{"id":4076,"date":"2003-11-05T15:30:22","date_gmt":"2003-11-05T20:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:17:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:17:54","slug":"illinois-man-innocent-of-armed-robbery-failed-lie-detector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/illinois-man-innocent-of-armed-robbery-failed-lie-detector\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Man, Innocent of Armed Robbery, Failed Lie Detector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Daily Herald<\/em> Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski reports on the case of Kevin Liszka in an article titled, &#8220;&#8216;The perfect mark.'&#8221; Excerpt: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>As Kevin Liszka sat in a police department holding cell for three days, he remained confident authorities would realize they had the wrong man.<\/p><p>Instead, police hauled Liszka off to the DuPage County jail on the fourth day after a trail of evidence, including witness identification, led back to him.<\/p><p>&#8220;I just started crying,&#8221; the Bolingbrook man said. &#8220;I said, &#8216;You&#8217;re all wrong. You guys are making a big mistake.'&#8221;<\/p><p>Police said Liszka was one of three assailants who burglarized a city official&#8217;s residence in Warrenville in a violent home invasion that involved rape. The crime shook the close-knit community to its core.<\/p><p>From the onset, the 20-year-old man proclaimed his innocence. Forty-two days later, prosecutors confirmed he had been telling the truth. They cleared Liszka after charging the final of three suspects.<\/p><p>The case is just one example of the fallibility of the criminal justice system &#8212; a system in which innocent people are sometimes caught in the middle. It also is the reason eyewitness testimony, long a trusted fixture in the courtroom, has come under increasing attack.<\/p><p>Liszka, though, had a lot more than mistaken identity working against him. A pizza delivery, police sketch, failed lie-detector test and a shaky reputation with police also played a role.<\/p><p>&#8230;<\/p><p>Liszka said he understands why innocent people confess. The interrogations, at times, grew heated. At one point, authorities warned they were giving him one last chance to come clean.<\/p><p>&#8220;They told me if there&#8217;s no deal now, there will never be one,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At that point, considering I was facing 40 years in prison, I was almost thinking about admitting to something I didn&#8217;t do.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski reports on the case of Kevin Liszka in an article titled, &#8220;&#8216;The perfect mark.&#8217;&#8221; Excerpt: As Kevin Liszka sat in a police department holding cell for three days, he remained confident authorities would realize they had the wrong man. Instead, police hauled Liszka off to the DuPage County &#8230; <a title=\"Illinois Man, Innocent of Armed Robbery, Failed Lie Detector\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/illinois-man-innocent-of-armed-robbery-failed-lie-detector\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Illinois Man, Innocent of Armed Robbery, Failed Lie Detector\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[365,191],"class_list":["post-4076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-polygraph","tag-illinois","tag-interrogation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Illinois Man, Innocent of Armed Robbery, Failed Lie Detector<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/illinois-man-innocent-of-armed-robbery-failed-lie-detector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois Man, Innocent of Armed Robbery, Failed Lie Detector\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski reports on the case of Kevin Liszka in an article titled, &#8220;&#8216;The perfect mark.&#039;&#8221; Excerpt: As Kevin Liszka sat in a police department holding cell for three days, he remained confident authorities would realize they had the wrong man. 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