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Wow, a masterclass in false confessions. This book really gives an insider look into why and how false confessions are extracted. The public believes confessions are always accurate—why would you lie about killing nine people?—and it's hard to understand why a sane person might confess to something they didn't do if they weren't physically tortured into doing so. I have watched the docu-series on Netflix, listened to the podcasts, etc etc, but it wasn't until after reading this book that I really understood how I, too, would be vulnerable to giving a false confession.
In 1991, nine people were murdered at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell (Phoenix suburb), Arizona. It was the first mass murder in Arizona since its statehood. Based on a call from a delusional man in Tucson, five Tucson men were taken in for interrogation/custody (? it was ambiguous and later part of a lawsuit against Maricopa Police) and four of them ended up giving false confessions. The real killers, two teen boys from the Phoenix area, remained free on the streets for several more months while police focused on making five fake stories line up with the crime scene—wasted time that allowed one of the boys to kill again AND a separate false confession by a sixth innocent person to be extracted related to that murder. In the end, the "Tucson Four" plus the other man who had confessed to the later murder were released and signed settlement deals with Maricopa County.
It was during this chaos that Joe Arpaio, a retired DEA agent unknown at the time but perhaps the nation's most notorious sheriff nowadays, ran for the position of sheriff on the platform that he would impose stricter oversight, training, and guidelines for interrogations.
The book also goes into the prosecution's and the defense's courtroom strategies—both teens confessed: Alessandro Garcia cut a plea deal but Johnathan Doody had a jury trial to determine if his role in the murders qualified for premeditated first-degree murder (and the likely death penalty) or just felony murder (being present while someone is murdered during the event of a felony crime and thus would likely spare him from the death penalty). At the time the book was published, both boys were sentenced to life in prison, not the death penalty. Doody has since had two retrials (his first trial was overturned on the basis of a coerced confession, his second trial ended in a deadlocked jury, and his third upheld the sentencing of his first trial—9 life sentences).
In my opinion, Garcia is cruel, cold, and crass.... the very picture of someone who likes the thrill of killing and rush of attention and power. He boasted in an interview that he could write a handbook on how to get away with murder, and if he hadn't been caught "there would have been a lot more murders." I believe Doody's confession that they were playing a kind of ROTC game gone awry, with Garcia leading the way to eliminate all witnesses and Doody's shotgun grazing, but not killing, anyone.
What a shame.
In 1991, nine people were murdered at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell (Phoenix suburb), Arizona. It was the first mass murder in Arizona since its statehood. Based on a call from a delusional man in Tucson, five Tucson men were taken in for interrogation/custody (? it was ambiguous and later part of a lawsuit against Maricopa Police) and four of them ended up giving false confessions. The real killers, two teen boys from the Phoenix area, remained free on the streets for several more months while police focused on making five fake stories line up with the crime scene—wasted time that allowed one of the boys to kill again AND a separate false confession by a sixth innocent person to be extracted related to that murder. In the end, the "Tucson Four" plus the other man who had confessed to the later murder were released and signed settlement deals with Maricopa County.
It was during this chaos that Joe Arpaio, a retired DEA agent unknown at the time but perhaps the nation's most notorious sheriff nowadays, ran for the position of sheriff on the platform that he would impose stricter oversight, training, and guidelines for interrogations.
The book also goes into the prosecution's and the defense's courtroom strategies—both teens confessed: Alessandro Garcia cut a plea deal but Johnathan Doody had a jury trial to determine if his role in the murders qualified for premeditated first-degree murder (and the likely death penalty) or just felony murder (being present while someone is murdered during the event of a felony crime and thus would likely spare him from the death penalty). At the time the book was published, both boys were sentenced to life in prison, not the death penalty. Doody has since had two retrials (his first trial was overturned on the basis of a coerced confession, his second trial ended in a deadlocked jury, and his third upheld the sentencing of his first trial—9 life sentences).
In my opinion, Garcia is cruel, cold, and crass.... the very picture of someone who likes the thrill of killing and rush of attention and power. He boasted in an interview that he could write a handbook on how to get away with murder, and if he hadn't been caught "there would have been a lot more murders." I believe Doody's confession that they were playing a kind of ROTC game gone awry, with Garcia leading the way to eliminate all witnesses and Doody's shotgun grazing, but not killing, anyone.
What a shame.