Falsified Confessions Case Study

At 1:30am on April 19, 1989, Trisha Meili, a bank investor was found brutally beaten. She was found to have been raped, and cut so severely that it resulted in a seventy percent loss of total blood in her body. Five suspects that were boys were convicted and charged of the crime. Although, there was an account of a taped confession from these boys, after extended prison sentences, an individual confessed, and they were exonerated. However, before they were found guilty and sentenced, during the midst of interrogations, it was evident that while on trial, there was no actual way to understand if these boys were coerced in giving falsified confessions. Outlined in the Fifth Amendment, the use of law enforcement’s interrogation tactics can in no way be used in a coercive or violent manner in an attempt to persuade suspects to give falsified confessions. Additionally, when law enforcement officials utilize coercive tactics to seek these confessions, there is

Otherwise, why would five teenage boys confess to a crime that they clearly did not commit? In the court of law, an individual has to be proven guilty without a reasonable doubt. There was enough reasonably doubt as far as a lack of evidence to favor innocence. Evidently, this was a violation of constitutional rights in this case. In reference to the Fifth Amendment is the protection from compelled self-incrimination. The five young boys were apparently not aware of this privilege to exercise due mostly to an improper interrogation. It is though law enforcement wanted someone or group of people to answer for these offenses – although, there was no evidence to be found at the crime scene connecting the five boys to the crime. Therefore, under these circumstances, the law is not being upheld. It can be said that even though improper interrogation tactics are prohibited, they still do take