http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/210/perfect-evidence
listen to the show available via the above link (below is a summary):
After a decade in which DNA evidence has freed over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us: how police get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit and how they get witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people. There have always been suspicions that these kinds of things take place. With DNA, there's finally irrefutable proof.
What are your thoughts?
I like the innocent’s project because it does let people go who are innocent. The innocents project has given so many prisoners hope that they can get out of their situation with some help. It says in this broadcast that the innocence project has over 2000 letters. If all of those 2000 people are innocent than that could mean that there is something terribly wrong with our court systems. I do believe that DNA evidence is irrefutable. I feel terrible for the people who have to go to prison when they didn’t do anything wrong. Especially, these four teenagers who were in prison for fifteen years. One thing that really can make you feel badly for these people is the fact that they were charged with raping a woman and that kind of charge doesn’t go well in prisons. I have heard the stories of what other prisoner to do the ones who have raped someone, and in this case the men got attacked by and stabbed my people that were after them. I wonder if the people who attacked them felt bad about it when they found out that they really were innocent. I feel like I would feel an intense amount of guilt.
The police and investigators held a lot of power in this case and were in the end responsible for their conviction. Also when one of the men turned against his group of friends and lied on trial about them doing it so that he could get a deal. That is just terrible, but I feel like that happens a lot more than people will admit. The one person that the men blamed the most for their situation was the prosecuting attorney, and when they saw him again after they were release I was actually surprised that they didn’t say anything to him or yell at him. They were able to keep shockingly calm and walk by him.
Police and detectives are able to convince people that they committed a crime. In the second story talked about they convince a boy that he killed his own sister. They confuse him to the point where he did it. I think that it should be made illegal for police and other people to make up evidence and other stories to get the suspect to say he did it. I feel bad for this boy because you can hear the struggle going on his mind. They just keep on badgering him with information about how they found this and this in your room, and you know you did it. They have footage of him just sobbing and saying why over and over again. The police basically make the suspect feel like he did it and then get them to the point where they will sign a confession just to get out of the room.
The psychology in this is just amazing. It is so fascinating that people can get people to believe they did something when they really didn’t. It is one reason why I am so interested in criminology and psychology because the minds of people are amazing and unique. I feel like there is still so much that we don’t understand about the brain. I am all for the research being done on people to see if they can put false memories in people’s minds.
Overall I am very happy that there are people that are specializing in DNA evidence and freeing people who were wrongly convicted. They have to be there heroes to so many people in prison because of their achievements. The number of people freed is growing, but is still small, and yet it is still surprising that that many people were in prison for countless years being innocent. It makes me doubt our system, but there are more guilty men in prison than there are non-guilty so does that even itself out? Innocent people have to suffer for the safety of man. I do think that there should be a law about what interrogators can and can’t do when in a room with someone. They shouldn’t be able to tell someone that they have evidence against them when they really don’t because that does have an impact on the mind of the suspect.
The Innocence Project is a great way to help free people who are wrongly convicted. Right now the mail they are receiving is extremely high. They have over 2000 letters that haven't even been read sitting in their offices. Prisoners are sending letters to the people helping with the Innocence Project to say that there is DNA evidence that will prove them innocent. What gets me is that there are prisoners sending these letters when they know they are guilty, and then the DNA proves it. They are taking away time and effort from the innocent people who were truely wrongly convicted. I am glad to know that our country is at least making a step in helping free innocent people by relooking at cases to see if DNA evidence might help prove they are innocent. I believe it is horrible to send somebody to prison for a crime they did not commit. The lives of innocent people are being taken away from them when this happens. This is shown in the case where four teenage boys were convicted for the rape and murder of woman, and three of them served 15 years for the crime. The two men who actually commited the crime were finally convicted based on DNA evidence.
It disgusted me how the police tricked two of the boys into confessing. They asked them leading questions about a vague crime. They told one of the boys if they signed the paper he could go home, but instead they locked him up. The police made up their own stories instead of seeking the truth. What surprised me even more was that the police tried making a deal with one of the men by saying he was a witness. When he refused to lie for them, they charged him too. I don't understand how detectives can do such a thing. One defendant lied at the trial to convict Larry just so he could get a deal for himself. I honestly didn't think many people could do this because of the guilt one would feel. After this video, and other information I've learned in this class, I now know this happens more and more in our society today. I feel sorry for these men who had to serve time for this crime because once they were in prison they were repeatedly attacked. Since they were convicted of rape they were even bigger targets of assaults. Kathleen, the woman who took their case, and all her hard work is why these three men got their lives back. I have respect for the three men because when they saw the man who prosecuted them, they did not say a word. If I would of been in their position I would have been so angry I feel like I would of yelled and blamed the prosecutor for all they had been through.
Micheal was blamed for the murder of his sister's death because he confessed to the crime after 14 hours of interrogation. Police lied in order to get his confession. Their first lie was the computer voice stress analyzer that will tell when he is lying. It actually does not work. I don't think it is right for police to provide false evidence to people, especially juveniles! With the atmosphere of an interrogation and the manipulation of the police, innocent people confess to crimes because they can't mentally handle the situation. In this particular case, Micheal actually comes to believe he killed his sister because of the evidence the police lied about. I am honestly happy that DNA evidence proved he was innocent because he was just a 14 year old boy.
Psychology shown through these cases just amazes me. Police psychologically weaken their suspects by providing false information, holding them in interrogation for hours, or putting them in solitary confinement. These all take a tole on a person's mind, and affect their process of thinking. At least in the first story the men never came to believe they commited the crime, and always fought for their freedom.
This show proves that DNA evidence is irrefutable, and I am glad there are people taking the incientive to help wrongly convicted prisoners.
The Innocent Project is a program that is trying to free individuals who were wrongly convictive. Police stations are going back through cases to see if they can find someone’s innocents through DNA. The video mentions that 1300 criminals are matched to crimes every year by the FBI though DNA matching. The amount of technology society has today is amazing. Today, we have data bases and programs to send our information through to find a match. Now, we can find people from all over the country and link them to the crime they may have committed. It is so interesting how time has changed over time. Now, evidence is used to find criminals, but also to keep police in check. Evidence and DNA can tell so much that the witness may not be able too anymore.
The police role in these two cases was overwhelming. In the first story, some teenagers were wrongfully convicted and served fifteen years in prison for murdering a woman. At the time, police tried to bully a confession. They beat up the victims and used tricky tactics in order to get the confession. For instance, they told him that if they signed a confession, they would let him go home. However, they locked the boy up instead. The police also tried to convince someone else to lie about what he saw. When he didn’t, he was also convicted. That is even more awful. I can’t believe that officers get away with stuff like this. After learning about this in class, this gives it a new outlook. The book talked about these tactics, but to see it in an actually setting is more shocking. To hear about these individuals trying not to give up hope and positive attitude is heart breaking. No one should ever have to have their life taken away due to police misconduct.
On the other side of things, false confessions are obtained through using technology and police procedures. The fourteen year old boy was convicted of killing his sister. He said he didn’t do it; however, the police slowly convince him that he did kill her. The police officer makes the boy feel like they were friends. The boy starts to build a relationship with the man. Then, the police then slowly start to play the power against the boy. They pretend they have evidence against the boy such as blood in her room. The boy starts to believe that he may have done it. If they police have evidence, they must be right because he doesn’t remember it. Eventually, he confesses to killing her. The psychology is impressive in this instance. They take the boys state of mind and slowly turns molds it into what they want to believe. They break down his thoughts and trick him into believing that he has done it. The police use their power and interrogation techniques to force a confession out of the young boy. A few questions that were shared from the actually investigation showed how the questions are presented and the influence of tone of voice affected how the boy reacted. Without saying it, the police suggested the boy had done it, and tried to make him feel better about it so he would confess. To know that our mind is able to be manipulated so easy is somewhat scary.
Overall, I think that there is such an importance of DNA. We can see that individuals involved in the crime, or bystanders can be manipulated and tricked into confessing to something they didn’t do. An individual can be persuaded to confess to a crime that they know will put them away in prison for potentially the rest of their life. However, they still confess. With new advances in DNA and technology, we can eliminate some of these wrongful admissions and avoid placing innocent people in prison. We can also reduce police misconduct and eliminate corrupt officers. DNA doesn’t lie, and that is definitely something we need in a courtroom.
This American Life episode was very interesting. It discussed many of the things we have talked about in class such as false confessions and how vital DNA can be in the criminal justice process. In just about a ten year period DNA evidence has been able to release innocent people from our prison system. This is sort of shocking because you would like to think that our judicial system is doing a good job at identifying and prosecuting the right suspects. After listening to this I found out this defiantly is not the case. I knew that false confessions do occur from the book I read for my book report but I didn’t realize how often they occur as they occur more than I originally had thought.
Before listening to this episode I never heard of the Innocence Project. I found out that the Innocence Project is an organization that tries to help out and prevent injustice. They try to make wrongful convictions right through the use of DNA evidence. What happens is that prisoners send this organization letters saying they believe they are innocent and that they think DNA can help prove there evidence. This organization then gets involved and tries to make things right by looking and the DNA evidence. Because of the Innocence Project some cases are being reopened and reinvestigated and ultimately some people are being set free because of this. I think the Innocence Project is a great thing because not only are they freeing innocent people from jail and prison but also taking some of the judicial power and keeping some of the injustice out of it. If it weren’t for this project more are more innocent people would be in prison for crimes they did not commit.
