In The News
- NYT- Richard LaPointe Finally FreedClick here
- Chicago Pays Reparations in Police Tortures CasesClick here
- New York Still Struggles with False ConfessionsClick here
- False Confession in Etan Patz Case?Click here
- False Confession Expert Steve Drizin on 2013Click here
- New Yorker Article on False ConfessionsClick here
- Texas Defendants Can Question Junk ScienceClick here
- NY Attorney General New Law for Wrongfully ConvictedClick here
- NYT- Retailers Gain False ConfessionsClick here
- Can Prosecutors Reform ThemselvesClick here
- NY Times:Serving 50 Years on a False Confession in JapanClick here
- New Guidelines Needed for Eyewitness TestimonyClick here
- Hundreds of Death Row Inmates InnocentClick here
- Anataomy of another False ConfessionClick here
- False Confesion in Etan Patz Case?Click here
- ABA Journal. Exonerations at All Time HighClick here
- NY Times on False ConfessionsClick here
- NYT- Teens Too Young for InterrogationsClick here
- NYT- A False Confession and 27 Years In PrisonClick here
- LA TImes: Stories of the Wrongfully ConvictedClick here
- Richard LaPointe Granted New TrialClick here
- Sex Offender Laws- Emily Horowitz,NCRJClick here
- Washington Post Reports Tainted Forensic Evidence Kept From Defendants
Washington Post on DOJ Report on failures in its forensic analysis of evidence in criminal cases. How many innocent people are in prison convicted with tainted forensic testing by FBI?
Click here - New York Law Journal Interview with Jeffrey Deskovic
Jeffrey Deskovic discusses his wrongful conviction and his freedom with the New York Law Journal.
Click here - NY 1 News Families of Wrongfully Convicted at City Hall
Over 50 family members of those wrongfully convicted and in New York State prisons gathered on the steps of NYC City Hall.
Click here - Jesse Friedman, Victim of Sex Abuse Hysteria Prosecution, Seeks Exoneration
Jesse Friedman was forced to plead guilty facing life without parole in an infamous sex abuse hysteria case.
Click here - Thousands of Wrongful Convicitions according to Survey
Associated Press article on University of Michigan and Center on Wrongful Convictions database on wrongful convictions.
Click here - Falseconfessions.org Lonnie Soury speaks to New York Law School
Interview with Lonnie Soury of Falseconfessions.org on wrongful convictions.
Click here - Wrongfully Convicted in Mass Sex Abuse Case, Jesse Friedman Fights for his Exoneration
Interview with Jesse Friedman, wrongfully convicted in mass sexual assault case.
Click here - New Jersey man arrested in 1979 Etan Patz case
Lonnie Soury quoted in article: "Most people think someone would never confess to a crime they didn't commit. Unfortunately it happens all the time," said Lonnie Soury, the co-founder of FalseConfessions.org, which monitors cases of wrongful convictions."
Click here - Truth Lies and Videotape, Canadian Broadcast System on the Reid Technique
Canadian News feature on false confessions using the Reid Technique.
Click here - New Evidence in Jesse Friedman Mass Sex Abuse Case
In case made famous by film "Capturing the Friedmans" new evidence has emerged of Jesse Friedman's innocence.
Click here - NY Times: New Jersey Courts Instruct Jurors on Eyewitness Misidentification
A new law in New Jersey to prevent mistakes in eyewitness misidentification in effort to prevent wrongful convictions.
Click here - Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes
Brooklyn is ground zero for wrongful convictions in New York City, and DA Charles Hynes has allowed many to go through his office.
Click here - NY Times False confession case
New York Times: a false confession in West Virginia
Click here - NY Times on Police Lying in Court
Op ed by author of the New Jim Crow: Police do Lie!
Click here - NY Times, Texas Prosecutor Faces Charges in Wrongful Conviction
Twenty-five years after he was placed in prison for a crime he did not commit, actions by the prosecutor raise questions about wrongdoing and a prosecutor's culpability.
Click here - Chicago Sun Times:False Confessions not a thing of the past
Josh Tepfer with the Center on Wrongful Convictions on why Chicago is the false confession capital of the world.
Click here - Time Magazine, Why Men Confess
Adam Cohen points to Central Park jogger case and West Memphis 3 to explain false confessions
Click here - Predicting and Preventing Wrongful Convictions
National Institute of Justice Why are innocent people wrongfully convicted in certain cases yet acquitted in others? Could policy interventions prevent future erroneous convictions? NIJ-funded researchers at American University studied 460 violent felonies that occurred between 1980 and 2012 to find the answers.
