Confession Had His Signature; DNA Did Not

ETROIT, Aug. 23 — Eighteen years ago, Eddie Joe Lloyd confessed in horrific detail to the rape and murder of 16-year-old Michelle Jackson, solving a case that had terrified this city after a wave of fatal child abductions in the area.

Mr. Lloyd's account, in a six-page statement and an audiotape, was chillingly accurate. It described Michelle's Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and half-moon earrings, the red-handled knife used to threaten her, the long johns that strangled her, the dirty green bottle left in her rectum. The only false thing about the confession was the confession itself.

At a hearing on Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys will appear together before the judge who sentenced Mr. Lloyd to life in prison in 1985, lamenting as he did so Michigan's lack of the death penalty. They plan to present DNA evidence to show that Mr. Lloyd is the wrong man and request his release.

Mr. Lloyd, who was in a mental hospital at the time of his arrest and had contacted the police about Michelle's case, has maintained since his conviction that the confession was a ruse he cooked up with the detective to smoke out the real killer.

"I knew the statement was false, and he knew the statement was false," Mr. Lloyd, 54, said in an interview at the downtown jail where he is spending his final days of confinement. "I was trying to help. I was thoroughly tricked. Inveigled, enticed, tricked. Sometimes the pressures on you to sign a statement is not them twisting your arm. It can be psychological and mental."

Mr. Lloyd's exoneration — the 110th nationally based on DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project at the Cardozo School of Law in New York — occurs as federal investigators continue their inquiry into whether the Detroit Police Department systematically violated civil rights laws. The inquiry is focusing on excessive force, prisoner deaths and the widespread detention of witnesses but includes at least one other case of a confession.

It also highlights the growing concern over false confessions, which have played a role in about 20 percent of the DNA exonerations. The question of coercion is a central focus of efforts to change the criminal justice system, like the Innocence Protection Act pending in Congress, which calls for all interrogations of suspects to be videotaped. Videotaping is now required in just two states, Alaska and Minnesota.

"When the police believe somebody's guilty, they conduct a particularly aggressive investigation — they make the person look guilty," said Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at Williams College who has studied false confessions for 15 years. "The question you need to ask in these cases is: Did the suspect produce anything in that statement that the cops didn't already know? If not, you have to wonder."

Barry C. Scheck, the co-director of the Innocence Project and Mr. Lloyd's lawyer, said that the detective in the case, Thomas De Galan, should be criminally prosecuted. Mr. Scheck also called for misconduct investigations into William Rice, the sergeant who oversaw the case, and the prosecutor, Timothy Kenny, because biological evidence available at the time that could have cleared Mr. Lloyd was never pursued.

"This cop had to know, he had to know, that he was feeding a paranoid schizophrenic guy, a guy with a mental disorder, in a mental institution, facts in order to clear a major homicide so everybody could look good," Mr. Scheck said. "If you permit this kind of questioning, you're going to end up not just with innocent people in jail but the real perpetrators still out there."

Mr. De Galan, who retired in 1998 after 28 years on the job, declined to discuss the case. Mr. Rice, now an inspector, referred calls to a police spokeswoman, Deputy Chief Tara Dunlop, who said she did not believe the confession was coerced or that the department had a systemic problem with false confessions.

"I'm sure if something unjust happened it will be discovered," Chief Dunlop said.

Mr. Kenny, now a chief judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court, said the exoneration made the case "baffling" but denied any misconduct.

"There was certainly no withholding of any evidence by any means," Judge Kenny said. "Certainly it is appropriate to find out exactly what happened in regards to the death of this particular woman and in terms of the investigation that took place."

Michelle Jackson, an honor student, disappeared before dawn from a bus stop on the snowy morning of Jan. 24, 1984. When she did not come home, neighbors organized a search and found her strangled, mangled body in an abandoned garage. Months passed with no arrest.

That fall, Mr. Lloyd, who had written copious letters to the police, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the Jackson file. He said he had overheard someone at a party store mention a bottle, a detail that had not been released to the public but may have been known to those in the search party. Detective De Galan had three interviews at the mental hospital with Mr. Lloyd, who had been involuntarily committed there for evaluation after a violent dispute with a clerk in a welfare office a few weeks earlier.