I found it interesting that this organization is becoming more and more popular. It was stated in the episode by Huy Dao, a member of the Innocence Project Staff, that there case load is expanding are they have nearly 2,000 letters from prisoners who are claiming their innocence. The episode went on to talk about some teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of murder and served 15 years in prison before DNA evidence set them free. What makes this case horrible is that police and investigators pinned the crime on these two teenagers. They actually framed the crime so it looked like these two teenagers did it. This is terrible and now makes me sort of second guess our justice system. I know that an overwhelmingly majority of judicial officials are not like this but just knowing that there are some out there like this just makes me upset. I can’t imagine being put in jail for a crime I didn’t commit. This would have a huge psychological impact on me I feel. Adding on to this case and how I thought I was unfair was that the jury was all women. The teenagers were convicted of rape and murder of a woman. I feel like the idea of rape would have a much deeper on impact than it would for me. I thought there should have been an even mixture of men and women on the jury. We as citizens have and right to a fair trial by an impartial jury and I don’t feel the guys got that. Eventually because of the Innocence Project they were sent free because the DNA from their semen didn’t match that of what was at the crime scene.
I think there was a lot of psychology within this episode. I really saw it when false confessions were being discussed. The police and investigators used a lot of social and cognitive psychology to confuse the teenagers and get them to confess. Also how the evidence at trial was presented really had a large impact on the jury’s verdict I think. The prosecution used some vivid language that I think played a role in the jury’s verdict of guilty.
I think the Innocence Project is a great idea. This group is receiving so many mail requests for them to analyze DNA from old cases that they can barely keep up with all the people that need their help. Often, the Innocence Project will have the DNA analyzed and it will actually prove the suspect is in fact guilty. I think it’s crazy that the perpetrator would waste their time when they knew all along that they committed the crime.
ACT ONE: Act one was an example of how DNA can be used to free innocent individuals who have been falsely accused. A young woman was raped and killed in 1986. Her name was Laurie Rozetti. Laurie’s murder filled the headlines. She was a medical student murdered in a predominantly black area. There was immense pressure to find the murderers. Eventually, the police detained four black teenagers. They were wrongfully convicted of murder and served 15 years in prison. DNA set them free, then it convicted the two men who really did the crime. The real killers jumped her near her house, not near the train tracks. There were only two perpetrators. They were adults; not teenagers. The police didn’t just sell their version of the murder to TV stations, they also tried to sell it to witnesses. One man told the story of how the police tried get him to tell their story in court, but he decided not to do that, so he ended up in prison.
ACT TWO: Act Two was looking at false confessions. They told a story of how a 12 year old was stabbed to death in her bedroom. They brought in her 14 year old brother. After many hours of interrogation, her brother confessed to the crime. They cops did a classic good-cop-bad-cap scenario with the young boy. The young boy’s parents didn’t even know he was being interrogated. They thought he was being held in protective custody and receiving grief counseling. “The Computer Voice Stress Analyzer” was given to the young boy. The real goal of this analyzer is to make people think that science has just proven that they did something. It’s a gimmick, it isn’t actually accurate at predicting if someone is lying. This is common in interrogations. They are falsely using science and technology to encourage innocent people to falsely confess to a crime. It is highly controversial, but it’s completely legal. Police can lie about their evidence. They can use DNA, witnesses, camera footage, etc. People begin to doubt their memories when they’ve been told multiple times that they are guilty. The suspect usually doesn’t believe they committed the crime they confess to. They are usually just thinking that they’ll get a better deal if they confess. In this case, the 14 year old brother actually begins to think he committed the crime. At one point, the police leave the room and the young boy just sobs and sobs. A lot of times people sign the admission form, and they think they can explain themselves later. Usually though, as soon as you admit to something, even if you think it’s just a temporary thing to get you out of the interrogation room, you will be found guilty. Eventually, the young boy confesses to the murder of his own sister. The police weren’t intending to be corrupt. They were just being sloppy and stupid. They began interrogating before they finished investigating. None of the police were ever punished for their sloppy work. DNA evidence later proved he didn’t commit the crime.
These false confessions show just how powerful psychology can be. Innocent people get so overwhelmed with false evidence and intimidation that they feel their only way out is to admit to a crime that they didn’t even commit. Before this class I figured people were guilty if they confessed to a crime, but now I realize there is usually more to the story than what is initially presented.
Over the semester, we have learned about a variety of aspects of psychology and law. We have learned about false and coerced confessions, interrogations, sentencing, profiling, eyewitness testimony, etc. However, even though I know about all of those things, I still have a hard time learning about cases in which innocent people are convicted for a crime that someone else committed. One thing that concerns me is how police officers in these cases had no problem sending innocent people to pay for a crime that was committed by others, who were probably walking the streets. It makes me feel very bad for people who do not have enough background knowledge to know their rights in terms of interrogations and having their attorneys present. Knowing that they were innocent was all they believed that they needed to know, and they were tricked into confessing to a crime they didn’t commit.
It was really incredible to see how influential the interrogation process was on Calvin and Michael. Granted the fact that they were younger; they came to believe that it would be better for them to sign the confession. Calvin was lied to and told he could go home, and Michael’s mind was oriented to think he could have actually killed his sister. The worst part about these situations is that these confessions can be damaging to their cases, even if they wish to take back their confessions.
As said in the case of Omar and Larry, the conviction that they were faced with led to them being harmed in prison. Being known as a rapist can be damaging to a person who is in prison. These men were lucky that they were not killed while serving their time.
Psychologically, the police in these cases really did a number on the suspects in the interrogation using persuasion and lies. One boy actually testified that he had played a part in the crime, along with his friends, to get a shorter sentence. Calvin signed a confession believing that he would be able to go home. Michael began to believe that he had killed his sister because of the false evidence that was provided in the interrogation. This is a good example of why people confess to crimes they did not commit. They believe that by confessing, they are doing the right thing or the police will work with them to lessen the sentence. The interrogation process and atmosphere, along with the leading questions can be very damaging to someone psychologically, making them believe that confession is the best way to get out of the situation.
I think that the best thing that could have happened for cases like this is the use of DNA evidence. Obviously many prisoners are going to try their luck at getting deemed not guilty, but it does offer hope for those who are actually innocent. Attorneys and institutions like the Innocent Project offer help to those who are truly innocent. These people are willing to look into cases from years ago and examine the evidence that was found to see if the DNA matches the person who is serving time for the crime. This allows for innocent people to have a chance at letting their innocence be known and letting them free.
I feel that the innocence project brings to light both bad and good things. Starting off I would like to talk about how I think this project is essential in proving the innocence of so called guilty offenders. They are able to use this evidence to try to free innocent people who might be in jail. I feel that this is very good because it gives those people a second chance. But what I feel is bad about it would be all of the doubt that comes into society’s mind. The reason why I bring this up is guilty offenders might be able to use this or abuse it and back up the process of finding the innocent people.
I feel that false confessions part was more interesting than the first part. The reason for this is because how they were able to show a real life incident of how a police department was able to get this confession. The way they did it was by using certain technology to their advantage. And by doing that they were able to trick this 14 year old boy into believing that the cops actually had some type of legit evidence on him. Now going through my ethics class I have come to the understanding that some people might view this as being ethical because of the means to get to the end.
Now personally I think that you shouldn’t be able to do this because in a way you are being so untruthful to them that it seems like a violation of rights or a betrayal by someone that you are supposed to trust in. There is such a high level of psychological thoughts that play in both sides of the false confession. I feel that through multiple classes I have gained an entirely new view on confessions this semester.
Throughout the semester we have learned about the innocent project and how many people are imprisoned because of crimes that they did not commit. After listening to this radio show I have expanded my knowledge about many topics we learned in class. I believe that DNA evidence is irrefutable evidence and that it should be used more often to set the innocent prisoners out of prison and keep the innocent ones from being put in prison in the first place.
In act one it talks about the rape and murder of Laurie Rosetti. Her case being highly publicized in the Chicago area. She was a medical student and was killed in a mostly black area which raised suspicion. Eventually four black teenagers were arrested and charged with her murder and set to life in prison because they were too young for capital punishment. One of the boys talked about how police brought him in and told him exactly what they wanted him to say as an eye witness. When he refused to cooperate with them they charged him as well. I find this very disturbing. The police knew he was innocent the whole time and not only did they want him to lie about everything they wrongly charged an innocent man and sent him to prison. I found the fact that the police told one of the boys that if he signed a confession sheet they would let him go home but instead locked him up to be very unfair and unjust. One of these boys had corresponded with the prosecuting attorneys and worked himself a deal where he admitted him and his friends murdered her so he would get a lesser sentence. I don't know how much this happens but I can only imagine the amount of guilt he should/would feel after lying and betraying his friends when they didn't do anything in the first place. After many years in prison one of the boys came across a lawyer who he thought could help them. He talked with her and she spent an incredible amount of time, effort, and money helping exonerate these men and setting them free. They were let out after fifteen years. When the men ran into the man responsible for them being put in prison they acted maturely which would be extremely difficult in my opinion. The two men responsible were eventually caught and arrested.
