Proving Innocent People Guilty

[The following article details one of our most abominable American miscarriages of justice that occurred in NYC -- the center of liberalism and civil rights and liberties. A group of African American kids was picked up and accused of raping and nearly killing a young white woman out jogging in Central Park. She was so badly battered that she had no recollection of who or what had assaulted her. Induced to confess, some of these kids did considerable jail time before it was disclosed that another person on the opposite side of Central Park from where they had been had committed the vicious assault. Our media were obsessed with this crime and in effect convicted these kids before they even reached court. How many other minority group members have been similarly convicted and punished? One such minor was executed under Bush while he was Governor of Texas -- innocent by all reasonable evidence.
Ed Kent]

What Makes Criminal Suspects Give a False Confession?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
October 2, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/64113/

When 16-year old Kharey Wise entered the Central Park
Police Precinct at 102nd St on April 20, 1989, he didn't
realize what he was walking into. It was the day after
one of the most grisly crimes in official New York
memory-the brutal sexual assault of a woman who would
become known as the Central Park Jogger-and Wise had
been asked to come in along with other black and Latino
youths who had allegedly been in the park the night
before. Wise was taken to the scene of the crime and
shown graphic pictures of the woman's injuries, which
included a fractured skull. Eventually, his visit to the
police station would lead to an interrogation and, after
nine hours of questioning, a videotaped confession that
was confusing, convoluted, and chilling.

[snip open website for remainder of article]

Liliana Segura is a writer and activist living in New
York.

(c) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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