Miscarriage of justice? You be the judge
I usually write about injustices on the macro level, but there are smaller ones as well: injustices to a single person.
Hardly small, though, if you’re that person, or that person’s family. And abuses within the justice system itself—whether by police, prosecutor, judge, or jury—affect us all, because we need to be able to trust in the rule of law and its appointed agents and/or enforcers.
I was watching television yesterday and happened across an episode of “Hard Evidence” on TLC. It featured the case of a young man named Ryan Ferguson, who was convicted in December 2005 of the brutal November 2001 murder of Kent Heitholt, sports editor of the Columbia Missouri newspaper.
Something about the show caught my attention, and so I watched till the end. By the time it was over I was not only convinced that Ferguson was innocent, I was shocked at the process that brought him to the point of ever being tried for the crime in the first place.
The facts of the case are long and involved, but the salient points are these:
(1) There is no physical evidence of any sort linking Ferguson to the murder. All the relevant physical evidence that does exist (such as some hair in the victim’s hand) exonerates him.
(2) There are no eyewitnesses to place him there. All the eyewitnesses who saw a man or men with the victim shortly before the murder have said the man could not be identified as Ferguson.
(3) The entire case rests on one thing alone: the confession of supposed accomplice Chuck Erickson, who received a reduced sentence for his pointing the finger at Ferguson. But Erickson’s confession only came two years after the highly publicized murder, and after he’d read much information in the newspaper and dreamed (yes, you read that right: dreamed) that he’d done it. What’s more, when he came to police to tell them about his dream, he knew no facts of the case other than what he’d read in the paper, and told them as much. They proceeded to fill him in on the facts so he could flesh out his “confession”—the opposite of what good police work should be, which is to hold back salient facts to make sure they’re got the right person, who can then supply the missing details.
Fortunately (although not fortunately enough for Ferguson, who was convicted by a jury that didn’t believe in the well-documented phenomenon of false confessions), the police interrogations of both Erickson and Ferguson were taped.
Here are some excerpts from Erickson’s initial police questioning:
And here are excerpts from the initial police interrogation of Ferguson, which lasted nine hours:
Positively outrageous.
[NOTE: Much more information can be found here. For example, this is a good page to look at.]
I wish people would stop the garbage about “good” cops. It’s “good” cops who stand by while the memebrs of their club are guilty of crimes or injustice.
pacific waters has part of a good point here, though I wouldn’t go so far. There is pressure to get a case solved. Done. Off your desk. Off everyone else’s desk. Out of the newspapers, where families plead for justice.
That’s what temptation is. We are not tempted by the evil in something, but the good in it – the peace of mind, the pleasure, the money. Little by little, you give way. No case is perfect. The suspect often has other convictions. Sometimes the pressure makes the guilty confess. We can all only do what we can do.
And while many other police officers may suspect that someone goes over the edge, there are seldom many people who know that positively. If you blow the whistle and bring an honest investigator under suspicion, you have hurt morale, hurt your career.
Compare this to political accusations, which we talk about often here. If we think a group of people are usually guilty, we tend to easily accept the conclusion that they are guilty now, without sufficient evidence. So too with everyone else in the world who tries to ferret out lies and find the truth.
One does have to wonder what his representation was, however.
Assistant Village Idiot: The problem here is that all one has to do is to look at the tapes to see that someone (the police officer) went way over the edge. It’s not a suspicion; it’s a fact. He feeds all of the information to Erickson, which is the opposite of what he should be doing, which is extracting it. I know police sometimes lie (such as saying they have evidence they don’t have). But they are not supposed to give out all the details of the case that are not in the public domain. They are supposed to retain these details and extract them from the suspect. This case is quite singular in its lack of ambiguity on these points, as well as its lack of any evidence implicating Ferguson other than Erickson’s confession. There is none, and there is plenty that exculpates Ferguson.
That’s what angers me about this case. And I think it should anger everyone who studies it. I agree with you most particularly about my suspicions that Ferguson got terrible representation. I haven’t seen much about who his lawyers were and what they did, although the information is out there, I’m sure.