Click here - Dateline on Barry Beach: Montana False ConfessionClick here
- Debra Milke Released From Prison in False Confession Murder of Her ChildClick here
- Wrongful Convictions as Way of Life
New York Times book review of Professor Brandon L. Garrett's book based upon his study of wrongful convictions.
Click here - Norfolk 4's Derek Tice Exonerated
Derek Tice, one of the Norfolk Four, had his charges fully dropped after being partially pardoned by Virginia Governor Kane.
Click here - Economist Magazine on False Confessions
The Economist reports on the latest studies on false confessions.
Click here - NYTimes: Prosecutors Fight DNA Exonerations
New York Times Magazine story on prosecutors' efforts to fight wrongful convictions even when there is overwhelming evidence of innocence.
Click here - NY Times on Witness Misidentification
The U.S. Suprteme Court takes a look at issue of eyewitness misidentification.
Click here - Canadian Police Interrogation Methods
Canadian police are allowed to try to persuade a suspect to talk even after they have invoked their rights to silence and even after they have been told by their attorneys not to speak.
Click here - GQ on the case of the WM3
Gentlemen's Quarterly looks at the West Memphis 3 case. A definitive piece on the case from the child murders to the freedom of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley.
Click here - Juan Rivera - False Confession Conviction Overturned
Juan Rivera served 19 years in Illinois prisons, convicted on a false confession of the rape and murder of a young girl. DNA linked to another was present on the victim but prosecutors disregarded the crucial evidence to gain his conviction. Appellate court finally reversed the conviction.
Click here - The Story of a False Confession
A new book on the wrongful conviction and false confession obtained by infamous prosecutor John Reid, developer of the Reid technique for obtaining confessions.
Click here - The Yogurt Shop Murders-Austin Chronicle
Four young girls murdered and raped, two men convicted and sentenced for their murders, ten years later they are freed by the prosecutor. New DNA at the crime scene, false confessions and likely a wrongful conviction
Click here - NY Times Prosecutor Hid Evidence in Wrongful Conviction Case
Texas man freed in conviction for murder of his wife after prosecutor found to have hid evidence.
Click here - Inside the Box: False Confession of Thomas
MSNBC features story of juvenile who falsely confesses to the murder of his sister in rural Arkansas. Attorney Dorcy Corbin takes the case to the Arkansas Supreme Court and, with the help of Steve Drizen and the Center on Wrongful Convictions, wins the young man's release.
Click here - Conviction Overturned for Pennsylvania's Longest Serving Inmate on Death Row
A murder a false confession and a death sentence. Twenty years on death row and now a conviction overturned and the next step, freedom.
Click here - Memphis Commercial Appeal Looks at 12 Year Old's False Confession
Thomas Cogdell was 12 years old when he was convicted of murdering his sister based upon a coerced, false confession. Now, after this case and the West Memphis 3 case have raised doubts about interrogation techniques used to obtain conviction, the Tennessee legislature is taking up the matter.
Click here - NY Times: Why People Confess
New York Times op-ed on why people confess to crimes featuring Martin Tankleff.
Click here - NY Court of Appeals on False Confessions
The New York State Court of Appeals ruled 7 to 2 not to allow false confession expert Richard Ofshe to testify in a child rape case in which the woman defendant was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The court did recognize that false confessions happen but did not accept that the expert testimony was relevant.
Click here - NY State Court Allows False Confession Experts Barely
New York State Court of Appeals took a small step towards allowing false confession experts into court.
Click here - Suffolk County starts videotaping homicide interrogations
Twenty years after Martin Tankleff was sentenced to 50 years in prison based upon a false confession, Suffolk county begins to videotape homicide interrogations.
Click here - Nebraska Should Pay Man in False Confession Case
Steve Drizen of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions Asks Nebraska to Pay Man in False Confession Case
Click here - Japanese Prosecutors Charged with Wrongdoing
Japanese Legal System Protects Prosecutors
Click here - John Grisham, The Confession
John Grisham has a new book, The Confession, a true to life tale of a false confession and the death penalty set in Texas.
Click here - Rubin Hurricane Carter
Rubin Hurricane Carter's new book,"Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom."
Click here - The Brenton Butler Case
Ten years ago Brenton Butler went on trial for a murder he did not commit based on a false and coerced confession and faulty i.d. testimony. The case became the subject of an Academy Award winning film -Murder on a Sunday Morning – and has led to significant changes in the interrogation practices of Jacksonville officers. Whereas they once opposed electronic recording, it is now standard practice in homicide case.
