September 23, 2013

Opinion

Injustice for All from False

istockphoto/mark evans istockphoto/mark Confessions

The problem continues to plague the criminal law system, but there are ways to solve it.

by Gabriel A. Fuentes due-process right not to be jailed Wylie-Hoffert murders today. based on a false confession. The reasons Whitmore gave his his past summer, we commem- Janice Wylie had planned on false confession were never precise- orated that day 50 years ago attending the March on Washington ly clear. Journalist Selwyn Raab’s Twhen hundreds of thousands but stayed home instead that day. 1967 chronicle of the case, Justice in of people packed the grounds near After she and roommate Emily the Back Room, which inspired the the Lincoln Memorial for the March Hoffert were found dead, the case 1970s television series , offered on Washington and the Reverend quickly grabbed local and nation- some insights: New York police Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a al attention as the “Career Girl faced immense pressure to make an Dream” speech. On that same day, Murders.” Months later, the New arrest, and they turned that pressure­ learned in horror York Police Department arrested on Whitmore during a long night that two young women had been a 19-year-old black man named of questioning in which their ques- slashed and murdered in their George Whitmore based on his tions supplied plenty of the details Upper apartment, in a detailed “confession,” later proved for Whitmore’s statement. case that ought to remind us of how false. The case against Whitmore Justice in the Back Room, as it far we have left to go in protecting unraveled, and another man, turns out, was ahead of its time. The another important civil right: the Richard Robles, sits in jail for the wrongful-conviction/false-confession the national law journal September 23, 2013

narrative keeps repeating itself. rogations, from the reading of suggest to Taylor’s jury that the jail In Illinois, police and prosecu- Miranda rights onward, “the single records were wrong. tors continue to be rocked by false-­ best reform available” to prevent These reviews often are conducted­ confession cases. The latest innocent false confessions. On August 26, by prosecutors whose very agen- person to walk from prison is Carl two days short of the 50th anniver- cies obtained the initial convictions. Chatman, a 58-year-old homeless sary of the Wylie-Hoffert slayings, To be found to have prosecuted man found to have falsely confessed Illinois enacted legislation extend- an innocent person is, to say the to an after-hours rape in a down- ing the requirement for electron- least, embarrassing and not career- town Chicago courthouse. He had ic recording of interrogations to enhancing. We have seen special served 11 years before charges were eight different types of violent felo- prosecutors appointed to investigate dismissed on September 10. Earlier nies. In so doing, Illinois joined 16 public officials for lying about per- this summer, Cook County pros- states and the District of Columbia sonal matters. Perhaps we ought ecutors agreed to dismiss their case in requiring electronic recording of to use independent counsel more against Daniel Taylor, who spent interrogations in crimes other than often, or as a matter of course, when nearly 20 years behind bars for a homicides. But 33 states have yet to prisoners bring evidence indicating double murder that happened while adopt this important reform. that the prosecuting agency with he was in police custody, but who jurisdiction over their cases boot- Prosecutorial Review was said to have confessed. ed those cases. Or perhaps an inde- While the Innocence Project’s Improving the process for pros- pendent judge or a panel of judg- Peter Neufeld has called Chicago ecutorial review of false-confession es should oversee the process. The the false-confession­ capital of the claims is more complicated but no problem of long-delayed post-con- United States, the problem is hard- less important. No one would argue viction investigations or reviews by ly limited to Chicago. , that prosecutors should be “rushed” “conviction integrity” units needs to N.Y., District Attorney Charles into dismissing or vacating con- be addressed. Hynes continues to review near- victions in which the evidence is Fifty years after Wylie-Hoffert, ly 40 cases investigated by now- complicated and not as clear as the our justice system does not need retired New York detective Louis defense bar might contend. any more George Whitmores, Scarcella, amid allegations that the On the other hand, we know from Daniel Taylors or any other convic- detective’s work evinced a pattern several of these cases that many tions produced by “justice in the of problems including false confes- prosecuting agencies are taking an back room.” sions. It is unclear when the review awfully long time, that innocent will be complete. people have waited years for exon- Gabriel A. Fuentes, a partner at As we continue to hear about erations to which they were clear- Jenner & Block, is a former federal more wrongful convictions rooted ly entitled, and that, in some cases, prosecutor and immediate past presi- in false confessions, we should push prisoners have died while their post- dent of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, for two important reforms: broad- conviction claims were pending. In a reform-oriented bar association. ening the cases in which police the Daniel Taylor case, the Chicago electronically record interrogations, Tribune published its evidence of and developing a more rigorous his jail alibi in 2001. Eventually, the and independent process for state reviewing prosecutors dismissed the executive branches to consider and Taylor case, 17 months after receiv- Reprinted with permission from the September 23, 2013 edition of THE resolve false-confession claims. ing evidence debunking the infor- NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL © 2013 ALM Media Properties, LLC. The Innocence Project has called mation that their predecessors, the All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-257-3382, [email protected] or visit www. the electronic recording of inter- trial prosecutors, had offered to almreprints.com. #005-09-13-06