A textbook example of false confessions

What Is a False Confession?

A false confession is where a person admits that they are guilty when in fact they are not responsible for the crime. False confessions can occur through the use of coercion or force to obtain the statement. They may also result from the mental incapacity of the accused person. Although false confessions may seem unlikely, they actually occur regularly and can present many problems during a criminal trial.

False Confessions | LegalMatch

 

… confessions that look real can actually be false, even if they’re corroborated by informants and forensic science.

Saul Kassin, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

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The Central Park Five

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The Central Park Five: a timeline

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31 mei 2019

Kevin Richardson, Kharey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana were wrongfully convicted of brutally attacking Trisha Meili — widely known as the Central Park Jogger — on the night of April 19, 1989.
The story of these five men, who are called the Central Park Five, is now being told in a Netflix series, ‘When They See Us,’ which debuts Friday.
 
 
 

Central Park Five appear in New York City court in 1989

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21 aug. 2018

A woman who was raped by a man who became known as the Central Park rapist has been detailing her horrific experience to detectives in New York. Matias Reyes, a serial rapist, confessed in 2002 to being the Central Park rapist. A woman, J, recognized his picture as being raped 14 years earlier by him. J’s written account of her ordeal is among 200,000 pages of documents and 95 depositions that have been posted online by the city’s Law Department. Before Reyes was caught, five teens were convicted and jailed in 1990 after confessing to the an attack and rape against a Central Park jogger.
 
 
 

1 Yusef Salaam | The Marshall Project | The New Yorker

20 nov. 2017

Yusef Salaam, who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned as one of the “Central Park Five,” details how his life was turned upside down one day in 1989 — and how he felt when the charges were dropped decades later.
 
Director: Jenny Carchman
 
“We Are Witnesses”: A Portrait of Crime and Punishment in America
 
IMPORTANT CONTENT
Please enjoy

2 Case Not Closed: The Story Of The Central Park 5 (Part 1 of 3)

9 jun. 2011

Watch Cheryl’s exclusive report on the five men whose convictions were vacated in the notorious central park jogger case.

3 Case Not Closed: The Story Of The Central Park 5 (Part 2 of 3)

10 jun. 2011

Watch Part 2 of Cheryl’s exclusive report on the five men whose convictions were vacated in the notorious central park jogger case.

4 Case Not Closed: The Story Of The Central Park 5 (Part 3 of 3)

10 jun. 2011

Watch Part 3 of Cheryl’s exclusive report on the five men whose convictions were vacated in the notorious central park jogger case.

5 Miscarriages of Justice ~ (1)Central Park 5 Case ~ Bad Confession (youth) Part 1 of (3)

22 aug. 2010

Central Park 5 case concerns 5 youths that were running wild around central park assaulting persons.They were arrested and soon after a woman Trisha Miley was found raped and badly beaten and unconcious. They were interrogated and 4 out of 5 of them confessed to raping the woman.
Subsequently a serial rapist and murderer Matiais Reyes operating in that area was caught and he admitted to raping that woman. It appeared the teenagers were innnocent. Post DNA…Why did they confess to a crime they didn’t commit. Disturbing and uncannily accurate confessions; and who is to blame?
Did the police hold and interrogate them long enough to deceive and trick them into confessing.
Were they merely parrots to police interrogators?

Information about miscarriages of justice:

A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. The term travesty of justice is sometimes used for a gross, deliberate miscarriage of justice. Miscarriage of justice” is sometimes synonymous with wrongful conviction, referring to a conviction reached in an unfair or disputed trial.

Causes of miscarriages of justice include:

Plea bargains that offer incentives for the innocent to plead guilty
Confirmation bias on the part of investigators
Withholding or destruction of evidence by police or prosecution
fabrication of evidence or outright perjury by police (see testilying), or prosecution witnesses (e.g. Dr Charles Smith)
Biased editing of evidence
Prejudice towards the class of people to which the defendant belongs
Poor identification by witnesses and/or victims
Overestimation/underestimation of the evidential value of expert testimony
Contaminated evidence
Faulty forensic tests
false confessions due to police pressure or psychological weakness
Misdirection of a jury by a judge during trial
perjured evidence by the real guilty party or their accomplices (frameup)
Perjured evidence by supposed victim or their accomplices
Conspiracy between court of appeal judges and prosecutors to uphold conviction of innocent

6 Miscarriages of Justice ~ (2)Central Park 5 Case ~ Bad Confession (youth) Part 2 of (3)

22 aug. 2010

Central Park 5 case concerns 5 youths from New York. The youths were running wild around central park assaulting persons. They were arrested, and soon after their arrest a woman (Trisha Miley) was found on a path in Central Park, she was unconscious, badly beaten, and suffered a sexual assault. The youths were interrogated, and 4 out of 5 of the youths confessed to raping the woman.
 
Subsequently what transpired was a confession from a serial rapist, and murderer Matiais Reyes who was operating in the area and who after being caught admitted to raping that woman in central park. It appeared the teenagers were innocent Post DNA…
 
Why did they confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Disturbing and uncannily accurate confessions; and who is to blame? Did the police hold and interrogate them long enough to deceive and trick them into confessing. Were they merely parrots to police interrogators?

7 Miscarriages of justice ~ (3)Central Park 5 Case ~ Bad Confession (youth) Part 3 of (3)

22 aug. 2010

Central Park 5 case concerns 5 youths that were running wild around central park assaulting persons.They were arrested and soon after a woman Trisha Miley was found raped and badly beaten and unconcious. They were interrogated and 4 out of 5 of them confessed to raping the woman.
 