Click here - Donald Connery op ed in the Hartford Courant on recording of interrogations
The Connecticut Supreme Court, in Conn. v. Lockhart, refused to require electronic recording of police interrogations under either the due process clause or its supervisory powers. Donald Connery, longtime advocate for recording, and the author of Guilty Until Proven Innocent, published a powerful Op-ed in the Hartford Courant and the paper also editorialized in favor of recording. The legislature convenes again next year and the dissent will surely be seen as a clarion call to the legislature to take action, especially given that a Pilot Project in a number of sites has met with universal approval of recording. Steve Drizen
Click here - Ryan Ferguson is Innocent
Ryan Ferguson serving a 40-year sentence for murder, is innocent according to false confessions expert Prof. Richard Leo and most others.
Click here - Death Penalty on Trial in Texas
Time Magazine looks at legal efforts by the Texas Defenders Association and the Innocence Project to seek exonerations based upon the fact that it is likley that inncocent people have been put to death in Texas.
Click here - False Confession Case in Riley Fox Murder
Report issued on the false confession case of Kevin Fox in Illinois.
Click here - In North Carolina mentally challenged man freed after false confession
North Carolina has one of the most aggressive innocence commissions. A mentally challenged man was freed after 14 years in prison, convicted based upon his own false confession.
Click here - AP-The back story on the uncovering of notorious Chicago police abuse case
The Associated Press excellent story on John Burge, the commander of the notorious police unit that was responsible for torturing 100 men into falsely confessing, was finally sentnecee to 4 years in prison. This is the story of how this horrible case was first uncovered.
Click here - NY Daily Record
Douglas Warney,wrongfully convicted based upon a false confession and imprisoned for nine years in New York State prisons, is seeking to overturn a lower court decision denying him the right to sue.
Click here - Court Allows False Confession Expert to Testify
In Pennsylvania, a three judge panel has ruled that Richard Leo, one of the country's leading experts on false confessions, will be allowed to testify as an expert in a murder trial involving the false confession of a mentally handicapped man.
Click here - Prosecutors Continue to Oppose DNA Testing
Whether in Texas, Arkansas or New York, prosecutors still vigorously oppopse DNA testing, even when it can save a person from a death sentence. Using all legal means to oppose DNA testing, from narrow interpretation of federal and state DNA laws to due diligence claims, overturning wrongful convcitons are not a priority. Worse yet, it appeasrs that maintaining convictions at any cost is the norm.
Click here - South Carolina Police Official Calls For Videotaping Interrogations
Rebecca Brown, Deputy Policy Director for the Innocence Project, joins South Carolina officials in calling for videotaping interrogations.
Click here - Memphis Commercial Appeal on false confessions
Reporter Beth Warren focuses on some high profile false confession cases including those of Marty Tankleff and Jeffrey Deskovic in making a strong case for the West Memphis 3.
Click here - University of Arkansas Law Review
Mara Leveritt, author and authority on the West Memphis 3 case in Arkansas, published an article on the role of the media in Arkansas's troubled system of justice.
Click here - What causes people to give false confessions?Click here
- Confessing to Crime, but Innocent
New York Times article by John Schwartz on study of 40 false confession exonerees.
Click here - PBS Frontline on Norfolk Four Case
A compelling documentary about how four innocent men confessed to rape and murder they did not commit and served 13 years in prison before they were pardoned.
Click here - Groups Laud Major Legislation To Improve the Criminal Justice SystemClick here
- The Innocence Project, Facts on False ConfessionsClick here
- FOX News Strategy Room on West Memphis 3 case and false confessions.
