What do police do when a confession starts falling apart? Double down...or fix it up?

Sometimes farm life isn’t as tranquil as it seems... Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us to small-town Nebraska where two murders shattered a peaceful Easter Sunday. The story of Matt Livers is a major plot-twister: a coerced confession, dirty cops, planted evidence, and a mysterious clue that led police to a pair of natural born killers.

To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to https://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Learn more and get involved at https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/false-confessions

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While eating a hamburger, this kid spontaneously confesses to killing his sister?

Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin take us to Camden, Arkansas, where a twelve-year-old boy is left to fend for himself against police officers who suspect him of murder. The interrogation tape is bad enough – but the worst parts happened off camera. This is the story of Thomas Cogdell.

To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to https://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Learn more and get involved at https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/false-confessions

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So their theory is that a wandering necrophiliac comes across the body and defiles it?

Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin tell the story of how five Chicago teens were wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of their classmate - and how prosecutors tried to explain away the DNA that proved them innocent. This case happened during the early 1990s, when the media was saturated with misleading stories about youth of color committing violent crimes in groups. This "superpredator" narrative drove the wrongful prosecution of the so-called Central Park Five “wolfpack” -- but it didn’t stop there.

To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to https://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Learn more and get involved at https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/false-confessions

This episode includes story line about and clips from Retro Report, The Superpredator Scare.

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What can I say I did to get me out of this?

Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin use real interrogation audio to tell the shocking story of Robert Davis, a Virginia teenager who in 2003 falsely confessed to a double murder after enduring an interrogation complete with death threats, lies about the evidence, and fact-feeding, only to tell investigators, "I’m lying to you, full front to your face."

To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to https://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for

Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Learn more and get involved at https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/false-confessions

This episode includes story line about and clips from Dateline NBC: In the Shadow of Justice

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Why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit?

Hosts Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin, co-directors at Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and central figures in the smash hit Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer, introduce themselves, their work, their passion, and the origin story behind their tireless efforts to free the wrongfully convicted.

To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to http://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Learn more and get involved at https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/false-confessions

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On October 13th, 1997, Julie Rea’s nightmare would begin, when an intruder broke into her home, killed her son Joel, and the authorities would begin a bumbling, tunnel vision investigation to pin the murder on her. With their blinders on, the incompetent investigators would inadvertently destroy or fail to capture vital evidence of the intruder’s presence at the crime scene. They would ignore developing leads that implicated the 3rd party to this horrific crime of which Julie still cannot speak. The prosecution’s blood spatter “expert” who played an integral role in Julie’s conviction at her first trial would become, according to jurors, “a powerful witness for the defense” under more competent cross examination at her retrial.

The state would later willfully ignore the intruder’s confession and crassly attempt to conceal the new evidence from the retrial jury. Their gross misconduct only added insult to this grave injury. Julie was acquitted in 2006 and formally exonerated in 2010 with the help of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law under the leadership of Karen Daniel to whom this episode is dedicated. Karen’s colleague and one of Julie’s attorneys, Ron Safer, joins Julie and Jason to both pay tribute to Karen and tell Julie’s terrifying story.

You can read more about the life and career of Karen Daniel here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-karen-daniel-obit-20191227-h3jbt3ch3ff7naqdin6kletytu-story.html

You can read the NY Times article mentioned in this episode here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/magazine/she-was-exonerated-of-the-murder-of-her-son-her-life-is-still-shattered.html

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

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Herman Atkins was a disciplined student athlete who enjoyed refurbishing old cars, growing up in the rigid household of a California highway patrolman. On January 25th, 1986, Herman Atkins was paying an auto mechanic for an engine rebuild when an armed robber stepped to the 2 men, grabbed the cash, and fled on foot. Herman grabbed the mechanic’s gun and chased the robber, firing warning shots into the air. The robber turned a corner, and Herman heard more gunshots. When he got to the corner, there were cop cars, and several people had been wounded by gunshots, including 2 police officers. Herman ditched the gun and retreated.

On April 8th, 1986, Herman Atkins is in Texas for the birth of one of his children, when an armed man entered a strip mall shoe store in Lake Elsinore, CA, forced the 23 year old female clerk to perform oral sex on him, ejaculated, leaving semen on her sweater, and stole $130 in cash and the clerk’s jewelry. When authorities caught up with Herman in November of that year while he was visiting family in Phoenix, AZ, Herman was finally made aware that he was wanted for both the January 25th incident and the Lake Elsinore kidnapping, robbery, and rape.