ACT TWO: In this section of the radio show in told the story of how police got a fourteen year old boy to confess to the murder of his sister that he didn't do. The police did not use violence when they interrogated him but they kept him there for fourteen hours. Right after his sisters death you can only imagine the grief he feels and being pressured to tell the police what he did definitely did not help. There was a point in the interrogation where he put his head down in his arms and just sobbed saying why over and over. He also was so coerced by the end of the whole thing that he came to believe that he did in fact kill his sister but he couldn't remember how or when. I think that this is completely unfair way of interrogating a suspect. Especially if they are a minor and could get confused more easily and could be persuaded into thinking what the cops are trying to plant in their head. To reduce the amount of false confessions I think that they would be recorded from beginning to end and reviewed by an official person to determine if it was an honest confession or if it was coerced. The radio broadcaster was talking about how when you see in the media that someone confessed to a murder you don't think about if it was a false confession or if it was true. This stood out to me because it makes complete sense and I wouldn't have thought twice about it until after hearing how often it happens. Thats why I think there should be more regulation to prevent false confessions. This radio broadcast really exposes some of the flaws within our law enforcement system and shows just how prominent of a role psychology really does play. Coercion by police making suspects confess just shows how it can confuse someone and elicit a confession.
I find this radio broadcast astounding. It is amazing to me how many people are wrongly convicted. And it is not only because of lack of DNA evidence. People are wrongly convicted because of police lying during interrogations and forcing false confessions which seems to me the worst possible strategy. The confession is held as the highest form of evidence, and why wouldn't it be? Who would admit to a crime they didn't commit? or lie under oath? It just doesn't make sense. Unless you go beyond the confession and look to see where and how that confession was made.
Like they said in the radio broadcast when you read the paper or hear about a criminal confessing to a crime people do not think twice. It is never considered whether or not that confession is true or false. Over the years I have thought of many things I could do with my life, including the possibility of becoming a lawyer. One thing I told myself though, is that I could never become a prosecuting attorney, that I would have to be a defense attorney. I reasoned with myself that there is no way I could live with putting an innocent person in prison or charge with the death penalty. Both options would destroy their and their families' lives forever. I agreed that the lesser of two evils would be to let a guilty man go and give him a second chance rather than to condemn an innocent man. I give the utmost respect to Omar for never giving up and keep on reading up on the law. His determination is the reason why he and his friends are free men today.
The United States justice system is not infallible by any means. However the entire use of the Innocence Project shows that the system is trying to better itself. It sees its own flaws and attempts to make right where people previously made mistakes. It's not perfect, but the justice system is constantly developing.
It’s pretty cool that people are now beginning to go back through unsolved cases to see if they can find anything new with the DNA evidence. While DNA has helped to prove some people innocent, it is nice to be able to see the flip side of what this technology has brought.
I think it is very important that police procedures are being reevaluated because of the cases where individuals were wrongly convicted. It is important to be able to look at where the criminal justice system has failed along the way and what can be done to rectify that in the future.
Larry’s story was very sad because of the events that led up to his conviction. It’s sad to think that police departments would sink so low as to trick individuals to giving confessions or implicating others simply because they are too stubborn to look beyond their own biases and find the real perpetrators. The way the details of the ‘crime’ were filled in by the use of the criminal profile is quite sad because of the way the police took a tool to be used to find the perpetrator and took it at face value to be their own version of the crime. This situation only continued to escalate as officers gave that version of events to the media and later coerced witnesses into following their tale. The sheer number of inconsistencies between what really happened and what the police said happened to get the kids convicted is very disturbing. It is sad that it took so many years for this to be discovered, but what is even more sad is that it happened in the first place. The man who was asked to tell the witness story who ended up being convicted of the crime has to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice I have ever heard of. Listening to these stories were hard from the start because it is so sad to think about these men who have lost such significant parts of their lives, but one has to wonder how many more cases like this exist. It is such a miracle that the boys were too young to get the death sentence but got life instead; otherwise, it is possible that we never would have gotten to hear their stories.
Michael’s story of confession is another prime example of police manipulation and coercion. The way the ‘computer voice stress analyzer’ was used to make this poor boy think that he killed his sister is shocking. It’s known that police use various tactics to try to invoke confessions from suspects and this makes sense in some ways. It is also known that they lie about evidence or test results with the same purpose, but Michael was just a kid who had no idea what was happening to him. I think it is one thing to lie to a full grown adult who is aware of his rights to an attorney, etc., but is completely different to lie to a kid who is not being represented and whose parents are not aware of the position he is in. This is utter manipulation and the way Michael comes to actually believe that he killed his sister is shocking. This shows how powerful psychology can be when it comes to changing one’s memories.
I have to wonder how aware the officers are of what they’re doing. I definitely think that with the first segment, the officers were wholly at fault and should be investigate as so. With the second segment, as they discussed on the clip, the officers may have just been stupid. I could see it being an easy way out for a lazy officer, and with how quickly Michael gave in and confessed could have played into why they thought he did it. In the end, however, one can only hope that police officers keep looking for suspects unlike what happened in these two different situations. I hope that these cases have led to much more investigation about proper police proceedings and can help to ensure the safety of some innocent people in the future.
The case of the teenagers accused of the brutal rape and murder of a young white woman is a defining example of the importance of DNA evidence. It was surprising to me that even in the 1980’s there weren’t regulations on interrogations of juveniles. The only confession they had was from a young teen that was told to sign and would be able to go home to his parents. I believe charges should be brought upon the detective who did the interrogating (I think the video said that lawsuits are still pending).
The detective work in this case was far from what one would call moral. They used a profile that a famous profiler produced for the case and just filled in the blanks with the names of the boys. It’s sad that there are people in law enforcement who will do anything to get the confession ruining the lives of the teens accused of the murder. This whole case was flawed and the fact that there was conflicting testimony in the trails on behalf of the crime lab expert makes me think that every one really had it out for these boys.
The psychological trauma that the boys (now men) went through was ruthless. I can’t imagine listening to the radio and hearing someone say “I hear he likes it cold” referring to the boy who was accused of having sex with the victim after she was dead when in all reality he had nothing to do with the crime. Prison sounded like an unimaginable experience for the accused. They had to be on their guard 24/7 because the other inmates knew they were in there for rape, a crime looked down upon by other prisoners. One of them was stabbed multiple times and they talked about how other prisoners viewed them sexually.
Omar’s views on the criminal justice system and America as a whole were pretty insightful. In spite of how wronged he was by the system he still respects it and realizes that is the actions of a few immoral people in power does not define the entire system.
Providing false evidence to elicit a confession is tactic that is legal for law enforcement to use. It becomes controversial when false evidence is used to trick a juvenile into a confession which is the case with Michael the fourteen year old who confessed to killing his younger sister. Signing a confession paper becomes the only way out of the intense interrogation room. Hearing Michael sob after being told lies pointing him to the murder of his sister was difficult to listen to. Another thing that makes false confessions a controversial topic is that once the blame goes away from the accused now it seems logical to blame the detectives/interrogators for making someone confess to something they didn't do. Do the detectives believe that the person really did it or do they think the person is innocent but are happy they have their confession?
This article was really interesting to me becasue I knew that having DNA to help solve a criminal case can be really helpful; but I never thought of it being helpful to someone who was wrongly accused. This made me think of all the possible people that are rotting behing lock doors because someone was so desperate for an answer that they took one wherever they could find it. After five years of learing the system as a criminology major we have never talked about things like when officers of the law beat confessions out of people, we just talk about how to to do them legally to make sure that when they go to court its not wasted.
I think that if there are people who are stuck behind bars for a crime they say they didn't commit and there is some DNA that can be used for that particlar case then they should have a right to be tested. As a person planning on going into the law field someday I could never imagine wanting to put a completely innocnet person away for something they didn't do especially for the rest of there life. I mean how did the men who do this sleep with themselves at night? I hope that they had to serve time behind bars to experinece what they made others experience when they didn't deserve it.
I really respect the Innocence Project for what they are doing. However, these guys are in dire need of some extra hands. Hopefully others will follow the lead of the Innocence Project and start similar projects on their own. There's an old saying: "What goes around comes around." To the criminals who have wandered free while others serve time for their crime -- its not over yet. Your time is coming. We are getting to a point in our society where technology is such that committing or even having committed a crime in the past is dangerous business in its own right. Criminals these days really have to look/think twice before breaking the law. One reason would be that nearly everyone today has camera/video phones. In this radio broadcast, however, DNA is the topic of discussion. DNA can be extracted from just about anything and can be used to exonerate those who have been wrongfully imprisoned. I just can't help but feel sorry for all those who never received any justice. As the years pass, I think we will see even more improvements in the implementation of DNA testing as well as the DNA testing procedures themselves. As a result, we will likely see vast increases in successful prosecutions of criminals.
The only way that we will continue to see justice served is if the ones serving the justice remain on the right side of the fence. It made me sick to read about how officers would mess with the lives of the innocent simply to quell civil unrest. Using physical force to obtain a confession is never acceptable. You can never truly know if you are getting the truth or if the person is only speaking out of fear. Quite honestly, it's scary the way the Chicago PD supposedly acted in getting witnesses to lie under oath and filling in blanks while making up their own stories that did not at all coincide with the original profile reports. You could be walking down the street minding your own business and the next thing you know you are sitting behind bars for reasons completely unknown to you. I cannot even fathom the anger, frustration, and confusion that I would feel. I think a situation like this would be enough to break most folks. The Innocence Project is a Godsend to men and women who otherwise would have had their entire lives torn away.
The most ridiculous thing I heard in the the first act of the radio show was how cops would take someone (Marcellus) who actually was a criminal and had committed crimes only to force them to lie under oath (another crime) in order to falsely convict an innocent. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. One way I look at this is viewing the cops who set this up as murderers. They are basically stealing someone's lifeblood. Cops who bend the law in these ways need to be held accountable for their actions. This should include prison time. No officer or prosector should be above the law. For there to be over 400 overturned cases with absolutely ZERO reprimands, loss of jobs, or jail time, there appears to be no deterrent for keeping cops from using such despicable techniques.
The police were up to more mischief in the second act. First, they lie to the parents about what their son is doing at the police station. They continue to lie to the young child who obviously is still grieving the loss of his sister. The child is vulnerable at this time and should not have even been questioned for that reason alone. I do not agree that it should be legal to lie about evidence in order to elicit confessions, simply because there is too fine a line between lying in an effort to obtain the truth and fabricating an entire series of events simply to confuse the one being questioned. People place their trust in police officers. If anyone is supposed to be forthright and honest, it is the ones who walk the streets protecting you and I. When an officer is telling you something, you are taught as a child to believe it and that's the way it should be.
The Innocent Project, though a great idea, also seems like a duh to me. The radio show made it seem like they had this brilliant idea and that with all of the letters they had written were going to try and use DNA evidence to free the wrongfully committed. Like I said, this is a great idea, but why wouldn’t we do this? We should be making sure that those incarcerated are there because they are suppose to be, not because they have been wrongfully committed. I’m not saying that we should go back through every single incarcerated criminal’s case and see if we can use DNA to enlighten us on any new information. However, we have used DNA enough times to know that the system has put away innocent people and that DNA testing can shed light on those cases that were murky and gray.
The first case talked about on the show was one we talked about at the very beginning of this class. I remember reading about it in one of our chapters. There was a group of guys who were falsely accused for raping a young woman. The thing that is terrible about this case though is that the police all but wrote the confession statement for two of them. The police and detectives coerced and lied to the men in order to one way or another get them behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit. We also read about this as well before in our C&K book. I can’t believe that this is okay. I understand it to a point, but somewhere or another someone has got to draw a line. These men’s lives were put through hell and back all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is even more than just the men’s lives. Did the police ever stop to think about how this would effect the men’s families and friends as well?
We have an even worse case to listen to next, as if it could even get any worse. In the next case we hear about a how a fourteen year old boy was accused, though in all reality convinced, that he murdered his own sister. After being interrogated for hours and hours on end, the police actually got him to believe that he honestly did it. It just goes to show you how fragile and malleable the mind can be during times of stress. It made me sick to my stomach to hear about this part in the radio show. What is even more terrible about this case, as if it could get any worse, is that how the police tricked a child. A defenseless child! Shouldn’t these cops being helping this poor young man?
What I don’t understand is how these things can keep happening over and over. The goal of a JUSTICE system is to find the truth, not a perpetrator. Finding the truth and finding “who done it” is not the same thing, and I think that cops, detectives, attorneys, etc. get this confused or just forget this fact.
It is easy to see psychology at play here. The most obvious being the case with the young boy. It shows how much an adult, especially one in power, can have influence over someone young and naive. Even repeating it now makes me want to gag. It shows how police use social and behavioral psychology to elicit a confession. Psychology and this radio show illustrates the power of a lie. Psychology is prevalent all over in everyday world, yet it is extremely easy to see all the facets of it in a false confession.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/210/perfect-evidence
listen to the show available via the above link (below is a summary):
After a decade in which DNA evidence has freed over 100 people nationwide, it's become clear that DNA evidence isn't just proving wrongdoing by criminals, it's proving wrongdoing by police and prosecutors. In this show, we look at what DNA has revealed to us: how police get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn't commit and how they get witnesses to pin crimes on innocent people. There have always been suspicions that these kinds of things take place. With DNA, there's finally irrefutable proof.
What are your thoughts?
Matching DNA evidence to a database is pretty much the only way that DNA evidence from the past can be useful. There are over 1,266,000 DNA profiles in government databasis. This number is climbing dramatically fast though. This may give the Innocent project hope, but while the number of criminals in a database is climbing, the population itsself is also climing, at the same time, the population that committed previous crimes is getting older or passing away.
The broadcast explained how the letters of innocence have been pouring in ever sense DNA evidence was able to be used. I believe they stated their stack was as tall as they were (so think of the average sized man). I wonder who has the job of reading 2,000+ prisoner letters claiming to be innocent...
1300 Criminals are matched to crimes every year by the FBI via DNA. Illinoise has the largest number of people (18) that have been wrongfully convicted.
The broadcast told a story about four young teenagers that were wrongfully convicted for a terrible crime that they did not commit. They spent fifteen years in prison. This is barbarack. They went in as kids and came out scarred up and totally different people. Prison like a cage full of angry, spiteful, coneiving, aggressive people. Even innocent people will seem guilty after being around these type of people for so long. It is too bad these kids were not saved sooner because years of your life is something that can never be replaced. No amount of money or sincere apology can make up for a wrongful conviction. Especially if it was of a crime against a woman. In one situation, a dozen men came at Omar with ice picks and he got stabbed 14 times--and he was innocent.
Something that I found extremely interesting was the interview where the suspects memory was messed with because the police were lying about evidence. He pretty much comes to believe that he committed a crime that he did not. The same is true with the story of Michael Crowe who confessed to killing his sister. This makes the police look corrupt for eliciting a false confession, when infact, like the broadcaster says, they were just being "sloppy and stupid". This is a scary thought that police do not always take every case seriously, or are maybe in a hurry to tell the media that they are so good and caught the perp. already.
False confessions are hard to prove to a jury. TRUE Justice seems to be more difficult to obtain than we previously thought.
I thought this radio broadcast was very enjoyable and interesting to listen to. The first thing that really stood out to me was the number of letters that they are receiving daily from prisoners who wish for their case to be reexamined through DNA evidence in hopes of being set free. I was shocked that about 50% of the prisoners who receive testing are proven guilty by the DNA. If you think about it, the prisoners knew they were guilty all along, so why would they even try. I guess most of them are just really desperate to do anything possible to get out of prison. I was also surprised that the current mayor of Illinois had around 167 death sentences overturned because of the high number of wrongful convictions that were brought to justice.
The first act was really sad to hear at first. The story just kept getting worse and worse from the false confession of Bradford to the comment made about how one of the kids “likes it cold.” I remember both reading and talking about false confession and how the police can use certain tactic, often brutal, to get exactly what they want out of a suspect. In this case, the boys were strapped to walls, beaten, and one was even offered a deal if he ratted on his friends. The confessor made up a detailed story about a fictional murder and all the other boys could do was sit there and listen. The thing that shocked me the most about this story was the extent to which the police went to get these boys convicted and sentence to life. They actually tried getting one of them to lie and say he was an eye witness to the crime. They gave him a fake story to testify with. The boy declined, and he was thrown in with the other 3. The police was going to all of these outrageous length to , in my opinion, deal with the public pressure to convict someone for the murder of the girl. They didn’t care how they got there, or who they took down along the way. This just goes to show how corrupt the people in our justice system are. One of the boys made about how scary the amount of power they have is.
I think all of the boys were thoroughly shocked when they found out their verdict. They clearly had nothing to do with the murder. How could the jury not find them innocent? The jury places too much credibility on confession even when they have been taken back. I guess the psychological logic would be that they are just taking it back because they regret confession and think they made a mistake. I thought it was very interesting that Omar actually developed and association of white people and evil because literally all of the people involved in convicting him were white. After reading about the effects of prison in the last chapter, I was surprised about how cane the three men remained throughout their sentence. One even read law books and the Declaration of Independence. He sort of became the groups “lawyer” and did everything he could to get them out. Another interesting aspect was they reported actually being able to tell who was innocent in prison and who wasn’t. The innocent behaved differently. Omar kind of made it sound like they were the ones that had a sense of hope about them.
Actually hearing the boy in the second act sobbing while he was being interrogated for 11 harsh hours was heart wrenching. Dealing with the death of a sister is hard enough, let alone being accused for it. The cops used several different techniques to ensure that they got a confession out of the poor boy. They made sure the boys’ parents weren’t in the room, and they used a good cop/bad cop method to sort of make him warm up to one and fear the other. The use of technology as intimidation was also used. It was surprising to find that Computer Voice Stress Analyzer actually had no credibility whatsoever. The cops also lied and said they had blood evidence that they actually did not possess. I think it completely unethical for police to be able to lie about evidence and any other aspect of a crime in order to get convicted especially cases involving
4/12/12
I really enjoyed listening to the first portion of this message. It was very frustrating and uplifting. I found it interesting that there have been thousands of letters from prisoners asking for a second look at their case with the consideration of DNA evidence; half of those looked into were still found guilty (why? They knew they had committed the crime? This is factual evidence. I found this part very interesting).
I was also interested in the amount of diversity that comes with DNA testing. Off the top of my head (and probably due to crime scene television shows) the first thing that comes to mind when I hear DNA in a crime is usually referencing murder, rape, or a combination of the two. But this broadcast referenced medical tests. The instance they mentioned dealt with someone being diagnosed with cancer, but after further testing they were cancer free. Two problems present themselves here. 1) This person has faced a major source of stress, a waste of time and money (if they started treatment), putting their loved ones through stress, etc. 2) This person may have gotten a wrong diagnosis because there results were confuse with someone else’s then there is a person out there thinking that they are cancer free and going without treatment and they are unaware of their true circumstance.