I did some surfing on the case and I’m left with a big case of “Huh? How does this stand?”
The actions of the police and the votes of jurors are bizarre. I don’t know the law but I naively would have assumed that somehow the legal system would prevent such a conviction.
This makes it seem like the legal crit folks are right, that the law is anything you want as long as the needs of politics are served — although in this case a young, handsome, white kid with no record was condemned.
Wow. First thing I like to look at is how the ‘people’ brought the case to court. Was it by Bill of Indictment or Information.
Seems odd that a grand jury would promote a bill, but then a DA would just reapply to the next grand jury and use a new set of tactics.
Now on the otherhand, a charge to the court on Information do not have to pass the test it would have been necessary for a bill from a grand jury.
Information relies on something called VENUE, and that cannot be so easy to get around as the fact remains that once you respond to charge you are committed to the Charge by Information as venue.
No I am not a lawyer, just a citizen. But crimes of this nature need to be put before the bench as a Bill of Indictment.
But I must say this was a 100 watt light of an idea in a dead socket called a DA, too bad the judge thought the brightness of the absence of light was Truth (your Honor, this is my opinion and sign this WITH MY HONOR AS A CITIZEN , without recourse, as my commen right under the law).
I’ve seen some other cases that I’ve been sure were a miscarriage of justice on these type shows. After one of them I also saw a news headline later where the man has been freed, it was totally unrelated to the show. I’ve thought of the ones that looked so iffy, if I were the police and prosecutor in these cases and saw them on TV I would be embarrassed to admit I was the one involved in railroading a person.
I read a book by John Grisham called “the Innocent Man” which has a lot of the same elements as this case. In that case the defendant, Ron Williamson, received totally incompetent representation.
I guess what gets me more than anything is the incredible difficulty in getting new evidence in after a conviction. I am opposed to the death penalty on religious grounds but on personal grounds I am opposed to it because of the fact that things like this can happen.
neo, I agree that it’s clear once you look at it. But how many other people looked at it? Those few have considerable responsibility, but even most people near the case wouldn’t know this until far down the road.
I have been reading this blog almost from the start, and have always found your insights to be spot-on. Mostly I enjoy your political commentary, particularly in light of the fact that you are a “reformed liberal” like me ( I was the president of the Young Democrats club at my university many years ago).
At last something which falls under my area of expertise has come up, prompting me to comment (24 years as a police officer, 11 of those as an investigator and/or supervisor).
After following some of your links, and other links from there, then reviewing all the presented information (while keeping in mind that the information is presented by those interested in seeing the case overturned), I have come to the conclusion that I agree with you on this.
Much of my opinion is based on the excerpts from the police interrogations of Chuck Erickson and Ryan Ferguson. While I do not fault the dogged way that the investigators kept hammering away at each of them (much of the time, that is what it takes), I do have problems with things the investigators divulged during the course of the interrogation of Erickson. This alone should have been a red flag to the prosecutor.
I also was a little suprised that the investigators did not start looking for additional leads or suspects after the interrogation of Ferguson. This is based on his unwavering stance on his version of his actions and whereabouts on the night the murder occurred. Most frequently when you have a guilty party in interrogation, they will change bits and pieces of their story when pressed, in an effort to appease the interrogator. This is not to say that I would have stopped looking at Ferguson for the crime, but I might have wanted to start casting a wider net.
While I have never experienced anyone confessing to a crime they did not commit, it does happen. I have however filed a very serious case with the DA that I was not comfortable with, due to pressure from within the Department. Fortunately the prosecution lost that case, and I later received information which fully exonerated the individual we had initially prosecuted and implicated his brother instead! It was the one time I let pressure from fellow officers override my “gut feeling” about a case.
It is often very easy to go with the flow as a case is coming together, and having a “confessor” like Erickson come forward would make that a very easy course to pursue. Hence the feeding of information to Erickson in order to flesh out his confession. I wonder how well that investigator is sleeping these days?