Plea to Reconsider Sentence Lonnie Soury explains his work to free convicted felon Damien Echols in Arkansas
Click here - False Confessions: Coercion often leads to false confessions
www.post-gazette.com, August 31, 2006 By Bill Moushey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Click here - Mere Silence Doesn't Invoke Miranda, Justices Say
New York Times, June 1, 2010 By Adam Liptak
Click here - Speaking Up to Stay Silent
New York Times Editorial
Click here - Arson or Injustice? (article & video), www.boston.com, June 27, 2010
Many arson cases are solved by confessions. Because the science is inexact and because even if fire experts can tell that a fire was intentionally set, a confession is often still needed to determine who set the fire. This often leads interrogators to conduct highly confrontational and aggressive interrogations of suspects in order to obtain a confession. This, in turn, increases the risk of false confessions. In the United States, many arson cases are now being reviewed as questions concerning the arson science underlying these convictions is coming under scrutiny (often from the arson scientists themselves). I hope that in their review of cases involving questionable science that the experts do not rule out cases in which the suspects may have confessed. On Sunday, the Boston Globe published a terrific investigative piece by reporters for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting about an infamous arson case that is now coming under newfound scrutiny by arson experts. The article revisits Victor Rosario's conviction in a 1982 fire in Lowell, MA that left eight people dead and raises serious questions about Rosario's guilt, the science that was used to convict him, and the reliability of his confession. --Steve Drizin
Click here - Marty Tankleff: 17 Years of Wrongful Imprisonment
WNYC, The Leonard Lopate Show, July 11, 2008
Click here - Changes Encouraged to Prevent False Confessions
By Jennifer 8. Lee, "New York Times," July 3, 2008
Click here - Videotape interrogations, confessions
By Kathryn Grant Madigan, "Times Union," February 25, 2008
Click here - True and Untrue Confessions
Editorial, "New York Times," January 12, 2008
Click here - Pressed by Police, Even Innocent Confess in Japan
By Norimitsu Onishi, "New York Times," May 11, 2007
Click here - Police Confession Procedures May Lead To False Confessions - Study Addresses Psychological Elements, Incorrect Assumptions
"Medical News Today," January 14, 2007
Click here - Throwing Out a Murder Confession - and Conviction - in Virginia
By Brian Bennett, Washington, "Time," November 30, 2006
Click here - False Confessions: Why did John Mark Karr claim he killed JonBenet Ramsey? And why did prosecutors arrest him on such flimsy evidence?
By Andrew Murr, "Newsweek," August 29, 2006
Click here - Telling Untruths
By Kathleen Kingsbury, "Time," August 20, 2006
Click here - True Confessions?
By Brian Bennett, "Time," December 04, 2005
Click here - Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions
By Adam Liptak, "New York Times," April 19, 2004
Click here - Crime, False Confessions and Videotape
"New York Times," January 10, 2003
Click here - Ideas & Trends; Why Confess to What You Didn't Do?
By Susan Saulny, "New York Times," December 8, 2002
Click here - False Confessions and the Jogger Case
By Saul Kassin, "New York Times," November 1, 2002
Click here - The Truth About Confessions
By Peter Brooks, "New York Times," September 1, 2002
Click here - Crimes Admitted, but Not Committed
By Jim Dwyer, "New York Times," October 20, 2002
Click here - Rochester Man To Be Freed 18 Years After Wrongful Murder Conviction; DNA and Confession Lead to Actual Perpetrator
The Innocence Project, April 28, 2010 New York State leads the nation in violent crimes committed by those who evaded justice when innocent people were wrongfully convicted.
Click here - False Confessions by Adults
From ReligiousTolerance.org, Ontario consultants on Religious Tolerance
Click here - Untrue Confessions
By Mark Hansen, ABA Journal. No one says that police have brought out the rubber hose, but some of their interrogation techniques are raising questions about why innocents confess to crimes they didn't commit.
Click here - The False Confession
By Alexandra Perina, Psychology Today, March 01, 2003 Why an innocent person will confess guilt. A review of one decade's worth of murder cases in a single Illinois county found 247 instances in which the defendants' self-incriminating statements were thrown out by the court or found by a jury to be insufficiently convincing for conviction.
Click here - Anatomy of a False Confession
By Jack Kresnak, Free Press Staff Writer, February 27, 2001 Some Question Cops' Methods When Grilling Youth
Click here - Police interrogations: AP-LS issues landmark white paper
Blog "In the News: Forensic Psychology, Criminology, and Psychology-Law," March 14, 2010
Click here - Confession Prompted by Lies, Prisoner Fights for Freedom
By Richard C. Paddock, "AOL News," April 14, 2010
Click here - QUEST for JUSTICE: Nearly 2 decades later, man wants case for freedom heard
By Daniel Borunda, "El Paso Times," April 11, 2010
Click here - Police conclude over-reliance on inaccurate DNA test led to Sugaya's false arrest for murder
"The Mainichi Daily News," April 1, 2010
Click here - Throwing a lifeline to the next Donald Gates
By James Trainum, "Washington Post," March 28, 2010
Click here - Japan Clears Man Imprisoned for 17 Years
By Hiroko Tabuchi, "New York Times," March 26, 2010
Click here - The Disturbing Case of the Norfolk Four
By Brian Bennett, "Time," Nov. 11, 2008
Click here