The main focus of this message/recording was referencing a crime that took place in 1986. A woman who was a white medical student was found raped and murdered in a black community. There were four teenage boys convicted of the crime and sentence to life in prison. After serving 15 years of their sentence they were released after DNA testing proved their innocence. In the meantime there were two adult males who confessed to this crime.
One of the four teens (I couldn’t keep their names straight – the teen that confessed and was serving time for another crime , if I am remembering correctly) did not seem like a stand-up person. His testimony was a lie. The police gave him a deal and agreed to send his three friends to prison for life (the only reason they weren’t sentenced to death was because they were under aged).
However, the other three teens (now adults) that were speaking on this recording sounded like very intelligent and understanding men. They were inspiring to listen to and that why I favored and really enjoyed this part of the recording. They spoke about their experience in an honest and straight forward way. They recognized but didn’t’ shy away from the awkward or unkind details of their cases (each tried separately) and their time in prison.
In their cases it was obvious that the police were dishonest and were just filling a profile with these young men. It was a blessing that there was an up and coming lawyer that was specializing in cases to prove innocence by DNA testing. The boy that wrote to this lawyer was smart in his approach he recognized that this was a business and that she had lots to do. He also knew that their case very workable, ‘a dream come true’. He sold it to her perfectly and luckily this lawyer took on their case. She invested time, money, and in part due to her connections they were able to win the case and to win these four boys’ freedom!
In this first case it was obvious that the police were acting in bad faith (beating and tricking suspects into giving a confession). However, in the second case it was discussed that the police were not intentionally trying to get a false confession from a teenage boy. They just honestly believed that he had done it. And the boy in his fragile state (his sister had just been brutally murdered – and now he was being lied to about evidence they had suggesting him) had confessed and actually stated to believe that he had killed his sister (a blackout scenario seems to be a reoccurring explanation in these circumstances).
This recording said that sometimes people will comply with what the police are suggesting because they have promised they’ll be released to go home (this was what happened in the previous case) if they sign a confessions. But, it is not easy to retract what you have stated and signed. I can understand and even see myself doing something like this; after eleven hours of questioning and worries running through my head. I just want to go home and clear my head for a while I would probably agree to things I would normally object to – just to get a break. I find it hard to believe and much more psychologically trying to believe that someone would actually come to believe these things about themselves. This is very interesting and I found this recording very interesting to listen to!
The first thing that is intriguing to me is the first statement that DNA evidence has freed over 100 people in our nation. 100 people isnt that many people when you compare it to how many are in prison. That could mean several things. The first thing it could mean is that there are only a handful of people who have been wrongfully accused or falsely confessed, but I highly doubt that there are that few of people who are in jail and dont deserve to be. I think it has to do with the fact that many cases have no DNA evidence due to the fact that it was not possible when the crime was committed so collecting things that may have DNA was no a high priority. The ability to analyze DNA does those cases no good and doesnt help anyone get free. I would also like to see how many people have been proven guilty based on DNA evidence.
DNA evidenced has brought about many good things. It has given us the ability to prove some guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and also the ability to let the wrongfully accused get acquitted instead of going to prison for a crime they didnt commit.
It still amazes me that people confess to a crime they didnt commit. Would make a person want to go to jail for a long period of time. Why would you say you did something that you know is going to take you away from your family, friends, and life for many years. Why would you say you did something you didnt and let the real criminal get away?? Why would you leave then out there to do the same thing again??
For the lucky people who get proved inncoent after they have been in prison for several years due to DNA evidence they are never the same. Prison does bad things to people and can turn good innocent people bad. Being locked up in a small room with another person day in and day out will have a huge impact on your mind. Being put with real murders and rapists make you constantly on watch and worried for you life. You always have to worry that you are going to be the next one picked on. To avoid this many prisoners join gangs to have a posse to protect you. Just joining a gang can change a persons mind set and reputation. If prisoners think your a rapist they want to attack you and hurt you because you took for granted what they have learned to love and respect. You have to watch your back then because they dont take kindly to people who do wrong to something they appreciate.
DNA evidence is a great discovery and hopefully it will be even more helpful in the future and help more innocent people stay innocent and let the guilty be proven guilty and put in the right place.
For how much these guys have been through and how many new scars they have on their life they seem to be pretty happy guys and hopefully they dont let this get them down for the rest of their lives.
I really like the whole idea behind the innocence project. I think the work they do is extremely important. Not only are they saving lives, they are also making people aware that innocent people are going to jail and something needs to be done about it. The rape case that was mainly talked about in the podcast gives some surprising examples of what type of coercion is taking place to make innocent people confess to a crime. Sometimes police put so much stress on a suspect that they become helpless. This is what happened when they convinced one of the young boys to sign a confession. He was told that if he signed this confession he would be able to go home. The young boy was clueless enough to believe that was possible, but it just proves my point that they psychological stress he was subjected to had a real effect on him.
I put myself in the defendants’ shoes. They knew they were innocent of this horrible crime but no matter what they said people weren’t going to believe them because that’s what most people say when they are arrested. They would have had to feel so helpless sitting through a trial while others contemplated their innocence when they knew the truth all along. They watched evidence be presented in court that condemned them and became more confused than ever because how could the evidence be correct if they weren’t actually at the crime scene. It’s very scary to think of how such big mistakes could be made in a trial to convince a jury that an innocent man is without a reasonable doubt guilty of a rape crime.
One of the things I found particularly interesting was when an attorney looked back on the case and tried looking for a profilers report. She couldn’t find one but knew personally who the profiler was. When she asked him what his profile had been for this case he referred her to his book. There she found the report and realized that his report was an exact match of the confession that was given by the defendants. The police had literally taken this profile to heart and implemented it into the confession agreement that the defendant was asked to sign. It makes me wonder to what extent police are aware that they are putting too much influence on the outcome of a case. It seems almost as if they just want to pin a case on someone without even caring whether they are actually guilty. That’s really scary to think about if it is true.
In regards to the second part of the podcast, I think that it is very wrong for the police to be able to lie about what evidence they have or have not collected. The police told they teenage boy that they had substantial evidence that proved his guilt. Having an authority figure such as the police say something like that to you during an interrogation has psychological implications. The boy plainly stated that he had no recollection of murdering his sister. They only way in which he could have done this was to be unconscious or unaware. The police actually made him believe that he had blacked out or something and committed the murder of his sister. Sounds extremely far-fetched to me and proves that the police went too far in trying to convince him that he was the murderer. I know that this is a big debate and I believe that tricking the suspect should not be allowed especially when it is a teenage boy who is scared to death and doesn’t know better than to believe the police.
DNA evidence has created an entirely new component in the legal system. One that finally offers conclusive evidence that can both incarcerate the right individual and prevent the incarceration of innocent suspects. This radio journalistic story was so compelling to hear the stories of both Omar Calvin and Larry, and Michael Crow. Although their situations are very different, they both faced the terrible situation of being convicted after being forced to falsely confess to a crime. Fortunately, in both cases the men would be exonerated and released after DNA evidence finally cleared their innocent names. I would like to discuss some of the reactions I felt to the different elements involved with each situation.
In act one, Rabbits and Hawks, the story centers around the unjust conviction of four young african american males for the rape and murder of a young medical student. After the Chicago police discovered the body of a young women who had been brutally violated and then had her head smashed by a rock next to the railroad tracks, they decided to investigate some leads in the black neighborhood where the murder had taken place. I was dissapointed to learn about the questionable methods the police used to identify their suspects and eventually charge them. It seemed as though the officers were so desperate to find some suspects that they selected the first young african american men with a criminal history in the area that they could find. It was shabby police work at best, and truly irresponsible overall.
Once the police had hauled Larry, the first suspect down to the station, they continually pressed him for details on a crime that he had no connection to at all. This process continued with the other three defendants. Calvin, Omar, and Marcellus were all brought to the same station and interrogated about the murder. In Calvin's case, an officer had actually tricked him into to signing a confession statement by promising him he could leave after he signed it. Unfortunately, the note led to the direct incarceration of a very confused Calvin. The next portion of the young men's ordeal at the trial would prove to be their greatest battle.
At the trial, the prosecution held nothing back in an attempt to paint the innocent defenders in the worst light possible to the jury. This was hard to listen to, especially when the prosecution was trying to paint the young men as such prolific sexual deviants. Omar remembered how the stares from the victims parents broke his will and felt like daggers. After the verdict had finally convicted these three young men, the judge had some final choice words for them. The judge proclaimed the young men to be the worst kind of individuals, and he would assure that none of them would return to walk the streets of any city in the United States. The judge's words were just a dagger in a case that had been completely corrupted from the moment the young men had been brought in for questioning.
Larry, omar, Calvin, and Marcellus now all were faced with a new world of prison that none of them were at all prepared to face. Marcellus had actually agreed to a lesser sentence deal by testifying that all four had assualted and murdered the victim. After being released because of the DNA evidence, Marcellus commented on how he will "skateboard into hell" for what he had done. I realize that Marcellus totally betrayed the others and could have possibly been the key factor in reversing the jury's verdict, but he was probably in a terribly scary and confusing situation when the prosecution was grilling him and offerring him this deal. That is besides the point. Now the young men were incarcerated in a place where predators surrounded them twenty four hours a day. Upon arriving in prison, Omar actually adopted the ideaology that all white people are evil because all the individuals involved with him being sent to prison were white. However, it only took a couple months for him to realize that evil has no color. I thought this was a true testament to the mental adjustments that prison can cause in people. Throughout their prison sentence Larry and Omar were continuously attacked because they were known throughout the prison system as rapists. One incident actually resulted in Omar being stabbed more than fourteen times.