Subsequently a serial rapist and murderer Matiais Reyes operating in that area was caught and he admitted to raping that woman. It appeared the teenagers were innnocent. Post DNA…Why did they confess to a crime they didn’t commit. Disturbing and uncannily accurate confessions; and who is to blame? 
 
Did the police hold and interrogate them long enough to deceive and trick them into confessing. Were they merely parrots to police interrogators?

8 Central Park Five’s Yusef Salaam: Donald Trump Needs to Be Fired from Running for President

14 okt. 2016

 
n 1989, Yusef Salaam and four other African-American and Latino teenagers were arrested for beating and raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They became known as the Central Park Five. Donald Trump took out full-page ads in New York newspapers calling for their execution. Then, in 2002, their convictions were vacated after the real rapist came forward and confessed to the crime and his DNA matched. By then, the Central Park Five served between seven and 13 years in jail for the assault. The city settled with them for $41 million. But as late as last week Donald Trump still claimed they were guilty. We speak with Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, who writes in The Washington Post that “Donald Trump won’t leave me alone.”
 
IMPORTANT CONTENT
 
At minute 9 juror is talking
 
At minute 14 Donald Trump

9 Innocence Project | Barry Scheck & Kevin Richardson | Talks at Google

 

4 okt. 2017

Co-Founder Barry Scheck speaks about The Innocence Project with Kevin Richardson, one of the men wrongly convicted in the Central Park Five case.

The Innocence Project, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, was founded by acclaimed lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who realized that the emerging DNA evidence that was being used to identify the perpetrators of crimes could also be used to exonerate those who had been wrongly convicted. The organization began as a legal clinic at Cardozo Law School and became an independent nonprofit (still affiliated with Cardozo) in 2004. Since its founding, 351 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence of crimes for which they didn’t commit. The Innocence Project has helped in more than half of these cases.

The Innocence Project understood early on that each wrongful conviction was a learning opportunity, exposing flaws in the system that contributed to these terrible injustices. It advocates for science- and research-based reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. The organization has worked to pass more than a hundred state laws designed to reveal and protect against wrongful convictions, including laws that protect against eye witness misidentifications and false confessions, leading contributors to wrongful convictions.

Co-Founder Barry Scheck will talk about his groundbreaking work to disrupt the status quo of the criminal justice system and introduce you to a person helped by the Innocence Project who will share his story of perseverance on the long road to justice.

10 Why Would a Kid Falsely Confess to a Crime? | Joshua Tepfer | TEDxGrinnellCollege

2 apr. 2015

Professor Joshua Tepfer brings us into the mind s and motivations of the surprising number of youths that falsely confess to serious crimes.
 
Joshua Tepfer is an assistant clinical professor at Northwestern University School of Law and co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY) – the first project focused on the particular vulnerability of young people to wrongful conviction. As an appellate and post-conviction attorney, Josh has represented scores of adults and juveniles convicted of serious felony offenses, and he has helped secure the release of roughly a dozen innocent men or boys wrongfully convicted of murders. A recognized expert in the area of police interrogations and false confessions, Josh regularly writes expert briefs amicus curiae in jurisdictions all over the country, publishes articles, and appears in national media outlets discussing these and other criminal justice issues. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court cited a brief written by the CWCY and co-written by Josh in its majority opinion. He is the father of three wonderful and creative children.
 
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

11 Trump Makes Outrageous Statement On Central Park 5

19 jun. 2019

Trump still won’t admit he was wrong calling for the execution of the Central Park 5. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, and David West, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. MORE TYT: https://tyt.com/trial
 
Read more here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald… 
 
“President Donald Trump continued his refusal to apologize for his 1989 call to execute five teenagers who were falsely accused of rape in the notorious Central Park Five case.
 
“You have people on both sides of that,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday when asked if he would apologize. “They admitted their guilt.”
 
Trump then referred to Linda Fairstein, a prosecutor on the case who published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal last week standing by the prosecution.
 
“If you look at Linda Fairstein and look at some of the prosecutors,” he continued, “they think that the city should never have settled that case. So we’ll leave it at that.”
 
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, David West
 
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, David West

12 Central Park Five get $40M from NYC

28 jun. 2014

After spending years in prison for a rape they did not commit, the Central Park Five have reached a $40 million settlement agreement with New York City. Michelle Miller reports.

13 CENTRAL PARK 5: New Documentary Examines Their Wrongful Imprisonment

29 dec. 2012

Roland Martin, Will Cain, Ron Brownstein, and Ali Velshi talk with Sarah Burns, the director of a new documentary about the Central Park 5 and Raymond Santana one of the “Central Park 5.”

14 Central Park Five at JCCA

 

24 feb. 2016

Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana of the “Central Park Five” visited three JCCA sites in February 2016 to talk to JCCA youth about resilience, media literacy, and knowing their rights.

15 Jerk Cop Steals Old Lady’s Seat

Normal, civilized people give their seat up for old people. Denis the Cop, on the other hand, asks people to give their seat up for him. What a jerk!
 
Starring Denis Levasseur
Filmed in Montreal, Quebec
Part 1

The Central Park Five

Part 2

Central Park Five Prt 2

Part 3

The Dark Side

Part 4

Current Page

Part 5

Dr. Yusef Salaam

Part 6

Steven Lopez