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:
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GIST: "A federal jury in Chicago awarded $120 million in damages Monday to two wrongfully convicted men who spent more than 15 years in prison, a pair who alleged they were railroaded in a bogus investigation at the hands of Chicago Police detectives and Cook County prosecutors.
The $60 million awarded to both John Fulton and Anthony Mitchell are, individually, the largest awards ever in a civil case stemming from misconduct by local law enforcement.
Fulton and Mitchell were teens when they were arrested in the 2003 murder of Christopher Collazo in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Both were convicted and sentenced to 31 years in prison. In 2019 a Cook County judge vacated both convictions, and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to prosecute the men again.
Both brought a federal lawsuit against the CPD and county prosecutors in 2020. A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said in a statement, “The City will appeal.” A representative for Cook County could not be reached Monday evening.
Attorney Jon Loevy said Fulton spent more than 100 hours being interrogated, at age 18, and Mitchell more than 40 hours under interrogation, at age 17, and were coerced into false confessions that evidence didn’t support. The jury found that both men “were innocent and they were framed by the Chicago Police Department,” Loevy said.
“The city of Chicago continued to insist that they were guilty, continued to insist that they had confessed to a crime that they didn’t commit because they were guilty,” Loevy added. “And they’ve had 3, 4 years, 5 years — 20 years — to find any evidence that they could find that Fulton and Mitchell were guilty. But they’re not guilty.”
No witnesses or physical evidence connected them to the scene, their lawyers said.
On the night of the death, Fulton was with his fiancée at the University of Chicago hospital, then home at their apartment — where security cameras monitored every doorway. Fulton’s alibi also clears Mitchell, according to the lawsuit, since prosecutors alleged that Fulton was the instigator of the attack and recruited Mitchell for help.
Fulton, now 40, was an 18-year-old high school student on the bowling team when he was arrested. After the verdict, at a press conference held outside the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, he had his arm around his wife, Dominique, as he spoke in front, introducing friends and family including his sons Camron Fulton and Jamari Williams.
“This is what the face of justice looks like. Justice is finally here. And we got a lot of work to do. We got a lot of people who are just like me that are wrongfully incarcerated in the justice system, and they need to be brought home too. So the day of celebration will be when all the wrongfully incarcerated individuals, that’s incarcerated, can step in the free world.”
He said he was taken at age 18 to the old Board of Education school building that was temporarily a homicide police station.
“Nobody knew where I was. I got there Tuesday at 5:30 in the morning. I didn’t see nobody until Friday. I was there all the time,” he said, adding: “They had their mind made up what they wanted to do. So I knew my time was going to come one day. I just had to keep my head held high, keep God first, and put one foot in front of the next. And this day finally came.”
Mitchell was 17 when he was arrested. He called the verdict “unbelievable” but remained frustrated that he “put myself in this situation” by falsely confessing.
That led to an exchange between Loevy and Mitchell in which Mitchell again told reporters he still blamed himself for falsely confessing, with Loevy responding: “It’s not your fault. You’ve got to forgive yourself. You were 17. They were adults. They knew what they were doing.”
Mitchell said he wants to donate some of the verdict to help others wrongfully convicted. He said he wants to help “shed light on people that might still be locked up for things they didn’t do, and they might not necessarily be fortunate enough to afford counsel.""
The entire story can be read at:
Fulton was returned to the interrogation room where, he later said, police threatened him with physical violence and then physically abused him. They promised him leniency and fed him details until Fulton falsely confessed to the crime. When an assistant Cook County State’s attorney met with Fulton to take his confession, Fulton recanted and said he was not involved in the murder. Fulton was then sent back to the interrogation room. After two more days of interrogation and similar treatment, he again confessed to the crime and implicated Shaw and Mitchell.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am grateful to 'Authory' a valuable service which creates a portfolio of all of my posts since I fired my first post into the cybersphere on the Charles Smith Blog on September 29, 2007, some 17 years ago. Today's post is number 11, 784 Yikes! Yes, this is a compulsion, but it's a healthy one ! One of the best features of 'Authory' (which I am trying out on the Blog for the first time, is a search engine for the portfolio which makes it easier for readers to follow the many important cases, issues and developments (and occasional rants) in the area of flawed pathology, flawed pathologists, and whatever else might cross my mind in jurisdictions throughout the world which are at the heart of the Blog. So, dear reader, you can access the portfolio at the following link. Just type the inquiry into the search box at the following link, and hit enter. (The search box is on the top write side of the page under 'Read more.' Why not try it out, and, as encouraging use of this search function by my readers is rather new to me, any feedback on how it is working would be appreciated at: hlevy15@gmail.com. Cheers!
https://authory.com/HaroldLevy
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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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;