"He provided me with quite a bit of information about the case," Mr. Lloyd recalled. "He said, `What kind of jeans was she wearing?' I said, `I don't know.' He said, `What kind do you think?' I said, `Jordache.' He said, `No, Gloria Vanderbilt.' "

Mr. Lloyd said Mr. De Galan similarly provided the date of the crime, and guided him through a sketch of the garage, among other details. "The emphasis was on, `You want to help us, right?' " he said. "I said, `Sure, I want to help any way I can.' "

The lurid confession was released with great fanfare, and the jury deliberated less than half an hour. Upon his conviction, Mr. Lloyd shouted: "God be with you, Michelle Jackson, God be with us all. I'll be back."

Mr. Lloyd, who suffers from an enlarged prostate and uses a cane because of surgery to bypass arterial blockages in his leg, first wrote to Mr. Scheck in 1995, after seeing him discuss DNA on "Donahue."

Most of the police files had disappeared, but the long johns used in the strangulation survived. DNA tests showed that the semen stains on them — as well as on the green bottle and a piece of paper attached to the bottle — could not have come from Mr. Lloyd. The police later found slides with more samples and retested them. Not him.

"That's God's signature," Mr. Lloyd said. "God's signature is never a forgery."

Michael E. Duggan, the Wayne County prosecutor, who plans to argue the motion for Mr. Lloyd's release personally, said the case was a fluke.

"We don't think the police were unreasonable in concluding that he did it," Mr. Duggan said, noting the good reputations of all involved. "I don't think even his defense attorney believed he was innocent."

On Thursday, Mr. Lloyd signed a consent form in hopes of enrollment in a county program that provides mentally ill homeless people with apartments and therapy, and discussed with Mr. Scheck which talk shows they might appear on. He told his lawyer his collar size, 15 1/2, and his shoe size, 9 1/2, so he would have something to wear on his release. "What about loafers?" he suggested. "With some tassels on them, in black."

Meanwhile, Michelle Jackson's murder has been reopened by the prosecutor's second-shot task force. The DNA evidence does not match anyone in the F.B.I. database.

More government corruption.

Truth in Justice ~~~ "Truth in Justice is a non-profit organization working to free wholly innocent men and women convicted of crimes they did not commit, and to prevent wrongful convictions by educating the public regarding the vulnerabilities in the U. S. criminal justice system that make these miscarriages possible."

The world’s least-free country

Saw this poor specimen on O'Reilly tonight. The lights are on but no one's home. If he hadn't been in jail he should have spent the time in an institution getting the help he so clearly needs.
In systems and processes created by the hand and mind of man, mistakes, and the ability to make them, will always be part of the equation. If we waited for perfection, Abel's murder would be Numero Uno in the old Cold Case File.

"The question you need to ask in these cases is: Did the suspect produce anything in that statement that the cops didn't already know? If not, you have to wonder."

This is a compelling statement.

It is my opinion that any man or woman can be broken when in custody and will sign false confessions, assuming the state is so inclined, evil and corrupt to do so.

I saw bits and pieces of this story last night on TV. Too bad it gets only 5 minutes air time.

>I can't lose any sleep over this case. If you sign a confession, you deserve to go to prison.

Deception seems to be the name of the game. Many of the Jews in WWII Germany just thought they were going to take a nice shower. A person can be deceived by evil men and that doesn't make the victim evil. Mt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. One can also be deceived into not caring for mankind. That was the condition of Sodom and Gomorrah -- not just that the practiced sodomy, but that she strengthened not the hand of the poor and needy, i.e. didn't help and didn't care. Just like many in America today. G~d apparently considers that a great evil because he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

Fulness of bread is similar to rich and increased with goods here*:

Re 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods*, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

There's a fire coming.

"Saw this poor specimen on O'Reilly tonight. "

O'Really has gone bonkers. His attitude is that, "if a guy has been accused and there is one shread of circumstantial evidence, well sir, that is it. GUILTY! And if you defend him, you are a sleaze."

And, he uses the most flawed logic I have ever heard from an adult. Last night he stated that anyone who disputed that he held a pen in his had (showing what appeared to be a pen) was nuts and he would walk out of the room.

