Perske's list: false confessions from 75 persons with intellectual disability.

03Original abstract

In 2008, I published a list of 53 false confessions (Perske, 2008). The list presented in the present article contains the names of an additional 22 persons with intellectual disability who were coerced into confessing to major felonies that they did not commit. Of the total of 75 individuals reported on here and in the 2008 paper,This list keeps growing, thanks to lawyers who have become more sensitive to such wrongfully convicted persons and volunteer to fight for their innocence and freedom. Also, there is a heartening wave of Innocence Project organizations that are springing up throughout the nation.The 22 individuals are listed here alphabetically, along with the state and date in which the confessions were made.Two girls, 13 and 15, were bludgeoned while sleeping in the same bed in their Pueblo, Colorado home. The older girl was raped and killed. Three days later, the Pueblo police caught the killer and recovered the murder weapon, but he refused to confess. Shortly after that, a sheriff in Wyoming picked up a vagrant, Joe Arridy, 21, who was loitering in the Cheyenne railroad yards–and got him to confess to the Pueblo crime. The police then announced that the crime had been carried out by two men. Arridy was identified as “an imbecile with an IQ of 47,” who had recently wandered away from the Grand Junction State School for Mental Defectives. He had climbed into a railroad boxcar and disappeared. After the conviction, Warden Roy Best found Arridy to be a vulnerable, 5′3″, 130-pound nonviolent man. The warden chose to look after him like a father. He introduced Arridy to reporters as the happiest man in his care. He joined with Attorney Gail Ireland, who managed to get nine stays in a little over one year. Even so, the governor ordered the execution of Arridy on January 6, 1939. On January 7, 2011, 72 years later, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., after studying all the records on the case, issued “a posthumous pardon” (Perske, 1995; www.friendsofjoearridy.com).Barnes, who was labeled as a “mentally defective and dropout special education student” was convicted when he was 17 of the rape as well as the bloody neck and throat slashing of his 15-year-old girlfriend. Interrogators received two dissimilar confessions. The conviction was based only on the one that was typed by an interrogator. Witnesses who could have provided Barnes with an alibi did not testify. Lawyers from an Innocence Project did their own investigating and discovered that the victim had not been raped. They learned later that the earlier interrogator concocted the rape in order to make a stronger case. The defense lawyer described Barnes as “very timid, shy, very quiet, mannerly, and respectful.” Because DNA testing was not an option in 1972, the Innocence Project lawyers are asking the court to review the case in the interests of justice (Kiehl, 2009).On October 11, 1976, a 55-year-old woman was brutally beaten with a pellet rifle and stabbed to death in her Columbus home. The next day, the police arrested a 16-year-old next-door neighbor. They found the pellet gun, the knife, and a wig the killer wore as well as coins and jewelry that the teenager had taken. They also recovered the victim's TV that the teenager sold to a pawnbroker. The teenager confessed to the crime. Then he told interrogators that Jerome Bowden, 24, committed the crime with him. Bowden was an easy-going, neighborhood-wandering person who had been expelled from school many years earlier after being given a Wechsler intelligence test that showed him to have a full-scale IQ of 59. No evidence linked Bowden to the crime, and he could not have read or understood the confession drafted for him by police. The teenager, being a minor, was sentenced to life without parole. Bowden was executed (Perske, 1991a).A 58-year-old woman was raped and murdered in Miramar, Florida. Detectives picked up Anthony Caravella, a 15-year-old with an IQ of 67. Witnesses observed interrogators grabbing a phone book and taking Caravella into another room. They also heard what sounded like phonebook slaps and yelling. After repeated sessions, the detectives came out with five statements. During the sentencing, the judge exclaimed, “I will tell you, Anthony, if the jury had recommended death, I would have executed you.” Later, when he was found innocent, another judge spoke more tenderly: “Let me take the opportunity to apologize to you for the criminal justice system of the State of Florida” (McMahon, 2010).In a drug sale that went bad, two buyers admitted killing the dealer. Then they claimed that Earl Correll was with them as the overpowering ringleader. Correll was small (5′6″ and 130 pounds), had a reported IQ of 68, and was known as “a wimp.” The victim, who was over 6-feet tall, had been choked and stabbed from