she threatened to tell her mother, he strangled her. By then, the detectives had taken Marshall to the neighborhood to try to find Theresa’s missing shoe, her keys, and her identification card, but nothing was found. Vallandigham notified the prosecutor who was on duty, assistant Cook County state’s attorney John Dillon. According to Marshall, when Dillon arrived, Marshall told him about the abuse. Marshall said that Dillon listened, then walked outside the interrogation room and in a loud voice repeated to a detective everything that Marshall had said. Dillon then re-entered the interrogation room and interviewed Marshall. At that point, Marshall signed a statement implicating himself and was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault. In November 1990, Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Heyda held a hearing on a motion filed by Marshall’s attorney seeking to suppress his confession. Detectives Ptak, Duffin, Almanza, Breska, and Vallandigham all denied that Marshall had been physically abused or hung out the window. They testified that Marshall had never asked for an attorney and that he waived his right to remain silent. Ptak denied telling Marshall he would give Quinn a gun and send her in to shoot Marshall. Dillon testified that he advised Marshall of his Miranda warnings and asserted that no one threatened or hit Marshall in his presence and that Marshall only said that the police had treated him well. The motion to suppress the evidence was denied. On February 5, 1991, Marshall went to trial. It lasted two days. Marshall chose to have the case decided by Judge Heyda instead of a jury. Pearline Rogers, who lived in the front apartment of the same building in which Marshall, Quinn, and Theresa lived, testified that on the morning of November 7, 1988, she saw Marshall cleaning his van in front of the building. She also said that Marshall “used to come to my back door a lot. He didn’t knock. He would come in…and kiss me on my face.” She said she told him to stop and not to come into her apartment unless someone let him in. Quinn testified about the events of that morning, including how, after the van stalled, she and their neighbors went to work in her car, while Marshall stayed home to get the van running again. She described the paddle, which she said she kept by her bed and used to discipline Theresa. Quinn recounted how, about a month before Theresa was killed, Theresa told Quinn that Marshall had kissed her. “I asked him did he kiss my daughter and put his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her rump,” Quinn testified. “He said that is the way stepfathers act and I [said] no,” Quinn testified. “I had a stepfather and my stepfather never act like that, and I said he never did it to me and I said don't do it again.” Ptak testified that he asked Marshall about that alleged kissing incident. “He said that happened, but it was really like an accident. He says I was hugging her. She was yawning at the same time [he] was kissing her on the lips, and [he] accidentally put [his] tongue in her mouth,” Ptak said. Ptak testified that at first Marshall denied involvement in the crime. Ptak said Marshall said that he got the van started again and drove it to an auto parts store where he spent about four hours in the parking lot fixing the vehicle right there. Police had found a receipt from the store from the morning of November 7. The prosecution and defense presented a stipulation that Duffin had seen broken pieces of the paddle in the garbage can on the night of November 7 and that he went back the following day at about 6 p.m. to retrieve the three broken pieces. Robert Berk, a trace analyst in the Chicago Police Crime Laboratory, testified that he found four fragments of hair on the broken paddle pieces. He said that he compared them to Theresa’s hair. “I observed that there were no dissimilarities between the characteristics that were observable,” he said. “[S]ince I could see no dissimilarities at that point, I could conclude that the hair could have originated from…Theresa Quinn or someone else whose hair has the same characteristics.” Berk testified that he “forced the jagged edges [of the broken pieces] back into place to see if the fracture matches were identical. Using the microscope, [a] stereo microscope which gives a magnitude view, I could see the cracks were identical, so at that point I sent it off to the photography unit to have pictures taken of the fractured edges, fracture match.” “At one point, all three pieces were all part of the same stick,” Berk testified. “There is no way that you could break the stick again and have or break several sticks and get them to fit in together.” Berk testified that he found “clumps of fibers…adhering” to the middle section of the three broken pieces. He said he examined a cross-section of the fibers under a microscope and compared them to fibers removed from a carpet in Marshall’s van. “What did you notice when you looked down the shaft of the fibers?” the prosecutor asked. “That they were identical,” Berk said. “It’s a trilobal. Fibers look like a Y when you look at a cross-section of it.” Berk said he used a microspectrophotometer to measure the color or dye in the fibers. He said the fibers were “of the same color.” He said he used