“Confessed Murderers” Cleared and Freed (Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania)
During 2003, at least three men with mental retardation who had confessed to murders were released after their confessions were discarded.
One was Timothy Brown, who reportedly has an IQ of 56. Brown was freed in May after spending nearly 12 years behind bars for the 1990 killing of a Broward County, Florida sheriff’s deputy. Brown’s confession was thrown out after a former jail guard admitted in February 2002 to killing the deputy. Brown claimed investigators encouraged him to waive his right to remain silent and put physical and psychological pressure on him to confess.”
After reading this article i found myself confussed on where I stand. On one hand the confession should be thrown out because we was taken advatage of by the police who did not give him an accomadations to his disability. On the other he should be help accountable just like eveyone else. There seems to be a very then line when it comes to crime and people living with disabilites. Should they be given privelage in the prsion system due to there disability? But we can not ignore the fact that he might not of fully understood what he was signing or saying when he was interviewed by the police after his arrest.
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