behind. The trial judge appointed two defense lawyers who turned out to be wimps too. They conducted no investigation. They claimed that communicating with Correll was impossible. When the attorneys asked Correll about the crime, he curled up in a corner and cried. The lawyers testified in court that after that, they threw up their hands and gave up. Correll was executed for being named as the ringleader. The other two received lesser sentences (Perske, 1991b).An Oak Park woman was getting off a bus when a man knocked her to the pavement, grabbed her purse, and fled. The victim later died from a head injury. A woman in a car saw the attack and pursued the robber in her car. She claimed that he touched her car twice with his hands. She described the attacker as a Black man about 18 to 20 years old, and she helped police draw a composite sketch. Anthony Dansberry was not involved until the police received an anonymous tip, and he was placed in a lineup before six eye witnesses The woman in the car was the only one who identified Dansberry–even though he was 29-years-old and had a mustache and beard that did not appear in the composite drawing. Dansberry was also a man with a verbal IQ of 58 and the reading comprehension of a first or second grader. He was interrogated until he signed a confession written by a detective. He said he signed the paper because the police told him it was “his release.” He was convicted and given a 75-year prison term. Innocence Project members are now interested in the case (M. Possley, 2006).Three days before Christmas 1978, in Belleville, Illinois, an 89-year-old retired farmer was shot to death in his wheelchair in his trailer home. There were no witnesses, no weapon, no fingerprints, and no motive. Eight months later, in August 1979, Girvies Davis, a 20-year-old Black man was arrested after a theft in an auto supply store. He had a severe “organic brain dysfunction since birth that kept him close to being illiterate. While in jail, police said he passed a note to them through a guard confessing to 11 crimes—including “the old man in the trailer.” After that the police checked him out of jail at 10 p.m. (the logs at the jail confirmed this) and drove him to a deserted road outside of town. The police, Davis said, took off his handcuffs and leg shackles, drew their guns, and produced a stack of written confessions. They told him if he did not sign all of them, they would shoot him and then testify that he died trying to escape. Davis signed everything they had. He was only tried for the shooting of the elderly farmer, which he vehemently denied. No Blacks were allowed to serve on the jury. He was sentenced to death. He died saying, “I have done many bad things, but I'm no murderer” (Schwartz, 2006).In 1996, a man, 79, and his 35-year-old companion were stabbed to death in their Eastchester, New York, home. After the case was still unsolved for 4 years, the police picked up and interrogated Selwyn Days, 36, a man with brain damage and a low IQ. After long hours of questioning, he confessed to the crime in front of a TV camera. He received a sentence of 50 years to life. Innocence Project lawyers presented DNA test findings to the court that excluded Days. Also, four witnesses placed Days in Goldsboro, North Carolina, at the time the crime was committed. This man spent 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit (Stashenko, 2010).A 75-year-old widow was murdered in her Greenwood, South Carolina, home. She was raped and stabbed 32 times, and her body was dumped in a bedroom closet. A neighbor suggested that the police check the stubs in the White woman's checkbook. They found a record in the victim's checkbook showing that she paid Edward Elmore, a 23-year-old Black man, for doing yard work a few days earlier. He was picked up and questioned within 48 hours of the crime. Four months later, Elmore, who had recorded IQs of 72 and 58, was sentenced to death. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the death penalty was changed to a life sentence. During the last 38 years of incarceration, numerous questions have emerged. The autopsy report had been botched. Hairs found on the body disappeared—and were found later in an investigator's filing cabinet. The DNA on the hairs proved to be from a White man. An FBI expert who studied the state's earlier forensic report against Elmore called it a “fraud” (Bonner, 2002).Acting on information given by a “confidential source,” Barry Fairchild was arrested and questioned regarding the rape and murder of a 20-year-old White U.S. Army nurse in a field outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Fairchild was Black and his records indicated that he was a man with retardation—a full scale IQ of 63, a verbal IQ of 69, and a performance IQ of 61. With his head bandaged, he was placed in front of a video camera. Investigators said the bandages covered a “bite on