This is actually a general question, not necessarily about this particular case.
The currently reported facts:
Someone confessed to kidnapping and killing Etan Patz.
There is no physical evidence.
There are no witnesses.
The only circumstantial evidence is that the confessor lived in the vicintiy of Etan Patz. That’s in NYC, so he’s one of hundeds of thousands of people in that vicinity.
There’s not even any evidence of a crime being committed. Etan Patz might have fallen into an open manhole and been eaten by an alligator.
So based on that information, in this case or any other, can a person be properly convicted of a crime based solely on a confession? I don’t doubt it could happen given a weak defense or improper conduct by the state. But what is the law on a matter like this?
The press is making a big deal about this because it gets them views. The police are well acquainted with people who confess to a crime that they didn’t commit and the District Attorney is unlikely to press for a trial on flimsy evidence. If the abduction had happened a week ago, there may be an impetus for a fast and resolution to public pressure, but no longer.
From what I read the guy knew details about the case which were not made public. The police typically do not reveal everything specifically to be able to filter out false confessions. He also left his job and moved immediately after the kidnapping.
I’m not saying this proves he did it, but that the police didn’t take the confession at face value. I’d be surprised if lots of people hadn’t confessed in the last 20 years.
There is no specific evidence required to convict someone of a crime. All that is required is that the jury be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether a confession satisfies that probably depends on factual details. Does the confessor have a long history of mental illness and he says that he and Elvis committed the murder together and then took the body to Mars? Or is the confessor a sane person who gives a plausible version of events and reveals details of the crime that only the murderer could know?
There is one other catch. Some states still require a corpus delicti. This does not mean a body, but rather independent evidence of a crime apart from the defendant’s out-of-court confession. This rule has fallen out of favor, but still exists in a minority of jurisdictions.
Thanks Opus1. So corpus delecti, now in disfavor, and not used in most jurisdictions is the only thing that would prevent a conviction for a crime that never occurred. It seems in NYC, there is a lot of investigation going on to determine if this particular crime was committed by this individual. I assume they get a lot of false confessions from the fringe there, and other localities also. But it explains how a coerced confession so easily leads to conviction in some cases. In those cases where an actual crime is proven, I can see jurors easily convicting someone on a confession alone.
Yes. With this new case in the news I’m trying to find out how the system is supposed to prevent these problems. This one is a little different than many others because of the lack of evidence of a crime being committed, even though its seems likely there is some underlying crime.
I’ve just recalled also that George Bush as governor of Texas stopped an execution for someone until evidence that he committed the murder was established. The man was already known to provided false confessions.
If you mean the Ricky McGinn case, that was because DNA found on the scene hadn’t previously been tested to the fullest extent possible, not because there was any doubt that someone had been killed: http://lubbockonline.com/stories/071300/sta_071300097.shtml. Doesn’t look like McGinn, who was ultimately executed, had provided any confession, false or otherwise.
Actually I had some of the details from that case mixed up withHenry Lee Lucas. Lucas may or may not have been a serial killer, but had confessed to around 600 murders. A task force intended to investigate the crimes found around 350 credible confessions. Bush commuted his sentence entirely.
Newspaper reports are saying that during a search of the suspects residence they found clothing and a toy that appear to be from Etan. Unconfirmed right now.