METRO I SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 I THE CHRONICLE
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of individuals sampled by the Innocence Project whose false confessions were not discovered by police or dismissed by prosecutors before trial were eventually convicted.
Jonathan Allen THE CHRONICLE
tion techniques increasingly used by law enforcement,” said Alan Hirsch, an assistant professor of legal studies at Williams College and an expert on false confessions. “The problem isn’t that they’re ineffective, but that they’re too effective.Their purpose is to break guilty people down, but they’re so good that they can break innocent people down.” Swift testified that interrogation tactics, considered illegal by experts in the field, led him to falsely confess. Also, there are some discrepancies as to how he ultimately ended up inside the police interrogation room. According to police reports, another teenager named Jerry Fincher voluntarily walked into the police station and gave information about Glover’s murder to help out a friend in custody on drug charges. Fincher changed his statement three times during the course of two days, according to reports. A judge later suppressed his confession, leading to a dropped case. Upon taking Swift’s case,Tepfer conducted interviews with all the men involved and was told a much different story by Fincher,who said he was taken into custody by police. “[Police] threatened to charge him with a drug case if he didn’t come with them, and he was coerced into confessing and implicating these other boys, and again he says he doesn’t know why any of these boys were brought up,” Tepfer said. Swift admits he was a member of the Black P. Stones gang with his co-defendants. He compared their relationship to that of schoolchildren. “You have your group of friends and you see other students, but you don’t know them,” Swift said. “I saw them in the area, but we never hung out. We had no relationship at all prior to being incarcerated.” Swift and his family claim they were lied to during their initial interaction with police on March 9, 1995. Swift said police called his mother and told her they were looking for him because he was hiding a person of interest. They told his father they were looking for him regarding an auto
theft, he said. After meeting with police at his father’s house and agreeing to go to the station for more questioning, Swift said he and his family were lied to once again. Police told his father and uncle—who were going to trail the police car transporting Swift— that they were taking him to the police station at 35th Street and Lowe Avenue. The police officers took Swift to 51st Street and Wentworth Street. After arriving at the police station, Swift said he found himself in a desolate interrogation room, suffering from a mental beating. The detectives played the standard game of “Good Cop/Bad Cop,” he said. The “Good Cop/Bad Cop” routine is perfectly legal and used often, according to James Wedick, a former FBI agent, who specializes in interrogation and runs the website FBIExpert.com. However, Swift claims he was a victim of other illegal interrogation practices, including a violation of his Miranda rights. During his hearing, Swift testified that police told him to put himself at the scene of the crime, and told him the rotation of defendants taking turns in the raping, according to court documents. Police are not allowed to relay specific details, Garrett said. He said the only way to be sure this isn’t happening is to videotape the entire interrogation. Illinois has required such taping in murder cases since 2004. If the law had been in effect in 1995, Swift’s allegations of inappropriate behavior could have been proven true or false. “I requested an attorney and to speak with my family,” Swift said. “It didn’t stop. Finally after so much, I just said, ‘OK you’re going to let me go home. I’ll sign,’ and that’s how it went.” The Miranda rights state a suspect has the right to an attorney. “If an individual requests a lawyer, the interrogation should stop immediately,” Wedick said. “The statement the agents have taken will not be allowed to be intro-
duced at a trial.” records, during the hearing he said: “Well Wedick, who said he has conducted hun- this case is relatively simple. It’s all condreds, if not thousands, of interrogations fession. Without the confession there is offered his professional opinion of deliver- no case. There is no physical evidence ing false promises to suspects. that links the defendant to the case. “You can’t promise a defendant something There is no other testimony that links that’s not true,” he said. “You can’t make false him to the case. It’s the confession. What promises with the hope of getting someone we have is 22 pages of detail that I either to say something because it’s going to be a believe the defendant was told to say, or lie.There’s no room in the justice system for that he said because he was there and he that conversation where cops or prosecutors knows and he knew what to say and he promise something in exchange for a sen- told the court reporter what happened. tence and then make statements like, don’t We have a 22-page confession, and that say this in front of the judge.” is enough for me. There will be a finding Swift said he was of guilty.” promised that if he Sumner was contacted for this followed through on story and refused his deal with detecOf course he knew something. to comment on tives, he would be able to go home to his the case. He said he His semen was inside her. mother. didn’t remember it. “Initially [the con“In a surpris–Josh Tepfer ing number of fession] was written,” cases of proven Swift said. “Later on, they came with the stenographer, or the false confessions, the suspect explained court reporter, and like I said, they fed me that he confessed because he just everything that I needed to know, basically. wanted to go home,” Hirsch said. She asked me, ‘Was I promised anything?’ I Swift said he confessed because he was told her ‘no’ because I didn’t want to break told he would be able to go home if he did. the deal that I had going with the police and “I was naive to the fact that people the state’s attorney.” get convicted for something they didn’t After signing the confession, Swift was do,” he said. “I was never worried about booked and sent to the Cook County Court- being convicted because I knew I didn’t house, 2600 S. California Ave., the next day. do it. So I’m like, ‘How long do I have to He was convicted of rape and murder in May be in the county [jail]? I’m going to get 1998 and sentenced to 36 years based solely acquitted anyway.’ I didn’t know until the on his confession. judge said, ‘Guilty’.” Judge Thomas Sumner presided over Swift’s case in 1998. According to court gcappis@chroniclemail.com
1 blue figure equals 10 prisoners who have been exonerated after false confessions
1 figure equals 10 exonerated prisoners
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1 orange figure equals 10 exonerated prisoners
of individuals sampled by the confessions were not discove prosecutors before trial were
Jonathan Allen THE CHRONICLE
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