A recent arti­cle in The Atlantic by Marc Bookman (pic­tured) shows how threats of the death penal­ty can con­tribute to false con­fes­sions. The piece recounts a Pennsylvania mur­der case in which two defen­dants, Russell Weinberger and Felix Rodriguez, admit­ted to a mur­der they did not com­mit, lead­ing to their impris­on­ment for over 21 years. Rodriguez described his inter­ro­ga­tion: ​“First they showed me pic­tures of the dead guy. I start­ed to cry. I said I did­n’t do that. That’s when they slapped me on the back of my head, said ​‘They gonna put you in the elec­tric chair.’ So I signed the state­ment. I knew it might be bad, but I did­n’t know what to do. I’d nev­er been in real trou­ble before. I signed the state­ment ​’cause they said I could go home.” Weinberger, who was intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled with an IQ between 60 and 65, at first denied involve­ment in the mur­der, but lat­er sub­mit­ted a con­fes­sion after Rodriquez impli­cat­ed him in the crime. Weinberger was offered a less­er sen­tence if he agreed to tes­ti­fy against Rodriguez. Twenty years lat­er in March 2001, a prison inmate named Anthony Sylvanus (rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Bookman) admit­ted to com­mit­ting 5 sim­i­lar mur­ders, includ­ing the one Weinberger and Rodriguez had con­fessed to. Sylvanus revealed facts that only the true per­pe­tra­tor was like­ly to know. Rodriguez and Weinberger were even­tu­al­ly allowed to plead nolo con­tendere and were released from prison after serv­ing 21 years.

Bookman points to reforms that might pre­vent such false con­fes­sions: ​“Experts like [Richard] Leo and [Saul] Kassin rec­om­mend a series of reforms that might reduce the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tion: ori­ent­ing the police inter­ro­ga­tion mod­el away from ​‘con­fronta­tion­al’ and toward ​‘inves­tiga­tive;’ plac­ing lim­its on the length of inter­ro­ga­tions; pre­clud­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion of false evi­dence to an accused per­son as real evi­dence of his guilt; elim­i­nat­ing implic­it promis­es of lenien­cy; and imple­ment­ing spe­cial pro­tec­tions for vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions such as juve­niles and those with cog­ni­tive or psy­cho­log­i­cal impair­ments. Above all is the rec­om­men­da­tion that police depart­ments video­tape inter­ro­ga­tions in their entire­ty. Eleven years after two men were released from their wrong­ful prison terms, the City of Philadelphia has adopt­ed none of these recommendations.”

Sylvanus com­mit­ted sui­cide in prison. Weinberger died in 2011. Rodriguez, at age 54, walks with a cane and has slurred speech, hav­ing suf­fered a stroke. His moth­er died while he was still in prison.

(M. Bookman, ​“The Confessions of Innocent Men,” The Atlantic, August 6, 2013.) See Innocence and Arbitrariness.

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