a chemical to create a “thin film of the fibers themselves. At that point, the thin films were analyzed using [an] infrared spectrophotometer, and I was able to compare the spectrographs.” Asked for the results, Berk said, “The spectrographs were identical. And there, the fibers that made up the carpet and the fibers that were recovered from the paddle [were] of the same chemical components….The fibers are identical, and therefore, they could possibly have that same common source.” During cross-examination, Berk said, “I can’t link specifically those fibers back to that specific piece of carpet.” He added, “All I’m saying is it’s possible.” Dr. Choi testified that Theresa was strangled, based on internal hemorrhages and abrasions on her neck. He said that he examined the pieces of wood and compared them to bruises on the girl’s neck. “I matched that wood to the wound on the neck,” Dr. Choi testified. He also testified that he saw no evidence of vaginal trauma or the presence of semen. Assistant state’s attorney Neal Goodfriend asked, “And what, if anything, did you arrive at when you matched the wounds?” “The width of the wood was matched to the wound I described on the front of the neck,” Dr. Choi testified. “That was approximately how wide, doctor?” Goodfriend asked. “Inch and a quarter,” Dr. Choi said. Dillon testified and read Marshall’s court-reported confession to the jury. He testified that he saw no evidence of violence on Marshall while in custody and that Marshall said he had been treated well by the detectives. In the confession, Marshall said that before Theresa went to school, he talked to her about having sex with other boys. He said they hugged and when he kissed her, she laughed, and his tongue went into her mouth. He said they took off their clothes and had sex. Afterward, when they had gotten dressed, Theresa said she was going to tell her mother so that she would be able to leave home. Marshall said he became afraid and upset, and they began fighting. At one point, Marshall said Theresa grabbed a knife, which he took away from her and put on the kitchen counter. He said he picked up the stick and began choking her with it. He said after three or four minutes, he stopped. “And then she started telling me she was going to tell her mom for sure, and she was going to run away,” the statement said. He said Theresa then kicked him. He picked up the paddle again and pressed it to her neck. He said the stick finally broke in half. By then, the girl was no longer breathing, he said. According to the statement, Marshall said he took the sheets off the bed and put them in the washing machine. He took the body out to his van and later dumped the body in the alley. He said he disposed of her keys in a garbage can. He said he found one of her shoes in the back of the van which he dropped in a vacant lot. He said he tossed her ID cards into a random garbage can. He said he broke the paddle into three parts and dropped them in a neighbor’s garbage can. The statement ended with Marshall saying he had been treated “fairly,” and that he had not been threatened or made promises in return for the statement. During cross-examination, assistant public defender Paul Stralka pointed out that photos of the apartment taken by police did not show a knife on the counter. In an attempt to undermine the statement, Stralka suggested that the chronology of events in the statement was incorrect. “Those were his answers to my questions,” Dillon testified. “I assume that what’s in the statement is true because that’s what he told me.” The defense called Pamela Fish, a Chicago Crime Laboratory analyst, who testified that she examined swabs taken from the rape kit, and that no semen or sperm was present. Fish testified that she did not examine any of the clothing that was in evidence. During the closing argument, assistant state’s attorney Jacqueline Perkins conceded that Marshall’s statement was at times contradictory and inconsistent. “I ask you to look in between the lines of that confession that he gave, and you will see the truth coming out as to what really happened,” Perkins said. “That what happened was that as he raped her, he had that paddle on her neck and that she fought with all that a 14-year-old's strength could give her. Judge, I submit to this Court that the Court should take with a grain of salt that confession that the defendant made in terms of the consensual act of sex.” On February 6, Judge Heyda convicted Marshall of both charges. On February 22, 1991, Judge Heyda sentenced him to 60 years in prison. The convictions were upheld on appeal. In November 1991, Lieutenant Burge was suspended from the police department following allegations that he and detectives under his command had tortured defendants during interrogations at the Area 2 station and at the Area 3 station where Marshall was interrogated. Burge had become commander at the Area 3 station in January 1988, about 10 months prior to Marshall’s interrogation. Over time, scores of other defendants raised similar claims of torture, including mock executions, electric shocks to genitals from the hand-cranked generator, and beatings. In one case, a suspect suffered burns after he was strapped naked to a radiator until he confessed. The allegations of torture all focused on