the top of the skull by a police dog.” During the videotaping, Fairchild kept looking toward an off-camera person for guidance. Later, Fairchild recanted, saying that the confession was beaten out of him. No evidence connected him to the crime. Testing of the semen in the victim's body showed that the rapist had type O blood and Fairchild's was type A. On March 29, 1991, on ABC TV's 20/20, he described how 13 Black men signed affidavits stating that the police tried to beat confessions out of them for the murder of the nurse–and failed. Fairchild was the 14th, and the only one to give in. He was executed in 1995 (Perske,1991d; Encyclopedia of Arkansas History, 2010).On Thanksgiving Day 1980, two men were murdered in New Orleans in different locations. The crimes were remarkably similar. Both men were White and had been involved in homosexual acts at the time of their deaths. Both were stabbed in the neck and torso. Two months after the crime, the lead detective happened to visit with John Floyd, a Black man, in a bar. He took Floyd in for questioning and got him to confess to both murders. He has been in prison for 30 years. Recently, the Innocence Project of New Orleans (2010) began looking into the case. They found that Floyd had an IQ of 59 and psychological tests showed him to be “highly suggestible and highly compliant,” making him particularly susceptible to the sort of pressure applied by police when they interrogate. Mitochondrial DNA testing now shows that Floyd did not commit either crime. Consequently, the case is back in the courts and the Innocence Project lawyers have vowed to never give up until Floyd walks out of the penitentiary a free man.Police picked up this 17-year-old with intellectual disability for questioning based on a tip. After 2 nights of intense interrogation, Gray confessed that she was with four men who had abducted a man and woman, raped the woman, and killed them both. Under pressure, she fingered four men as perpetrators. All were convicted. Seventeen years later, DNA revealed that Gray and the four men were innocent. The same evidence implicated the real perpetrators, who eventually confessed (Frievogel, 2000).On January 25, 2005, in Crothersville, Indiana, a 10-year-old girl disappeared while walking to a store. She was later found in a local lake. She had been sexually molested and drowned. Hickman, 20, was questioned, and he immediately blurted out that he was the murderer. Although it was clear from records that he was “a vulnerable, malleable, and disabled person” who was “very slow with the mental capacity of a 15-year-old,” he was submitted to numerous interrogation sessions. In them, his story kept changing, according to the leading questions he was being asked. This wild, interrogational spree ended for good after DNA on the body of the girl was matched with the real perpetrator (Adams, 2006).On May 23, 1978, Tommy a Black man, wandered away from a for persons with in He up to a of a and an The called the police, who took him away for to confessed to White In case, the claimed that the perpetrator them in their own drove them to the of and raped showed that had “an IQ of and the mental of a six testified that had Tommy a car. a of the local for With up in Then a of the the they were by members of the Four men were shot but not killed in the that case by pressure from outside that justice was He was sentenced to he was Later, he was to be to trial and was to a mental that expelled him as not being one of He was then to an for persons with intellectual he was as was placed in a small in a small while all the other (Perske, is a case that make Innocence Project Two a was murdered at a A of evidence was a guard at the was in for questioning, though the crime happened hours after his ended and he had home. The police interrogated this and man, IQ was 68, for 20 to was to how the crime and he did the he he suggested that the woman beat to death with a of the date of this not a of evidence has been to this nonviolent man. Even the of the murdered girl with and was that the man was in the time an Innocence Project discovered the case, he had spent 22 years in prison and was close to parole. they spent their time and to the parole. was paid for her that a Black with a low murdered a White man. spent years on death first defense was that he to numerous of evidence toward Later, another lawyer picked up the case and the The her story of in the crime. A of evidence to innocence was a judge the conviction, and in out of prison a free man 2010).On January a woman was with a and raped in New a man with a reported IQ of was in for questioning, and he a He was with first and received an prison sentence. Three years later, the victim reported another The were to the of the man and the it was discovered that the woman and She admitted that the never The in both were came after 4 years in the state in court that conviction