Saturday, September 05, 2009

New Book on False Confessions

John Maki from the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions writes that Rob Warden and Steve Drizin's new book, True Stories of False Confessions, contains 39 compelling accounts of false confessions—articles adapted from newspapers, magazines, and books by distinguished writers, including Sydney Schanberg, Alex Kotlowitz, and John Grisham.

The book includes the account of Chris Ochoa, who spent nearly 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Chris talks about how interrogators extracted a false confession from him in this video:



Of the book, John Maki writes, "True Stories of False Confessions shows that these cases are not aberrations, but rather evidence of flaws in the criminal justice system that demand reform. To this end, Warden and Drizin organize the stories of false confessions into categories, such as brainwashing, child abuse, and fabrication, and include a postscript for each case, providing legal updates and additional information."

The royalties from the book will go to the Center on Wrongful Convictions.

True Stories of False Confessions is available at Amazon. Learn more about True Stories of False Confessions at http://falseconfessionsbook.com/.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This book should be mandatory reading for all detectives, prosecutors, judges, DOC and the buffoonish appeals courts. (What a waste of money and lives!)


Then again, these entities know how to manipulate and would not be willing to give up their dark-souled practices in exchange for genuine truth and justice. Deliberate corruption, political and monetary avarice are priorities.


Denial is not an acceptable defense in the Spiritual realm.


Self-servance.

Anonymous said...

You are one of the lucky ones that are able to get your story heard. I have been sending my son Franky's story out as a DVD, and have not gotten any response.My son at age 18, with a processing and speech delay was coerced into signing a pre-fabricated statement, that was already prepared when he got there.He didn't understand his Miranda Rights,and kept asking for me, his mother, and they told him that I wasn't there, and they kept telling me that he didn't want me in there with him. That he was comfortable in talking to them without me. When he kept saying that he didn't do what it said that he did, they told him that he couldn't leave unless he signed it. That they knew that he did it.The statement end time was zeroed out. The officer stated in court, when asked if he had a confession then why did he release him, couldn't he have arrested him right then, he answered that he could have but he gave him his word, that when the questioning was over he could leave. So he admitted to bribing him, that he could leave only after he signed their statement. He also claimed that the whole thing took only 20 min. which was have Franky try to read the Miranda rights,(didn't have his glasses) so they read it to him, he initialed each section,spilled his guts,the officer typed it up, and it was all in the bag.In 20 min. Franky was in special needs since the age of 2 for processing and speech delay disability, and could not take timed tests in school. I find that impossible that he understood all of that in that time, and given the time for the officer to type it up too! Amazing, or a LIE??? No investigation was ever done.

Anonymous said...

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