Northwestern University School of Law Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons Faculty Working Papers 2012 Convenient Scapegoats: Juvenile Confessions and Exculpatory DNA in Cook County, IL Joshua A. Tepfer Northwestern University School of Law,
[email protected] Craig M. Cooley Cardozo Law School Tara Thompson University of Chicago Law School Repository Citation Tepfer, Joshua A.; Cooley, Craig M.; and Thompson, Tara, "Convenient Scapegoats: Juvenile Confessions and Exculpatory DNA in Cook County, IL" (2012). Faculty Working Papers. Paper 221. http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/facultyworkingpapers/221 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Working Papers by an authorized administrator of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. CONVENIENT SCAPEGOATS: JUVENILE CONFESSIONS AND EXCULPATORY DNA IN COOK COUNTY, IL Joshua A. Tepfer, Craig M. Cooley, & Tara Thompson In December 2001, the Chicago Tribune, led by reporters Ken Armstrong, Steve Mills, and Maurice Possley, published a series of investigative reports entitled ―Cops and Confessions.‖ Starting from 1991, these muckraking journalists waded through court documents and police reports of thousands of murder investigations in Cook County, Illinois.1 What they found was appalling: In at least 247 murder cases over this ten-year period, the police obtained incriminating statements that ―were thrown out by the courts