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Academic

: The Faculty Lounge

Coerced Confessions, Wrongful Convictions, Juror Reflections

By Tim Zinnecker

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Richard Danziger received a life sentence in 1990 for the aggravated sexual assault of a Pizza Hut employee who was raped and murdered in 1988. Several years later, new DNA evidence established Danziger?s innocence, and he was released after serving approximately twelve years. While in prison, Danziger was the victim of a brutal attack by another inmate and sustained serious brain damage, leading to seizures, mental problems, and partial paralysis that continue to adversely affect his quality of life. Additional background reading here, here, here, and here.

Carol Bohls, Velma Diamond, and Liz Roland were three of the jurors at Danziger?s trial. They recently penned an editorial that appeared last weekend in the Houston Chronicle. The focus of the editorial is on the confession and testimony of Danziger?s alleged co-conspirator, Christopher Ochoa (also convicted, but later exonerated). Here?s an excerpt:

We were horrified to learn after Danziger?s exoneration that Ochoa?s interrogation was characterized by lies about inculpatory evidence and threats that if he did not confess and testify against Danziger, he would receive the death penalty. None of this came to light during the trial, however, because there was no record of the interrogation procedure. Had we been given the opportunity to see the context of Ochoa?s confession, including the coercive tactics that were used for hours against him, we would have at least had something to deliberate about. We did the best we could with the evidence provided to us; unfortunately, that evidence was dangerously incomplete, undocumented and untrue.

The editorial continues, with a call for interrogation reforms.

If interrogations are recorded in their entirety ? from the reading of rights to the end ? jurors will have access to a clear, complete picture of the circumstances that led to a confession. This is essential in order to effectively evaluate the quality of that evidence. While many police departments have begun to record suspect interrogations, there is currently no requirement that they do so. Some things are too important to leave optional, and we think this is one of them. A complete record of suspect interrogations documents a crucial part of a criminal investigation, and it is essential for jurors to do their jobs well and reach justice.

The full editorial is available here.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).