Well, my friends, I have a writing instrument that I challenge you to identify. Is it a pen? Pencil? Palm Pilot stylus...? Pick one... two!

No matter how you answer, I will guarantee to prove you wrong. You see, it is all three. It depends purely on how I hold it when I press the plunger.

Things are not always what they seem.

I sent this challenge to Bill O. He has not, and will not, respond. You see, he hates to be PROVEN wrong.

>Some people, including the judge who was the prosecutor, should go to jail over this.

You are correct, however, evil seems to have the upper hand in the country now and more innocent people are being arrested regularly.

"And will you profane Me among My people…
killing people who should not die,
and keeping people alive who should not live…?"
Ezek. 13:19

The same verse in KJB is:

Eze 13:19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

The same principle would be:

sending people to prison who should not be there,
and keeping people out of prison who should not be released…?"

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

>O'Really has gone bonkers. His attitude is that, "if a guy has been accused and there is one shread of circumstantial evidence, well sir, that is it. GUILTY! And if you defend him, you are a sleaze." .....No matter how you answer, I will guarantee to prove you wrong.

Excellent. You are right on all points. Truth has fallen the street, and the presumption of innocence with it. People are tried in the media and forums and polls are used not to measure opinion, but to twist it and profile people.

>we don't hear that DNA testing was inaccurate and as a result many guilty criminals were mistakenly set free.

It is rarely wrong to err on the side of grace. What we see today is convicted murderers and pedophiles let loose and innocent people falsely accused and jailed. "Justice" is that fine piece of truth that is missing because a government with an agenda can always twist the facts to fit that agenda.

The globalists have among their tactics, the idea to get people to accept and vote in tougher laws and penalties, like "three strikes and you're out" laws. The trouble is, those laws can be used against you in the future.

One can also be deceived into not caring for mankind. That was the condition of Sodom and Gomorrah -- not just that the practiced sodomy, but that she strengthened not the hand of the poor and needy, i.e. didn't help and didn't care. Just like many in America today

Frankly, I see it the other way around. America is the most giving country on the face of the earth and gives away countless millions upon billions in both taxes and charitable contributions to faces they never see and problems they never hear about. Always, someone has a hand out and America is there to put something of value in it: food, clothes, money, toys for kids, education (such as it is), a job... MONEY...

Do Americans receive ANY thanks for their trouble. You might get a homeless man to thank you for the dollar, but the vast majority think it's their entitlement and wonder in astonishment why there isn't any more. America poured it's heart out to the victims of 9/11 and what have you heard in the wake of all that charitable giving? Squabbling over the MILLIONS being given to each family and the hands out EXPECTING more. ANd lawyers to back them up!

I'll tell you, there is one precious-yet-renewable resource that is being burned away faster than it can be restored: a kind and charitable heart.

Sodom and Gomorrah may have fallen because the hearts of it's wealthy were hard, but America may yet fall because the hearts of her "poor" were even harder. They have milk and honey running out their mouths and have the audacity to complain that their bellies hurt because they aren't full enough.

It is my opinion that any man or woman can be broken when in custody and will sign false confessions, assuming the state is so inclined, evil and corrupt to do so.

Fred, Monaco police held Ted Maher for three days in four-point restraint, catheterized, sleep-deprived, threatened with the torture and strip-searching and indefinite detention of his wife, and unspecified harm to their children, until he signed their prepared false confession in French which he does not read, write or speak.

I was given the Stockdale, In Love and War, by my step-son, an otherly-surnamed graduate of the USNA Class of '94, and in it I believe the Admiral states we all broke; the point was to immediately begin resisting again.

The business of coercing confessions is sheer evil.

It is rarely wrong to err on the side of grace. What we see today is convicted murderers and pedophiles let loose and innocent people falsely accused and jailed.

I wonder how "innocent" many of these DNA acquitted prisoners are.

I wonder how much they resembled model citizens before being locked up.

I strongly suspect that if the cops framed or railroaded any of those people into jail, the cops did so because it was the only way to get those turned-loose murderers and pedophiles you speak of off the streets for a while, because the courts keep setting them free.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.