was on by his own a written 2009).On March in an woman was and stabbed 11 was on The crime was committed by a and On the of the police picked up the of the After came out with dissimilar written by the police. All who would that he is about as as one could He has and has five to from his He is and has in both He never When he or he When he was the other gave him the Even so, was found sentenced to life years, and has been in prison for 20 years. all attorneys involved earlier have testified to being in their the case has been picked up by who are known as the first Innocence Project in the days after a man was beaten to death in a police picked up a 20-year-old man with an IQ and 69, who immediately confessed to the crime. After spent days in jail, the confession and the real killer was defense lawyers a of from such and then on to other not He was He went before the and the police of the case. to the had no police record or of had had only good with the him to them, which to the Even lawyer did not He said that he would like to “an with the disabled in questioning such The lawyer then from the to life back All this to a in the with lawyer to Later, the of police to an of involved in case reported to have intellectual disability of gave in to a An interrogator told him to testify against two and for the murder of on May 6, in he the he would not to He but the was not He and were sentenced to life years because they were being an was given the death sentence. The were found in a They were with The on the confession with and by a expert with a while and out in the years, have been No DNA has connected the to the crime. to be a was to the A of one murdered who studied the crime now the are innocent. Even so, no court has ordered a was picked up and questioned by police for a and of an There was but of it to a small and the victim described her attacker as being and older with was a and disabled The only evidence was an confession he gave after a to a by it the they they him their The case is still to four were killed in a drug in was with his Later, the special education with a disability was in by the police. After numerous hours of questioning, confession was He and was sentenced to a from to years. A later, a killer claimed that he murdered the four persons in the drug When evidence was told the police that he shot the with an The real killer an and a A police testified that was was a and case. A to a claimed that a was on one of their A into but found Later, the was to a man, a man with intellectual After being he gave a They reported that while and with to make the and months in A later showed that the police the phone was off by one 2010).In was killed while in a witnesses identified a man to be the killer as White with but an Black man with an IQ and was picked up. He was to the and then to the police he was questioned for many an the one by that back while another them He was to that he had signed a confession to bed at an earlier time in his life. He his to a defense He never received an investigation. conviction was when the U.S. Supreme Court against execution in In he was and sentenced to death He was executed in the police a connected with a rape and claimed he found the murder This turned out to be a that earlier in he a head and was low Investigators took him in for questioning and came out with a confession that to rape and murder for and a close DNA tests that the semen in the victim to a Also, outside of the no forensic evidence linked the two with the crime. Both in reported to be a man with mental while he was at a in They asked him to to with With a the detectives described to the murder of a woman who had been raped and with a They then him and told him there was evidence showing that he was the to that would to he and for his Three intense took During the he went into a low and as he described how he killed the Later, the police connected the crime to the real perpetrator with the first of DNA received a on January years to the after the detectives him at 1995; Possley, a man who has spent years in close with persons who have intellectual I out for 11 years as a in in which were to out their I with and I still I about them, when began to individuals with intellectual disability into in the I went I what I saw as a for individuals with intellectual disability who got into The drew me into and all the I on and about individuals who had been for crimes other is one learned from all this that to be into I first learned about that in an that in own many years a I five about back on their in the after they when one of was I at the who to it I was on the little I and him and I until took and me to the I had the in many I have how that little “the will to the of a case. I long for the when the all the of persons in a court case be before the court when with who have intellectual

Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-49.5.365