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Wrongfully convictedChicago--Thirteen-year-old Barney Brown was under interrogation. There was a "big guy with black gloves" and another cop Barney "felt (he) could trust." The "good cop" told him to cooperate with the big guy so he could go home. Well, Barney decided to cooperate and he did get to go home--39 years later. Barney told his story on Oct. 8, 2009, one year after his exoneration, because he was innocent of any crime. A panel discussion he was on marked the inauguration of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern Univ. Law School. Coerced confessions from youths will be a major focus of the new center. Some members of the panel were professional people in the criminal justice system. At least two of them admitted that they had made mistakes because they found it hard to believe that anyone would confess to a crime they did not commit. But Jay Salpeter, a panelist and a detective, firmly believes that with the right coercive strategies, anyone could be made to confess--especially children. A ten-hour grilling to a child may seem like a lifetime. Dr. Bernadine Kavenaugh, who evaluates juvenile suspects, explained what she looks for to determine whether a child is actually guilty. The confession is dubious if the interrogator does almost all the talking, if the child has said he or she understands Miranda, but has not been asked to explain it ("children will say 'uh-huh' just to get adults out of their faces"). "I ask what were you thinking and feeling while being questioned? If there were many interruptions, or the person says, 'At times I felt I did do it,' these are evidences of a false confession," she said. Most panel members agreed that the system of apprehending, questioning and arraigning children has to be deeply changed. The first requirement was that all interrogations must be taped; and every person who might be a witness should be taped the entire time they are in the police station. More than half of Illinois exonerations have been due to false confessions. Of 18 children who were exonerated, 13 were African Americans. Justice for U.S. youth has been in the news, with the Supreme Court hearing arguments against sentencing people under 18 to life without parole. Efren Paredes, a 32-year-old prisoner who has been incarcerated for 17 years, has made juvenile life without parole a focus of his political activity. He was wrongfully convicted. Go to www.4efren.com to learn more about his case. |
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