I also have to wonder about how the investigators who interrogated Ferguson felt after completing his interrogation. Provided that he was just as adamant at the end of the process as at the beginning, and provided that his story did not change throughout (hard to say when only viewing excerpts) were they 100% sure they had the right guy? Once again, I don’t know how the prosecution would have taken this case without an additional confession from Ferguson, or tons of forensic evidence to backup Erickson’s confession. In my experience they usually won’t.
Many cops and prosecutors have a fear of admitting they may have been wrong when new evidence of an exculpatory nature shows up after a conviction, and will work tirelessly to prevent that evidence from changing the outcome (as it might have, if known before the trial). I will never understand that mentality if I work in this job another 20+ years. It’s not about winning, it’s about getting justice.
This is interesting, I hope for the families involved that the truth comes forward.
Here’s a macro of your macro, neo…
At the little digital media lab where I work a young man, an albino with a heavy street accent — a visually unapproachable looking guy, came in to work on some video footage for a case he says he was falsely convicted of, said he spent 5 months in jail before they found the true guilty party, well now he’s suing — normally we don’t offer our services to people off the street but when I talked to him he seemed sincere and interesting to talk to so I let him use the computers, converting and editing mashups like the youtube vids you linked to — I think it’s wonderful how technology can help bolster the voice of the little guy.
Nyom,
You never hope the truth comes forward. You are wild with your own accusations. You convict people in the court of public of opinion with ZERO facts. You are the worst of the worst. Doing it repeatedly in spite of the evidence. Laziness is Nyom.
When will you stop beating your wife?
Nuts
Yep. Maybe you will think about having evidence for your false accusations.
Wife beater.
BTW, Obama had less experience and is less intelligent than the person you made accusations about.
Palin proposed cutting the capital gains, corporate and income taxes to get us out of the coming recession. Your idiot who had zero experience proposed these energy, income, corporate and capital gains taxes that he is intent on stubbornly doing.
It has people bracing themselves, not hiring, and holding on to their money.
You cause misery and pain. You are all about misery and pain. You have no positive things to say. You should look at yourself in the mirror for a year before you write one more thing.
Montie: Thanks for offering your expertise.
I’m doing the following from memory, but I am fairly certain that Ferguson never changed his story at any point, including up to the present. I believe that the prosecutor probably wanted to prosecute because the unsolved murder of a popular and well-known man in the town was a thorn in his side, and I believe the prosecutor was ambitious to make a splash and solve the case.
Afterwards the judge in the case retired and the DA won an election shortly thereafter to fill the spot (see this). I think it’s safe to say the prosecutor had plans to run for this or similar office even at the time of the trial, and needed to convict someone of this very high-profile crime.
If you want to read a book about a similar case including ‘Dream Confessions’ and Police incompetence and corruption then read ‘The Innocent Man’ by John Grisham.
This is the great writers one and only non fiction book first published in 2007 . This book details the ‘jailhouse confession dreams’ the planted ‘ jailhouse snitches’ and the complete lack of evidence on which not one but FOUR people were convicted of crimes they did not commit. The Police totally ignored for 15 years the man who should have been the prime suspect and all physical evidence that pointed directly to him.
Seems like this sort of miscarriage of Justice is more prevalent than you would imagine possible.
If only they had waterboarded the guy, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Because waterboarding is only for guilty people and is NOT torture…The cops would have a much more detailed confession to work with, and stop wasting all this time with “niceties.”
El Chinonista another one who seemingly buys the whole ‘Torture’ con job but bet he thinks the Iranians are perfectly entitled to shoot women dead on the street and hang Gays after all its THEIR country ain’t it and cutting peoples heads off no thats not torture its just cultural isn’t it El like cutting peoples hands of under Shariah Law you know it makes sense don’t you. And I bet you think it was a Military coup in Honduras not an excercise in Democratic Control too don”t you. In fact I bet you love everything Obambi tells you to love and hate what he tells you to hate.
I have to suspend judgement on this one, Neo. People are judged by a jury of their peers. Certainly not a perfect system, but significantly better than being judged by a television audience.
now for the broader issue – capital punishment
El Chingo –
Waterboarding was not used to get confessions. It was used to get information about terrorist networks and looming terrorist attacks.
