On Monday, 2 July 2007, Westchester County, New York District Attorney Janet DiFiore released a Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic (232 kb PDF). In 1989, Deskovic, then a highschool student, falsely confessed to the rape and murder of classmate Angela Correa following a (wrongly) failed polygraph examination. New York television station WABC’s Eyewitness News program summarizes the report in “Scathing Report into Man Wrongly Convicted”:
(New York – WABC, July 2, 2007) – He spent 16 years in prison for a rape and murder he didn’t commit. Now there’s a blistering report about the improper conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic.
The Westchester DA, which originally handled the case, called its own investigation of the crime “a miscarriage of justice.”
Eyewitness News reporter Marcus Solis has more.
How could an innocent man spend half his life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit? Jeffrey Deskovic was 17 when he was convicted of killing Angela Correa, a classmate. Peekskill Police said Deskovic knew details about the investigation only the killer could know.
Today, a report found police developed tunnel vision, focusing soley on Deskovic and no other suspects; that investigators relied too heavily on a criminal profile provided by the NYPD and that detectives recorded only select interrogations, and not the eight-hour polygraph exam which ended with the teenager confessing to the crime.
The report claims Deskovic received shoddy defense from the Legal Aid Society. Prosecutors were faulted for presenting the case to the grand jury before getting DNA results that ruled Deskovic out.
At trial, prosecutors ignored the DNA evidence and offered alternate theories for the killing, and key pieces of evidence, including the victim’s clothes were lost.
Former DA Jeanine Pirro was criticized for not responding to Deskovic’s pleas to have the DNA retested. Her successor did just that. The result was a match and a confession from Steven Cunningham, the real killer.
For his part, Deskovic disagrees with the report’s conclusion that although mistakes were made, there was no bad faith involved.
The report states DNA should trump a confession. It didn’t in this case. The DA promises a similar case today would be handled differently.
A video report is available with the WABC on-line story. For discussion of the district attorney’s report, see Anatomy of a False Confession: Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic on the AntiPolygraph.org message board.
This kid made a lot of stupid mistakes that got him here, but I always feel that DAs are looking to win a case rather than convict the right person. As a DA you should want to make sure that the person you are trying is the right person.
The kid made mistakes he shouldn’t have been given an opportunity to make.
His parents must have given the police permission to interrogate him. The police took advantage of a minor who had no one looking out for him.