Prison time passed slowly as Omar studied the law, Larry played pool, and Calvin dedicated himself to the bible. One day Larry became aware of the newly discovered DNA evidence. He brought this to the attention of Omar and pressed him to strive to request a retrial on the basis of DNA evidence. Omar, who had been sending consistent letters to request a retrial to no success, was not as enthusiastic. However, after realizing that the prosecution had presented conflicting testimony, he changed his mind and decided to seek the legal aid of an attorney. The men consulted Cathleen Zellner who specialized in getting men out of prison who had been wrongly convicted. Zellner appealed the case and the overwhelming DNA evidence cleared the men's names.
Listening to the press release with the three men on the day that they had been released was truly liberating. I loved the fact that Omar responded to the comment that police still suspect the men's involvement in the crime with a smart comment which basically said that they were going to sue the city for everything they've got. Listening to the voices of the men was both pleasent and disheartening because they still had so much youth left within them, but so much of that youth had been unjustly stolen from them by the state. The moment of true justice came when the three young men were commenting on how they had passed their prosecuting attorney in the hall. I was astounded that the prosecutor did not even have the character to even apologize for what the state had done. All the small man could do was nodd his head and say hello. Overall this case served the justice that was necessary, but it's too bad that it came so late.
In the case of Michael Crow police once again used questionable techniques in gaining a confession out of the young man. The police employed several techniques that seem to have utilized deception for too much in interrogating a fourteen year old. First off, they interrogated the boy for eleven hours. Furthermore, the parents were under the impression that Michael was in protective custody the whole time he was being interrogated. The second odd interrogation technique was the use of a computer voic stress analyzer. The police led the young man to believe that the computer was picking up inconsistencies in his speech which implied that he was lying. The more the police stressed the fact that technology was on their side, the more distressed and emotional the boy became. After most of the interrogation had taken place, the deception used by the police had actually forced Michael to believe that he had committed the murder, despite his complete innocence.
Overall, I think this study is just further proof to the fact that no matter how innocent you may be in a situation, you should never cooperate with investigators. Detectives and police will never actually make someone aware of whether they are being considered a suspect or a reference. These two cases illustrate situations in which police found several psychologically suseptible suspects and took advantage of them to illicit confessions. Fortunately, in these cases DNA evidence cleared the men and proved their innocence, but what if no DNA evidence was available. Had there been no DNA evidence available, these innocent men would most certainly be spending their lives in prison.
The Innocents project is definitely a very noteworthy movement that has changed lives and can still change the lives of so many people. In this broadcast it states that project has received over two thousand letters. The fact that maybe all, actually any for that matter, could be innocent proves right there that there is something seriously wrong with our prison system and sentencing. It makes you empathetic for those men and women stuck in prison for something they didn’t do, especially when it’s something as record shattering as murder or rape or even theft or larceny. Getting convicted of such things could make prison life hard for these individuals and could even result in them being hurt or killed during their wrongly given prison sentence.
It’s crazy when you think about the power that police and detectives actually have on the outcome of cases before they even really get started. As we’ve talked about in class, they can influence the memory of an eyewitness by asking leading questions instead of objective ones. Especially in situations where the witness is possibly distressed and panicky and not really able to remember everything they saw, police and detectives can ask suggestive question to where the witness will actually believe that what they saw is actually what the officers are “telling” them. When in pursuit of a suspect, there is a possibility that the police could hit a dead-end. They get desperate and might fall on a suspect that resembles the actual perpetrator. Using the evidence they have, whether it’s solid or faulty they end up throwing the wrong person in jail. This also contributes to the way police can get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. They get the suspect in such a tight bind that the suspect believes they can’t get out of it and may as well say they did it. It’s a sad process that hopefully in the future will become less common as the use of DNA evidence becomes more common.
The interesting thing to me that first stuck out about this audio was when the man said that there were stacks upon stacks of letters from prisoners asking for DNA testing to try and prove their innocence. When he says that half of them end up proving they were in fact guilty, and the narrator says, "when you think about it, they knew it all along". This was something that stuck out to me. Why would they waste their time knowing they were guilty anyway?
When John Stanton talks about the very first case he ever worked on it was really neat to hear him talk about it. With the DNA allowing him to open up the case 20 years later and use the saliva on a cigarette butt that was still preserved was astounding.
It was frightening to hear about how Illinois has the most wrongful convictions that have been overturned. Eighteen, enough to make the governor put a hold on the death penalty and commuted the sentences of 167 people in the state that had a death sentence. So many cases have shown that the wrong person was convicted, people have been willing to go back to cases where there isn't any DNA to see if there still could have been a wrongful conviction on the polices' part due to interrogation methods.
"Hawks and Rabbits"
This talks about how the rape and murder of a young girl was pinned on some teenagers and they ended up serving 15 years before DNA set them free. The first suspect they brought in talked about how the police strapped him down and slapped him around some and tried bullying him to confess. Their tactics worked better on three other boys. They confessed to the murder because they thought it would allow them to go home, instead, they were locked up along with the original boy brought in because their confession mentioned him. The gruesome details that came out about the murder were false, and years later it was questioned how they got those details. It was discovered where the details came from, a profiler had come up with them, however, they weren't in any of the police reports. He said the report is in my book, so, when looking in his book, it looked just like the confession. The best guess of what happened is that the police used that, filled in the names of the boys that they had arrested, and made them sign a confession. Chilling facts, but that's what they are, facts. It also came out that not only did the Chicago police force this story on these four boys, but the story on "witnesses", so the story would seem more believable.
"Snitches"
Snitches talks about how common and legal police procedures got one fourteen year old boy to confess to killing his own sister. At the beginning of his interrogation, they use the "good cop bad cop" method. They didn't allow his parents in the room, despite the fact that he was a minor, giving them the opportunity to interrogate him and get him to confess while the entire time his parents had no idea what was going on. They use a "computer voice stress analyzer" to make him think that they can tell when he's lying about something, even though it doesn't actually do anything. The officer allows him to even make up some of his own questions, and then they tell him he failed the question that asked "Do you know who took Stephaie's life?" and even tell him they found her blood in his room, which makes him start to cry and scares him terribly. It is legal for police to lie about evidence, so unfortunately telling the boy all this was perfectly legal. This is a tactic they use to make the suspect start to think they have evidence against him or her that they actually don't and they may even start to believe they actually did it. Therefore, they actually confess, although they'll never actually come to believe they could have actually did it. In Michael's case, he comes to believe he actually did kill his sister.
It's disturbing but true and one thing the narrator and the man he's talking to at the end discuss is the topic of corrupt police officers and how that's almost more disturbing than the fact that they're allowed to lie. Sure lying may get them somewhere but allowing someone to confess and believe they actually did something they couldn't have done and admitting to details that are false just so they can capture the "killer" is unethical. Luckily with the DNA Innocence Project we've been able to overturn some of the damage that's been done. Unfortunately it won't be enough to undo the damage some have experienced after going through what they did. The best thing we can hope for is better investigating, interrogating, and evidence handling on the police part of a case so we can avoid things like this from happening.
After listening to that radio show, I'm pretty outraged by the unethical and downright illegal things that cops have been doing for decades. Every time the subject gets brought up about another person wrongfully convicted (especially with coerced confessions), I think more and more that police officers' priorities are more about "solving" the case -quickly- and bringing in a suspect, than about scientifically exploring every possibility to make sure that they found the right person. This is because the end result appears to be the same...One police officer brings in a suspect within 2 days of the crime, the other police officer brings in a suspect within 2 weeks of another crime after doing his or her research. Both suspects get convicted after hours of intense interrogation yields similar guilty pleas just so they can stop the interrogation process. Both police officers are successful in getting their suspects behind bars...but while the second officer was spending two weeks thoroughly investigating his suspect, the first officer had time to bring in 6 more suspects and "open and shut" those cases. He's the one who gets promoted, because he is "clearly" a better worker. But I failed to mention that the reason why he could arrest and convict 7 high profile criminals is because he wasn't doing his job thoroughly enough, and 2 of those people were really innocent. By the time there's a method invented (DNA evidence) to catch his mistake, half of those innocent people's lives have gone away, and worse than that, have been replaced with living the life of a criminal. If the cop even has any repercussions, it will be a slap on the wrist...after he has already used his unethical methods to advance in the "justice" system and become police chief.
The biggest problem I think is cultural. First, the people who feel the need to be police officers are the people who have aggressive attitudes and need some outlet for their anger, and need to exert their power over somebody. This clouds their thought processes with biases. Another problem is that in America, we value efficiency. We often mistake speed for efficiency. If something's done quickly, it must be good. We tend to forget about another variable...quality! If a newspaper doesn't check their sources well enough, and reports some false story, they have to take the time to print a retraction...and deal with their hurt reputation. SOMETIMES, they really want to be the first news source to report on something, and assess that the reward for getting the story out quickly outweighs the possible risks of having to print a retraction. The problem is that when this model is applied to the police department, the "retraction" isn't issued for a long long time, and that affects a person's whole life!
American culture needs to change back to value quality over speed, so people (especially police officers and prosecutors) will pay more attention to putting the RIGHT person in prison, not just the FIRST person.
From the audio and people's reactions, it's easy to see that the existence of the Innocence Project is incredibly important. After someone gets convicted a crime and sentenced, unless they have grounds to appeal, they essentially lose their voice. The Innocence Project is their voice. Because such a project exists, people are being educated about the flaws in the criminal justice system. They are questioning the status quo, which is incredibly important to a society that wants to make progress.
The radio show discussed a lot of topics that we have covered in class. A lot of the focus was centered on coerced or forced confessions, one of the main contributors found behind wrongful convictions.
The first segment "Rabbits and Hawks" spoke about 4 boys who were coerced into confessing to a rape and murder of a woman. The methods by which the police found suspects for the murder were questionable at best. Instead of real justice, the police looked for the easiest, justifiable, solution to their problem. Natually, they decided to find African Americans with a criminal record becasue who wouldn't believe that they were the perpetrators, right? The blantant racial profiling leaves a bad taste in my mouth to be honest. The progression of the confession made my skin crawl. I found the title "Rabbits and Hawks" to be appropriate, because that is what they were. Those young men were scared rabbits in a room with someone breaking them down. They were lied to in order to get them to confess to a crime they didn't commit. The police blantantly charged an innocent man, one they knew was innocent at least,just because he refused to lie for them as well. However, as Omar pointed out we have to acknowledge that this sort of corruption is the exception and not the rule.
In the second act, we learn about a boy who was conviced by investigators that he had killed his own sister, even when he hadn't. The story is so sad because the boy was only 14 and was interrogated and coerced into a confession. He became so distraught that he actually broke down into tears during the interrogation. I feel like it is wrong to be so forceful in an interrogation, especially when dealing with minors. I'm sure that even if he had been Mirandized, he wouldn't really understand his rights. I know I didn't when I was 14.
It's really hard to listen to this show and not completely lose faith in our criminal justice system. Some parts really work. Not all police officers are just looking for the easy way out. DNA evidence is more prevelant and is helping investigators catch real criminals. I have to believe that it is better. I have to believe that what I heard in this broadcast was worst case scenario. Otherwise, I don't know what I'd do with myself.
This was really interesting to listen to. The first part of the broadcast was the prologue. This mentions the Innocence Project and that they have 2000 letters from prisoners exclaiming that they are innocent and that their DNA will prove it. In the blog that was due this past Monday, I did some research about the Innocence Project. This organization's goal is to use DNA that was not used in conviction cases to get those innocent people out of jail. As of today, 289 people have been exonerated based on DNA evidence (the same number as it was on Monday). The prologue says that Illinois has the most wrongful convictions overturned than any other state with 18. This even led to the governor calling for a memoradium of the death penalty. To many people, all of these cases not just in Illinois, but all over the world, have people questioning the validity of the criminal justice system.
The first act dealt with the story of 4 teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of murdering and raping a young woman. The case quickly caught media attention because a white woman was killed in a black area. One of the men that was eventually arrested says that the police were asking him leading questions to get him to confess. Another says that he confessed only after he was beaten by the cop, and the third teen says they tricked him into signing his confession. He was told that if he just signed a confession, he would be able to go home. Once he signed, he was arrested. The 4th teen was brought in and the police had wanted him to say that he saw the other three kill the woman. All of the boys were friends, so when he did not tell on them, he was also arrested for the murder and rape. 3 of the boys were sentenced to life in prison, only because they were too young for the death penalty. In the case though, that the judge made it very clear that he thouht they should receive life. 1 of the boys was sentenced to only 12 years after being told he could testify and receive a lesser sentence. The details of the case were interesting. With no witnesses, how did they get all of the details to the case? The case was analyzed by a profiler, but it was never given to the police. Instead, it was put into a book. It became clear that the police may have purely taken those details from the book and used them for their case. It is unbelievable how much everything gets blown up once the media gets involved. Once they were in prison, one of the men said that he was fearful and angry, even saying, "white people are evil" He stated how everyone involved in his case were white. Because the men were considered rapists in prison, things were especially hard for them. One of them was even stabbed 14 times by people with icepicks. I have no idea why there would be icepicks in prison and how the prisoners have access to these kinds of thins. The men never gave up hope. It was clear to them that something did not match up, so they looked carefully at the case and figured out what they could do to show a lawyer that they were innocent and to get her to take their case. In order for them to get out though, they needed one of the to sign an affidavit. He said he couldn't sign the piece of paper because that is what landed him in prison the first time. The three men were in prison for 15 years before they were exonerated based on DNA.
Everything I have just talked about deals with psychology. The teenagers were coerced and beaten in order to give a confession. During trial, the prosecutors even knew that the physical evidence against them was slim. The prosecution even gave contradicting evidence in the different trials. This kind of thing makes the criminal justice system look awful. Some people are so worried about their job and their image that they are willing to go to the extremes and ruin an innocent person's life.
The second act was about a 14 year old boy who confessed to killing his sister. The boy was in interrogation for 11 hours confessing. DNA evidence later showed that he did not kill her. One thing that stuck out to me was that his parents were not there. They were told that he was in some sort of grief counseling. They had no idea that he was being interrogated. I'm not sure what age that your parents had to be there but I thought that they would have to be at least a little bit order otherwise their confession would be thrown out. When they were interviewing the boy, they had told him that they were going to use a computer voice stress analyzer. This device is supposed to be able to tell when someone is lying. Basically, this thing is a joke. There is no evidence to show that it works. By telling the boy they were going to use it, they were intimidated him. He began to think that the police did have something on him. He was coerced into confessing. It is perfectly legal for cops to lie about the evidence they have as long as it doesn't lead to a promis of leniency. It just does not make any sense to me. What is the point of coercing someone to confess when they are innocent? If the cops in this case had done the investigating before interrogating, they would have known that the boy was innocent.
It was interested learning that there is a company out there that takes on cases of people who state they were wrongly accused. The company is called the innocence project. The cases they pick up vary from murder cases to the misdiagnosis of cancer. The was an interesting case about a murder that went unsolved but now they are able to use DNA from an old cigarette butt to possibly solve the case. The cigarette but was put in an evidence bag in 1985. The DNA was preserved and is still able to be used to solve the case. Now that technology become more advanced DNA is used to solve not only recent cases but also cases that were already decided in the past. Some people who were accused of being guilty were then proven innocent later by the use of DNA. Also it was very surprising to learn that the state I live in has more wrongful convictions than anywhere in the United States.
Act one: Involved a group of four teenagers who served 15 years after being wrongfully accused of committing a murder. DNA evidence later proved that the boys were innocent after two guys confessed to the crime and their evidence was a perfect match. A lady who was raped was pinned on the four boys by the police. The lady who was raped and murdered was a white medical student who was killed in a black neighborhood. She was found with her head bashed in near railroad tracks by her car. Larry was harshly interrogated by the police and told them "he don't know nothin I can't tell you nothing cuz I don't know nothing." Marcellus said the police beat him up till he gave in. Calvin said he was tricked. The police told him to sign a confession and he could go see his mother. Calvin signed it and he was sent directly to jail. Larry was charged and he wasn't fully informed what his charges where he was simply just locked up. The information that was broadcasted was so believable but none of it was true. Every was glad the kids where caught but little did they know the boys were all innocent. Larry compared himself to a bunny that was vulnerable to a hawk that didn't eat for a week. He was explaining how he felt in his new prison environment. Larry believed that all white people were evil after he sat in jail for a while. Mainly because everyone who got him in this mess was white. The police officers, lawyers, and even the judge were all white. Calvin was asked to sign a letter from Omar the alpha david stated he was a non secreter of semen. The prosecution gave a conflicting testimony that made it seem like the semen matched the DNA of at least one of the four boys. The DNA didn't match anyone of them. Calvin didn't want to sign it because that is what got him into jail in the first place, by signing his life away because a cop persuaded him to. They contacted a lawyer in a magazine they found and eventually in Dec. 5th 2001 Omar, Calvin, and Larry were finally released. It was 15 years since the murder and 18 mouths after their lawyer received their letter until they were released from prison.
Act two: In this act I learned more about how confessions could be biased and not true but instead forced out of the people being interrogated. A twelve year old was stabbed in her room. The police had no leads so decided that it could have been someone in the house and brought in her 14 year old brother. After 11 hours of interrogation he confessed. He was then cleared after a DNA evidence. The parents were either lied to or persuaded to stay out of the room so that is why the cops were able to force a false confession out of him. The cops persuaded the boy that science was on their side and that the young boy could have killed his sister. The boy then started to believe he killed him his sister when the cops lied to him by saying that his sisters blood was found in his room. He then broke down and started staying he didn't know and that he swore he didn't do it. I felt that it was not healthy for the boy to experience that but I feel it was necessary for the police to interrogate him because they didn't know. But they need to be able to distinguish whether or not the people being interrogated are agreeing because they were convinced they did it or if they actually did it. I feel they should be able to distinguish a false confession and if they feel it might be false they shouldn't just convict them but truly try to figure out the truth.
I enjoyed this video blog a lot. I felt I learned a ton of new things and also refreshed my memory on some key terms and information I learned earlier in this class. The stories were very interesting and also eyeopening. I also enjoyed the story being told by bother the narrator and the people who were wrongly convicted. It was sad to hear the boys in the first act served over 15 years but I'm glad they got out before it they died or gave up on their freedom. Also it was hard to hear the young vulnerable boy being convinced that he killed his sister.
The Innocent Project is a program that tries to free innocent people that were wrongfully convicted. The police are working hard to go through closed cases to see if they can prove someone's innocence through the use of DNA. The video mentions that 1300 criminals are matched to crimes every year by the FBI through DNA matching. Today's technology is incredible. We are able to use different data bases to match DNA to people from all over the country. It is shocking how much our country has developed throughout the years. 100 years ago, people wouldn't even imagine being able to use this kind of technology. Evidence is very important in a case. It can tell so much about a crime that a suspect might not be able too.
In the first story, four teenagers were wrongfully convicted and served fifteen years in prison for murdering a woman. When the police were interrogating the suspects, they played the bad cop role and tried to beat a confession out of the teenagers. They also used many different tactics to trick a confession out of them. For example, the police told one the boys that if he signed the confession he would be able to go home, but instead they locked him up. The police were so eager to arrest a suspect that they used unethical tactics to get a confession. One of the teenagers were asked to lie about what they saw, and when he refused he was arrested for the rape and murder as well. Four innocent teenagers were robbed of 15 years of their life. I think the tactics that the police used were awful! I think that the police that coerced a confession out of these boys should have been fired. Three of the boys received life in prison, but the fourth boy only got 12 years because the police convinced him to testify against his friends.
The second story is about a fourteen year old boy who was convicted of killing his sister. He said he didn’t do it; however, the police slowly convinced him that he did kill her. The police officer played the friend card and gained the boy's trust. After the police officer gained his trust, he started to use his power and control over him. They pretended they had evidence against the boy such as blood in her room. The boy started to believe that he actually killed her. He believed that if the police said there was evidence against him then there must be. The boy eventually confessed to murdering his sister when he really didn't. Although I disagree with the procedures the police used, they were successfully able to manipulate a situation in their favor which takes skill. The police use their power and interrogation techniques to force a confession out of the young boy. A few questions that were shared from the actual investigation showed how the questions are presented and the influence of tone of voice affected how the boy reacted.
Overall, I think that the innocent project is a great program! So many people get cleared as a suspect from the use of DNA. Although many people get cleared from DNA, there are still many people that get falsely accused because their DNA wasn't tested.
This episode left me disgusted with what goes on in our justice system. One of the men who was wrongfully convicted in the rape crime hit the nail on the head when he said the judicial system is set up just fine which is why we have one of the best systems in the world, it is the people in the system which make it messed up. This episode made me mad how some people use their power and authority over others in order to alter their thinking and make people confess to a crime in which they did not commit. This project is a great thing to do, it should automatically be done anyways because of the fact there are innocent people sitting in a prison cell when they did nothing wrong. I could not imagine that life nor would I ever want to.
The first act of the show was very interesting to me. I could not believe the police put a completely made up story out into the public for everyone to believe happened when they are not even sure of the story. What made this part even worse was the fact all of the details were from the profile Robert Ressler put in his book. Basically, the police took Ressler's profile and scenario, filled in some local names and put it in the form of a confession. The fact Calvin, who was fourteen years old, was tricked blew my mind away. My younger brothers are around that age and if they were brought in for an interrogation, I know they would be scared out of their minds. Not only would this act be horrifying in itself, for someone to be told after hours of interrogating that if he or she just signed the confession he or she will be able to go home to see their parents. What made this worse was after he signed this confession, he was taken into custody. It is just like giving someone a million dollar check and ripping it up in front of their face when they reach out for it. Marcellus, who was beaten into giving a confession, was given a deal by the prosecutors. If Marcellus would testify against Larry, some charges would be dropped and he would be cut a 12 year deal. This amazed me because the Prosecutor manipulated Marcellus into going against his friend by stating information everyone knew was wrong. This trial made it a dog eat dog situation and every man for himself. This amazed me because someone who you think you know and would do anything for you can turn on you in sight of something they feel they need for themselves. I feel like when the radio announcer mentioned the quote "Saunders liked it cold", it did not help his case one bit because not only is rape considered drastically wrong, but raping after the person is dead is far worse. There were women in the jury box which I feel may not have helped his case and this was probably the prosecutors doing of choosing the jury in order to get Larry convicted.
While in prison, I found it interesting when others in prison wanted to attack these men based on their conviction for rape. Men in prison are deprived of women which gives those men more respect and passion for women and for these men to take advantage of this girl outraged them. I found it interesting because the prison altered the men's thinking about women. A person always appreciates something more after they lose it, which in this case was women. What I also found very interesting in this story was the fact Calvin would not sign the paper to prove he was a non-secretor. His cognitive processing of signing documents now saw trouble or consequences for it. He has been conditioned through his signing of a confession to not sign anything because he now pairs signing a paper with getting locked up behind bars. Another interesting point of what happened in this case was the fact the men's lawyer had to contact someone a couple of times and have them double check for the evidence from the case band hid it in their desk to give to her to test on her own because the police officers told her it had been destroyed.
The next part of the show with the 14 year old boy being manipulated into confessing to his sister's murder made me outraged. The entire story is heart wrenching of the fact they were manipulating such a young person into believing he committed a criminal act. The 11 hour interrogation where the police received their confession was ridiculous. The boy's parents were told he was going to see a grief counselor for the loss of his sister when in reality he was being mentally altered by a couple of police interrogators. The interrogators played the good cop bad cop roles in order for the young boy to feel openly able to share his confession with them. The computer voice stress analyzer supposedly analyzes a person's voice but in reality there is no evidence it measures anything. This is used as a tool to receive a confession because it intimidates the person into thinking science proved he or she did it and he or she cannot deny the facts. The fact the interrogators lied about evidence saying they found his sister's blood in his room made me angry. This screwed up the young boy psychologically into thinking he may have done it. He specifically said "If I did this, I don't remember." He begins to believe he actually committed the crime and he gets scared and cries. He is suddenly confused as to what happened and what is going on overall in reality. What he thought he knew was becoming clouded by false information being put into his young developing brain. When he said "I don't believe myself anymore" as he bawled into his hands, I could not believe the police felt no remorse for the psychological damage they were putting this young man through. He honestly thought he did it and forgot what happened or what he did. This episode appalled me and I hope many other innocent people get their DNA into research to be freed from wrongful convictions. I thoroughly enjoyed this program.
I honestly like the Innocence Project because it actually helps free the people who were wrongly convicted. They have received over 2000 letters from the prisoners saying that their DNA will prove their innocence. But strangely enough, even the actual people who did truly commit the crime still send letters to this project, which wastes the innocence projects time, that wastes the innocence projects time, yet it never hurts to double check to make sure the right culprit is caught and is serving their time. I don’t condone sending wrongly accused people to jail, I believe everyone who is innocent has the right to prove they were and still are innocent to this day. Especially when the innocent are being locked up, while the should be convicted people out there are still running free, that just doesn’t seem like justice to me. So with this project I feel we are taking a good size step in finding out and helping the innocent be freed. Those poor guys who went to prison for fifteen years had to suffer so much, for something they didn’t do. I was just glad to hear that the men who were responsible for the crime were finally caught and convicted based on their DNA evidence.
Where the police force was concerned, they used a lot of psychological aspects to the suspects while they interrogated them. Usually they would try to either persuade them one way to confess or just flat out lie to them. An example of this was when one of the boys testified he had a part in the committing the crime just so he could get a shorter sentence. Another boy signed a confession in the belief that he would be sent home afterwards. And another boy even thought of himself as a murderer to his own sister because the evidence that was being presented to him was falsified. All these people believe that their confessions are going to help out with figuring out who the real culprit is, when really the police are just trying to grab a hold of the suspect and see if they’ll take the lesser sentence. I feel like that’s not only lazy on the police department, but also dirty. If they signed up to interrogate, they need to make sure they do it legally and not persuade or make the suspects lie about a crime they never committed. If anything I’d say lock up and throw the key away for those policemen who decided that falsifying evidence and convincing innocent people they were guilty was legal.
Overall there is a good amount of psychology going on. Clearly, a false confession is a big one. The police are using social and behavioral psychology to get the confession, even though that confession is or was a complete lie. I’ve learned from this class that no matter what, I need to have someone legal present with me during interrogations, so the cops won’t be able to try and persuade me to go their way.
If one really stops to think about the innocence project, it could be one of the best things that has happened for our country's legal system. Why? Because it does just what our legal system is supposed to do: serve justice to those who do wrong, and protect those who are wrongly accused. If our criminal justice system wasn't worried about innocent people going to jail, then we wouldn't have all the proceedings that we do now. The reason all these proceedings are in place are to protect those who are actually innocent.
Unfortunately, innocent people don't always get let off the hook in our justice system. Another unfortunate fact is that there are so many innocent people that died in prison that will never have their names cleared because they died before DNA evidence was available. I think that the innocence project is great for not only people on death row; but also for people that are rotting in prison for a crime that they did not commit.
Stop for a second and think if you were in that position: You have been wrongly convicted of rape and murder and you are sentenced to life in prison. Before DNA evidence, chances are that you'd probably die in prison. I think that this would be the worst feeling on earth.
Overall I really liked this blog, and I'm glad that I decided to watch it even though it was a bit late (sorry!). It refreshed my memory on a lot of stuff and helped me realize even more that no one should EVER talk to the police without an attorney present.