Burge and detectives under his command, who were known as the “Midnight Crew” because they worked the night shift. Burge ultimately was fired, and in 2010, he was convicted in federal court of perjury for denying torture allegations during questioning in federal lawsuits brought by other torture victims. He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison. As part of the re-examination of the torture allegations, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission was established to investigate claims of police torture. Ptak, Duffin, Breska, and Almanza were implicated in torture and other physical abuse in other murder investigations. In June 2018, attorneys William Jones, Peter King, and Michael Crane filed a 169-page post-conviction petition on behalf of Marshall. The petition outlined findings of misconduct by the detectives in other cases and sought a new trial for Marshall because his confession was false and coerced by the physical abuse. The petition noted that no physical evidence linked Marshall to the crime and that the confession was “the product of an environment so violative of Marshall’s constitutional rights that no other option exists but to grant post-conviction relief.” The petition noted that Duffin’s claim to have recovered the broken pieces of the paddle in the garbage at 6 p.m. on November 8 had to have been false because the city of Chicago garbage collection in that neighborhood occurred on the morning of November 8. A report filed by Detective Vallandigham noted that when they took Marshall to the neighborhood to try to find Theresa’s shoe, keys, and other items, they were unsuccessful because “the garbage had been picked up.” This was several hours before Duffin claimed he found the broken pieces in the same garbage cans. In February 2019, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus Wilson granted the petition. He vacated Marshall’s convictions and remanded the case for a new suppression hearing prior to a retrial. Judge Wilson ruled that the evidence of torture and abuse in other cases, some of which occurred at the almost the same time that Marshall was interrogated, was sufficient to require a new trial. The judge said, however, that he believed that the evidence, even without the statement, showed Marshall was “actually guilty.” As for the claim regarding the discovery of the broken paddle, Judge Wilson said, “It may have been thrown away after the garbage was picked up or simply stuck to the bottom of a sticky garbage can that was not fully tipped over or was dropped in a garbage can that was otherwise empty and, therefore, not touched during garbage pickup. On March 1, 2019, Marshall was released after completing the terms of his sentence. His defense team filed a motion to dismiss the indictment. The motion was denied, and Marshall appealed. In December 2021, the denial was affirmed by the First District Illinois Appellate Court. Prior to the retrial, a new hearing was held on a defense motion to suppress his confession. In August 2023, Judge Atcherson ordered the confession suppressed and unavailable at the retrial. Judge Atcherson noted that the detectives had engaged in similar misconduct in other cases and that in the case of Marvin Reeves, “there was a threat to throw him out the window.” The judge added, “I find it hard to believe this systemic abuse that occurred at [A]rea three was never observed, talked about or even suspected by any of the witnesses called by the State.” Judge Atcherson said that Marshall’s testimony during the suppression hearing about his physical abuse was credible. The judge declared, “I believe Mr. Marshall when he said that after being brought to Area three, detectives, who included Detective Vallandigham, came in. He was beaten initially. He was grabbed around the [waist] by one detective and grabbed by the ankles by another detective and leaned out the window sill and out the window in that room.” The judge noted that Marshall described “a flower box where his head was. He described seeing two detectives on the ground illuminated by light from the entry door. He described how his jacket was snagged as they were trying to bring him back in. He described his fear [that] his jeans button would break and he would be dropped.” The judge also said that Marshall “described how Detective Vallandigham threatened him with a gun, how there were other detectives that he was able to see in the light of the entry door on the ground level in the lot who had their guns at their side; not pointed at him but had their guns at their sides and Detective Vallandigham threatened he would be dropped and shot and they would claim he tried to escape.” The prosecution appealed. In December 2023, the First District Illinois Appellate Court upheld Judge Atcherson’s ruling. In June 2024, Marshall went to trial a second time. On June 17, 2024, at the close of the prosecution’s case, Judge Atcherson acquitted him." The entire post can be read at: |
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=6870
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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;
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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;
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