I find it interesting that liberals purport to abhor waterboarding yet will cheer for the unbelievable hardship and misery farmers, farm workers and businesses in the communities where they live in California for the sake of a minnow.
Get a clue.
If you want to found out about police or judicial incompetence even perfidy, just read Radley Balko’s blog The Agitator. Don’t take his word, just spiral out using his links and googling. What goes on in this country is amazing and truly sad. People convicted on bite marks which are not at all reproducible is one example. For you CSI fans, some if not much of what they do on the shows is BS. The five point positive match fingerprint (8-10 is a minimum IIRC and not necessarily conclusive unless checked by others) and GSR which is now seen as near meaningless by the FBI(too much chance of cross contamination), are two examples.
Neo has already touched on the false confession problem. However the most humorous thing I have read was a study on the ability to tell whether someone was lying or telling the truth. Of the groups tested the one group that had the most certainty they were right was police detectives. Do I need to tell you which group scored lowest in ability?
Correct “found” to “find” in my above post.
Pragmatist, IIRC its Article 290 in the Honduran Constitution that calls for the immediate removal from office of any President calling for, or attempting to, change the number of terms he serves. Not impeachment then trial but immediate removal. But no actual process to do it, so I guess the military served the process. So which general is now the head of Honduras, since it was a military coup ala Pinochet?
Turkey’s military is required, whether formally or through tradition, to remove any government that attempts to install an Islamic non-secular government.
And this is the oath I took when I enlisted: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” So what should our military do if a President so egregiously violated the Constitution that impeachment followed and he refused to stand before Congress? Listen to the OAS?
Ariel I think that like the UK the USA is too far gone in its left wing Socialist suicide to do anything about it. The media is in the bag the Democrats are co conspirators and the Republicans are cowering in their bunkers.
By the way the Military did not take control in Honduras merely removed the would be dictator and handed over to a civilian. Oh how Obambi must hate them.
It’s simple. If approached or detained, do not talk to LEOs except to ask for your phone call and a lawyer. Present your identification and tell them you are exercising your Constitutional right to NOT talk to them. And then mean it. No matter what they do or say.
I don’t care how friendly OR intimidating they try to be.
They are not your friends and DO NOT have your best interests at heart. Ever.
Pragmatist,
Sarc marks after Pinochet would have given my real meaning. Everytime I hear or read “military coup” without the why and the what and the who, I know I’m being misled.
Sounds like a real-life re-enactment of The Thin Blue Line
Anyone who has not seen this needs to.
All too many convictions occur not because of good hard evidence but because someone wants to bolster their resume. And in support of that is the fact that such people resist with near violence the idea of introducing new evidence that seriously calls a result into question.
Most of them don’t give a rat’s ass about justice — all they care about are their stats. And that is a criminal shame.
I’m not in any way a libtard whiner or apologist — but any new evidence which strongly indicates an individuals’ innocence should be required by law to re-open a case.
and personally? i was accuesed of murdering my ex girlfriend… oh… dont worry she is still alive and my son still spends time with her (more than me)… she faked it among other crazy things.
at that point i personally was under investigation for murder. they destroyed my career (turns out thats why she did it, she and her welfare expert friend thought the state would allocate more money to her). my friendships, etc.
they falsefied evidence… did all kinds of illegal things… created evidence from no where…
yeah… turned out that the week they were going to indict me and kiss me off to sing sing and the meat grinding process… she waltzed back into the real world and said hi.
the officer who was railroading me now doesnt know if she railroaded other people (i was her last case before retirement). the girl suffered no ill effects from faking it all. her family didnt get any problem for false reports, and none of the police got in trouble for “doing their job”.
i on the other hand lost family, friends, a brigth career wuth fortune 10 managemetn career path… lost my son.. lost all my savings.. my home.. lost my ability to get a great job since a super detailed report will pull up her BS and they side on caution (at least i didnt lose my clearances and bonding).
the experience has made me pretty good judge of which cases are being screwed with when i see things. and how movies get it wrong..
oh… i do get to avoid serving jury duty for the rest of my life… after all, what prosecutor wants me on a jury? last time the judge laughed at the situation and said he was glad it worked out ‘well’.
