As I watch the dizzying coverage of the
apparent break in the case of JonBenet Ramsey's death, lots of questions that can lead to story ideas come to mind. For example, the "suspect" says he drugged the girl, but
her autopsy report indicates that no drugs were detected.
So, how common is it for nuts to confess to crimes that they did not commit? As
MSNBC's Dan Abrams said, "Put on the brakes. In high-profile cases like this one, you have wackos coming out of the woodwork." In fact,
The Innocence Project found that "in a disturbing number of DNA exoneration cases, defendants have made incriminating statements and downright confessions," only to have DNA prove them to be innocent.
The Innocence Project has been studying "false" confessions for some time. The site explains how false confessions happen -- including cases in which they are due to mental issues and exhaustive police questioning. A couple of years ago, The Village Voice said:
Northwestern University law professor Steven A. Drizin and University of California-Irvine criminology professor Richard A. Leo say that, according to studies, faulty confessions were the "primary cause of wrongful conviction in 14 to 25 percent of the documented cases." In addition, confession sometimes sets in motion an irreversible presumption of guilt.
I found this paper, on the North Carolina Wesleyan College psychology department site, to be fascinating:
[More than] two hundred people confessed to the Lindbergh baby (1932) kidnapping, and hundreds of people confessed to the (1947) Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles. Some people continue to confess to this day about these crimes, and include people who were not even born at the time. So, why do these people confess to crimes they didn't commit?
Saul Kassin, a psychologist, has probably studied the topic of false confessions more than anybody else, and it can be safely said he has the workings of a typology about the types of people who confess. Kassin's typology (Wrightsman & Kassin 1993; Kassin & Kiechel 1996; Kassin 1997; Kassin & Fong 1999) is technically about what are called "coerced" types, and there are two main subtypes of those. However, there are a number of other, so-called "compulsive" types, which make up all the weird reasons for confessing to something you didn't do. Here's a customized version of this typology:
- Compulsive type: attention seeker -- confesses to gain a piece of the fame, impress others, or to get attention
- Compulsive type: homeless -- confesses as a way to get off the streets
- Compulsive type: fugitive -- confesses to avoid being prosecuted for a crime elsewhere with stiffer penalties
- Compulsive type: guilty conscience -- confesses because believes they are guilty of something
- Coerced: compliant type -- Kassin's type who pleads guilty to avoid something aversive in their home environment
- Coerced: internalized type -- Kassin's type who comes to believe in their guilt out of interrogation or persuasion
The Center on Wrongful Convictions reported in 2003 on how widespread wrongful confessions are in just one state, Illinois:
Most Americans -- not excepting jurors and judges -- find it almost incomprehensible that someone would confess to a crime he or she did not commit, absent, of course, torture or serious mental derangement. In recent years, however, we have seen that confessions and other highly inculpatory evidence sometimes are not what they seem.
Since 1970, 42 wrongful murder convictions have been documented in Illinois. Twenty-five of the convictions, or 59.5 percent, rested in whole or part on false confessions. Fourteen of the cases involved the defendant's own confession. Three of the 14 also involved confessions of co-defendants, and the remaining 11 stemmed principally from co-defendants' false confessions. Of the 25 cases, all but two involved additional obvious problems -- including dubious forensic evidence, police failure to pursue viable alternative suspects, incorrect or perjured eyewitness identifications, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of defense counsel.
What effect will the Thai perp walk have on this case?
Not since
Lee Harvey Oswald have I seen
such a display.
And yet, courts have said in the past that
perp walks can have a legitimate purpose. But perp walks staged for the media, as the Thai perp walk was, present serious
Fourth Amendment rights issues. Perp walks in the U.S. are generally OK
if they are not "staged" for the media. As
The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog explained in March:
The Second Circuit has held that the practice must serve a legitimate law-enforcement purpose to be constitutional. Prosecutors justify them as keeping the public informed of its crime-fighting efforts, deterring future crime, and making a statement that no one is above the law. The feds also say it could encourage people to come forward with information about the case. But the most important reason, suggests the writers, is that the perp walk puts pressure on the defendant to cooperate.
How does a "break" in a 10-year-old case like this one affect the families of victims of other cold cases? There are thousands and thousands of cold cases.
The Cold Case Center Web site tracks some of them and sorts them by state. Here are the Web sites of just a few local police departments' cold-case operations:
And some more cold-case resources:
Why does DNA testing take so long? Here is a site that explains what DNA testing can and cannot do, and why it is such a complicated process.
HowStuffWorks.com does its usual excellent job explaining DNA testing in a way that anybody could understand.
We've covered DNA testing before on Al's Morning Meeting. Here's a sampling:
Why do some cases like this one get so much media attention? In my experience there is a witches' brew of factors that blasts an otherwise common case into a media sensation. Among the factors:
- The case involves a child -- especially a cute child. Victims who are guys that look like me don't get covered.
- Videotape or unusual photographs of the victim exist. They make for iconic images that the public remembers. (Just remember the "Runaway Bride" case.)
- A celebrity is involved (such as O.J. or Kobe).
- It involves somebody who is rich. Media love stories about the fall of the powerful.
- There is a boogeyman factor. The notion that there is still an unknown "bad guy" lurking out there drives coverage more than a case that is resolved.
Thailand and Sex Tourism
Bangkok is sometimes known as a "pedophile paradise." See
this story from The Associated Press in 2003. That story reported: "The (sex) industry is estimated to account for an estimated 3 percent of Thailand's economy, or about $4.3 billion a year."
This story has been reported for years. Here is an article in
Ms. Magazine from 1999.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
It's a photo that has become a staple in the tabloids of Southeast Asia: the foreigner taken in by police after being caught in bed with a local boy or girl.
For many area countries that net huge sums from the tourism trade, it's a vivid illustration of its seamiest side -- child sexual exploitation. ...
In countries such as Thailand, child sexual exploitation builds on a long-standing and vast prostitution industry and thrives where law enforcement is weak or corrupt. That sex with young teens is not a strong taboo in some Asian cultures makes fighting the problem even more difficult.
There are a number of international organizations that work to fight human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. One is the Polaris Project. WorldVision, a multifaceted international relief organization, as a site that explores the tragedy of international "sex tourism."
Some other resources:
Other Notes of Interest
You can find John Karr's resume on an international teacher Web site, Job4Teascher.com.
SmokingGun has a close-up of the resume if the Job4Teacher site is down -- which it has been, from time to time.
My Poynter colleague, Bob Steele,
wrote a piece about some of the ethical issues that arise in covering this story.
We've covered the notion of "persons of interest" on Al's Morning Meeting before, too.
You might find this reference, from February 2004, useful.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Keep in mind as well the media's focus on branding...
