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Bulletin: National Registry of Exonerations Report for 2015: (Part Two): False Confessions: A record year: "A record 27 exonerations in 2015 were convictions based on false confessions, and more than 80% of them were homicides. Twenty-two of the 27 false confession exonerations in 2015 were homicides – 39% of all homicide exonerations in 2015 – more than any previous year. Most of the homicide exonerees who falsely confessed were less than 18 years old or suffered from mental illness or intellectual disability or both (13/22)."

Next: Bite-mark evidence: Consumate criminal justice blogger Radley Balko presents "The latest from the world of bite mark evidence" in his Washington Post column "The Watch" - including a case where a defence lawyer is relying on the disputed evidence: "On the one hand, if prosecutors are going to continue to use bite mark testimony, it doesn’t make much sense to ask defense attorneys to unilaterally disarm. On the other hand, it’s hard to see how a defense attorney could ethically submit evidence he or she knows is fraudulent. I obviously have no idea if the defense attorneys in this case honestly believe that bite mark analysis is scientifically valid. But they shouldn’t get any more deference than prosecutors. This case also is by no means the first time defense attorneys have tried to rely on bite mark analysis. In some ways, it seems worse when prosecutors deploy transparently bogus evidence because their obligation is to seek justice, not to win convictions at any cost. A defense attorney’s job is to vigorously defend his or her client, within a few basic ethical boundaries. The real problem is that we’ve entrusted judges to be the gatekeepers of science in the courtroom, and they’ve fulfilled that function about as well as you might expect from people trained in law, not science — pretty poorly. This sort of evidence ought to be rejected no matter which side is trying to introduce it." (Must Read. HL);
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"False confessions: A record 27  exonerations in 2015 were convictions based on false confessions, and more than 80% of them were homicides. Twenty-two of the 27 false confession exonerations in 2015 were homicides – 39% of all homicide exonerations in 2015 – more than any previous year Most of the homicide exonerees who falsely confessed were less than 18 years old or suffered from mental illness or intellectual disability  or both (13/22). For example: In 2006, Bobby Johnson, a barely-literate 16-year-old with an IQ of 69, was interrogated by two New Haven, Connecticut detectives about the murder of Herbert Fields. The detectives told Johnson (falsely) that they had physical evidence tying him to the murder and that he would face the death penalty if convicted (also a lie).  They promised him probation if he confessed. Johnson did confess and was convicted and sentenced to 38 years. He was exonerated in 2015,  nine years later, after it was discovered that the police had concealed evidence that identified the real killer."
 http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Exonerations_in_2015.pdf

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