I have also had a police office when i was a teen pull a gun on me to get me to exit a train while he beat up a mexican man. the girlfriend was crying in my arms as we had to leave and she didnt know what would happen and could barely speak english. the crime of the spanish guy, he hit the wall loudly while kidding with his girlfriend. he was behiond the officer and this startled him. that was enough.
i have also been threatened for wating for a train in grand central. they know that a few ticket offenses are constantly therown out as the law is abused to force someone to lose a few days of their life in punishmetn for not complying.
i watched as our police became more military the more socialist we became. the cop in blue is really just a soldier who lifts weights pops steroids and has it out for anhyone who doesnt kiss but-t.
if you want to get an idea of how prevalent now this form of bad policing is, pop on over to Strange Justice stju.blogspot.com
you would be very surprised at the different stories about police in the US/UK/Australia mostly… but all are fair game..
An internal affairs investigation obtained the dramatic CCTV footage from Airlie Beach police station. Graphic footage shows the uniformed officer allegedly punching, kicking and “nearly drowning” one of his victims, Timothy Steele, 24. Price is shown jamming a fire hose into the mouth of the handcuffed Steele as fellow police looked on.
In another incident, Sydney bartender Renee Toms, 22, was allegedly swung around by her hair by Price inside the police station. Ms Toms, who weighs 47kg, subsequently needed medical attention for a cut to the chin.
Sydney investment banker Nicholas Le Fevre, 32, alleged he was king-hit and beaten unconscious by Price and mocked by other police as he begged for help.
Four other officers have quit the QPS under the probe by internal affairs into alleged police brutality. Steele, 24, a plasterer from NSW, allegedly suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a head wound, hearing problems, and memory loss in his May 24 arrest last year.
In his civil rights lawsuit against the City of Houston (case number 4:06-cv-02650), George Rodriguez alleged that inadequate training and supervision at the Crime Laboratory of the Houston Police Department and erroneous or fabricated scientific conclusions caused a state court to wrongfully convict him of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping (see previous articles about the lawsuit). In order for Mr. Rodriguez to win his lawsuit, the jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas had to answer “yes” to four questions:
Did the knowingly misleading and scientifically inaccurate serology report by a supervisor at the Crime Lab play a substantial part in bringing about or actually causing Mr. Rodriguez’s injury or damages?
Do you find by a preponderance of the evidence that Defendant City of Houston had an official policy of inadequate supervision or training of its Crime Lab personnel?
Do you find by a preponderance of the evidence that the City’s policymaker was deliberately indifferent to the substantial risk that the City’s policy of inadequate supervision or training would result in a constitutional violation similar to the one suffered by Mr. Rodriguez?
Do you find by a preponderance of the evidence that the inadequate supervision or training was the moving force behind the violation of Mr. Rodriguez’s rights?
On June 25, 2009, the jury answered in the affirmative and gave Mr. Rodriguez a verdict for five million dollars ($5,000,000). Neither money nor anything else, however, can adequately compensate Mr. Rodriguez for the 17 years that he spent behind bars for crimes he did not commit.
EVERYONE in a beuracracy cooks the books to succeed. so the eyes of the state are always clouded with potempkin movie sets because they use stats to see.
SENIOR police say they are being forced to “fudge” reports, and test drivers for drink-driving at times and places they know few offenders will be caught, to manipulate crime statistics. Officers from at least three Local Service Areas have told AdelaideNow it is common for reports to be manipulated and for traffic blitzes to be held to improve statistics and meet specific targets. The officers, who do not wish to be named, say police often blitz areas for the drug and alcohol testing of drivers at times and in places where results are not expected to be significant, a practice commonly referred to as “dumb testing”.
from soldiers in vietnam dying by been coutners, to welfare, to medicine, to law, to eduation.
its always the same old same old… when socailist anti merit.beuracracy is in charge… (which i covered in that article as to how south africa is running their own country. seems that the more backwards you are the more likely you will side with socialism and the more backwards you remain).
totalitarian states need a polcie that is vicous and thuggish… and tahts what they have been converting our system to be like. (heck they even learned from the kgb when to do raids!!!)
