False Confessions

First, let me say, I try not to watch too much news about legal matters. I also watch no legal shows- because... I live the life. I don't want to go home and "unwind" watching something I did for 8 hours today- I want to watch Antiques Roadshow, or old movies.... Plus, its kind of distracting when I start yelling at the TV because someone did something stupid or irritating.

But, I got sucked into... I think it was Hardball? With Chris Matthews.... And there is this jackass on there spouting his (in my opinion, idiotic) opinion the the DA in Colorado was incompetent because she had not illegally obtained DNA from Karr prior to having him extradited to check against the DNA they had. That just irritated me. The man essentially confessed in the emails, and he waived extradition, and she tested him appropriately- trying not to muddy the case with illegal/unethical/unconstitutional garbage- she, it seemed to me who has not in fact read any actual court transcripts, acted straightforwardly and appropriately in the way she dealt with the man.

But that's not the subject of the post. His false "confession" has amazed some people. I remember being very skeptical of our legal system's insistence that people don't confess to crimes they didn't commit when I was in law school. At the time, I didn't have much experience with such things, so I let it slide- but it just struck me as not very realistic to think that people don't confess to crimes they didn't commit.

But now, I've been practicing for 6 years plus- and I'm here to tell you: PEOPLE CONFESS TO THINGS AND PLEAD GUILTY TO THINGS THEY DID NOT DO ALL THE TIME. For all kinds of reasons.

I have had kids confess to crimes they didn't commit because they thought they'd look cool. I had one girl who tried to confess to crimes she didn't commit so she could live at the detention facility instead of with her parents. (That one had a happy ending: I got her the help and support she needed and her parents the counseling they needed to be decent parents.)

I have had men confess to being the father of a child because they thought it was the "right thing to do" even though they KNEW they couldn't be the father. I had one man confess because he knew he couldn't have children, and this was his one opportunity to be a father.

And I have had a number of clients who have confessed to crimes they didn't commit for lots of difficult reasons. Maybe they didn't do what they other person said they did, but they did something worse. Sometimes, they want to look cool. Sometimes, boyfriends or girlfriends pressure them. (Example: I had a client arrested for "filing a false report" with police. She reported her car stolen, It turned out her boy friend's cousin took with car with boyfriend's permission. She did not recognize the name when police asked her about it because she only knew his nick name, not his real name. Boyfriend was too afraid to tell her the truth at first. She plead "Best interest" over my objections because Boy friend and cousin "had to get to work" and "they'll pay the fine and costs anyway." Yeah, but its YOUR record.)

A lot of Hispanic people confess because in their home countries you don't get a fair trial and they're afraid of the consequences if they fight it. Or, they're illegal and its not their name being ruined.

I know we can't babysit everyone and make sure they aren't lying about confessing or pleading guilty, but prosecutors need to use the objective evidence they have. 25 years ago, Karr would be in prison and everyone would think the killer was put away when in reality s/he is still out there. I know forensic evidence can be expensive to test, and we can't protect idiots from themselves, but I propose that criminal laws be changed to state that all forensic evidence must be tested and presented to the Defendant and the Court whether inculpatory or exculpatory- because the job of the prosecutor is to pursue the truth, not get convictions. Naturally this wouldn't cover all cases, because in many cases there is no forensic evidence, but it would serve to make our system more objective which is always a good direction to go as far as I'm concerned.

Have a great labor day everyone,a nd I'll write again next week!