Download This PaperA Perfect Storm: Young People, False Confessions & Prosecutorial Involvement
26 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2024
Date Written: December 12, 2024
Abstract
I am honored to be participating in this symposium on Dan Medwed’s excellent new book, Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison. In his book, Professor Medwed makes a very persuasive argument—using both data and compelling case stories, mostly from his own practice—that procedural hurdles to post-conviction relief are unjust. As Medwed notes, prosecutors are the most powerful players in the system, and prosecutorial misconduct is present in a very high number of exonerations, around forty percent. While Medwed flags wrongful convictions of young people, he does not explore many cases involving them, or go into much depth about why they are particularly vulnerable to wrongful convictions and why these wrongful convictions are especially problematic. Tragic high-profile examples abound, including the Exonerated (Central Park) Five. Drawing in part on my own experience representing young people in delinquency/criminal cases, I aim to build upon these themes—of potential prosecutorial accountability and of the wrongful convictions of young people—in my response to Barred.
We should be concerned about all wrongful convictions, and with the criminal system more broadly, as Medwed persuasively argues. Yet the wrongful conviction of young people is especially problematic for several reasons including that they are often prosecuted and punished for conduct that is not harmful and should not be criminal; that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that minors are less culpable, less deterrable, and more capable of rehabilitation than adults; and, that the racial disproportionality in the use of coercive and deceptive tactics, in false confessions, and in wrongful convictions is very high. Nonetheless, immense prosecutor and judicial discretion plus racialized tropes of “super predators” continue to drive these cases. I conclude by arguing that the prosecutorial obligation to “do justice” as well as oft-ignored recommendations to treat minors differently, give prosecutors heightened ethical obligations to young people. Building on Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, ABA ethical guidelines, and other best practices, I argue that prosecutors have an ethical mandate to limit interrogations and false confessions of young people, and thus to prevent some wrongful convictions.
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