REX84…
if you think that video your showing is bad, you shoudl see the 4 or 5 in which the police shoot someone in cold blood or taser some people.
POLICE SHOOTING AT BART STATION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tmh9B8LVxM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmJukcFzEX4&feature=related
[tv shows news and shooting]
the video is a clear example of wahts going on.
you watch as people are watching from an open train door where the video is being taken on a cell phone.
the ‘perps’ are sitting down and everything is calm. a police officer walks over, and starts rousting one of the offenders. they then appear to be taking the cuffs off of someone, but i am not sure.
no one is resisting them. then they seem to go to do something to one guy and he seems to resist a bit. not a real rough time. the cop that walked over was even talking to another as he radioed.
then watch as you see the cop draw his pistol, stand up, and shoot the man…
then watch the other cops…
72-year-old Woman Tasered & Jailed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEm-YokntR8
and just so you dont think that not signing is an option…
Man dangerously TASERED for refusing to sign ticket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck3iNnvnjnk&feature=related
notice how is daughter now gets ptsd…
LAX Police Repeatedly TASER Unarmed Senior Citizen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKzSHtYqQvo&feature=related
in ny they tased a mental guy naked on the first floor ledge. he fell and his head poped like an egg. the officer that did it committed suicide a few days later. his commanding offcier ordered him to do it.. but that was buried later.
and here simlarly, a christian cop was ordered to taze a elderly man, he refused and was fired. then went to court.
God Vs Taser
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A432110
in this one, she follows the instructions that if you are unsure that the person behind you is a cop… bad mistake listening to them… for when she does stop, you see our nice men keeping us safe. make the lady lay in the traffic lane.
Police Brutality (taser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSwITK4jjQ&feature=related
police taser 11 Year Old Tasered at School as a ‘Last Resort’!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OnV7e2eNbc&feature=related
Off-duty Cop Uses Taser on Man Holding His Newborn Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6vBVUusmP0&feature=related
bonus video for gun control talks:
here is a shot from dash board camera where the officer gets killed, and a passerby ends up killing the perp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8olEn237h8&feature=related
Student Tasered: Judge Napolitano Is Outraged!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKppgYEVsis&feature=related
Missouri Police Taser Boy With Broken Back 19 Times http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N7e2FohN4A&feature=related
Racist Cop Tasers Young Black Male To Death http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msp7ZKiMcWY&feature=related
Taser Torture of an Ohio Woman 7 Times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxbBG_R7un4&feature=related
OHIO COP TASERS PREGNANT WOMAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pbm_S_S3d8&feature=related
Blind woman Taser Tortured
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zt9_Uve_Bc&feature=related
Taser Torture of Woman in Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxN2ASusvE&feature=related
our police now terrorize people.
FORGET INNOCENT TILL PROVEN GUILTY
Man’s stun gun death caught on tape police tazer taser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZOt4xYvLSk&feature=related
since women entered the police forces, the focus has been safety for the officers over the citizenry. this has changed the focus in training to the point that your life is expendible, if they think they may get hurt…
the days of the police valiantly sacrificing themselves are over since thats what men do, and that is contrary to a womans programming to self preserve while he sacrifices.
note that most incidents of tazing are from male officers… prior to tazers the males had two choices. kill, or take the risk… once women entered the force, the stats for civilian shootings went up for each woman on the force. that is, civilians were ending up dead since there was no longer enough strength in the teams to take the risk.
so tasers were adopted… this gave them three choices… kill, subdue taser, take the risk.
well, take the risk was naturally removed from the table when you could do this…
the problem is that it violates due process. that the taser is OBVIOUSLY a form of torture…
if not… then why cant we taser the taliban for answers?