After multiple cross racial eyewitness misidentifications, a jailhouse snitch seeking leniency, and both police and prosecutorial misconduct, Herman was wrongfully convicted, sentenced to 47 years and 8 month in prison, and shunned by his father. After hitting the law books in prison and gaining the support of the Innocence Project, the semen stained sweater was tested for DNA, excluding and exonerating Herman. Despite this and his civil litigation victories, Herman was not truly whole again until mending the rift caused by what he describes as his father’s treason against the father-son relationship.

You can delve deeper into Herman’s story through the documentary “After Innocence” or in his book “Wrongfully Convicted, Rightfully Committed: The Reincarnation of Herman Atkins After 12 Years in Prison,” available soon wherever books are sold. He is also available for speaking engagements on the topics of judicial reform, the aftermath of exoneration, as well as his own story.

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On December 5th, 1984, the naked body of Theresa Fusco was pulled out of a wooded area in Lynbrook, NY - the 3rd in a string of recent disappearances, putting pressure on police to find the monster among them. The medical examiner determined that the presence of semen implied that a rape had occurred and the cause of death was ligature strangulation. Dennis Halstead had been linked to one of the victims, and in a police interview about Halstead, John Restivo inadvertently mentioned an occasional employee John Kogut. When police interrogated Kogut for 12 hours, during which interrogators lied to him about his failing a polygraph, Kogut signed a confession that was hand-written by one of the detectives and contained all of the information authorities knew at the time, looping in the 3 men as the perpetrators.

With the false confession, a coerced and flipped alibi witness, evidence tampering, and the victim’s hair said to have been found in Restivo’s van, the trio were convicted and sentenced to 33 and a half years in prison. Despite years of obstruction, DNA testing would later exclude all three men and repeatedly implicate a still unknown assailant. John Restivo and Innocence Project Senior Staff Attorney Nina Morrison joined Jason at the Atlanta Innocence Network Conference to tell this amazing and terrifying tale.

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Stefon Morant and Scott Lewis were selling drugs for organized crime figure Frank Parise. When Frank was set to go away on a weapon’s charge, he asked Scott to take over the drug dealing arm of his criminal enterprise, but Scott wasn’t trying to go deeper into illegal activity. When he refused, Frank tapped a detective he had on the payroll, Vincent Raucci.

On October 11th, 1990, former New Haven, CT alderman Ricardo Turner and his lover Lamont Fields were shot dead in their bed, and Raucci knew just who to pin it on. How would he make it stick? By extracting a false confession from Scott’s good friend Stefon - one he would never sign. His refusal to participate in Scott’s railroading sealed him to the same fate. Stefon was in the Carolinas at the time of the murders, but that didn’t matter. Raucci put the screws to another character in the New Haven drug game, Ovil Ruiz, who would name Scott and Stefon in his false confession in exchange for leniency in his own legal troubles.

With the help of Raucci’s direct supervisor, Detective Sweeney, an FBI investigation, and the tireless aid of some Ivy League law school students under the tutelage of professor Brett Dignam, Scott Lewis would eventually be fully exonerated. However, the District Attorney would only allow Stefon to cop a plea, rather than be declared innocent as well. The man that was targeted for wrongful conviction simply for knowing Scott Lewis is still fighting for exoneration from the outside for the same crimes that Scott was exonerated for in 2016.

The trailer for the documentary “120 Years” about Scoot and Stefon’s case can be found here: https://www.120yearsfilm.com/

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On April 2nd, 1993, 22 year old Andrew Ascher and Becky George sat in his parked car by her brother’s apartment building on Silent Road in Rockford, IL, when a black man in a blue ski mask approached the vehicle, announcing a stick up. While Becky frantically fished in her purse for some money, the armed robber shot Andrew twice. Both of the bullets and their casings were retrieved from the crime scene and during the autopsy. Meanwhile, across town, Patrick Pursley celebrated his son’s birthday in the apartment he shared with his girlfriend Samantha Crabtree. Over 2 months later, as the police came up empty on Andrew’s murder, an acquaintance of Patrick and Samantha’s, Marvin Windham, traded false information with the police through Crime Stoppers that implicated Patrick in exchange for leniency in his own legal matters, as well as a $2,650 reward. It was also revealed at trial that Windham had a long time crush on Samantha. Police obtained a search warrant, retrieved a Taurus 9mm from their apartment, and interrogated Samantha, threatening to take away her children if they didn’t get the story they wanted in the form of a confession and an immediate grand jury testimony - a testimony she would later recant at trial. But, with her coerced confession on the record, Windham’s “hot tip”, and conflicting expert ballistics testimony about the murder weapon and the Taurus 9mm found at the apartment, Patrick Pursley was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience at ComplexCon Chicago 2019, Patrick tells Jason of his wrongful conviction and subsequent fight for freedom, including how he changed a law from inside prison in order to obtain the ballistic testing necessary to set himself free.

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.