Why Innocent People Plead Guilty

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/why-innocent-people-plead-guilty-and-often-serve-years-prison-crime-they-didnt

On Sept. 18, 2000, Walter Bowman was shot in the chest during an armed burglary at his home, dying shortly after on the way to the hospital. Three armed men wearing gloves and bandanas had entered the Bowman residence while the family was watching football, shot Bowman amidst the confusion and fled the scene immediately.

Tips led police to concentrate on six possible suspects, including Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson. After a series of interrogations, three of the suspects implicated themselves and various combinations of the others. Eventually, Kagonyera, Wilcoxson and three others pled guilty and were sent to jail for Bowman’s murder. However, there was a problem with their admissions of guilt: they appear to have been entirely untrue.

DNA evidence found on the bandanas and gloves excluded all six of the defendants, and in 2003 another man, Robert Rutherford, came forward and confessed to committing the crime with two others. DNA from the bandanas implicated Rutherford, but this information wasn’t given to Wilcoxson, Kagonyera or their lawyers. It took until Sept. 22, 2011 for Wilcoxson and Kagonyera, the only two still serving time for the crime, to be exonerated and released from jail.

So if these five were innocent, why would they agree to plead guilty and serve jail time instead of going to trial to fight for their side of the story?

[Arkansas Granny]

1. k & r

[ctsnowman]

2. K & R