Forced Into Ruin: Two Famous American False Confession Cases
Convictions fueled by coerced confessions ruined these supposed criminals’ lives.
Investigators are repeatedly warned to be thorough, the possibility of convicting the wrong criminals looming in front of them. Yet, our biases seep in. These two wrongful convictions were fueled by insensitivity and racism. These supposed criminals confessed to the crime, but the question is why did they confess to something they didn’t do? Whether the police and court should have believed those confessions? Or they should have known better?
The Central Park Five, 1989
Five black and Latino young men were wrongfully convicted in a brutal torture and rape case of a white woman in the New York Central Park on April 19, 1989. This case gained national attention, discussed in fearful, hushed whispers as every New Yorker couldn’t help but feel unsafe.
Even though Trisha Meili, the victim, survived, she couldn’t testify due to the amnesia caused by the trauma. The policeman who discovered her beaten body said:
