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CCA orders Yogurt Shop retrial based on possibility of false confessions

In grudging deference to the US Supreme Court's decision in Crawford requiring that defendants have the right to confront witnesses against them in court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out one of the disputed convictions in Austin's infamous 1991 "Yogurt shop murders," a horrific case involving the murder of four teenage girls. The US Supreme Court refused the state's appeal, so the case must be retried or Springsteen released.The 5-4 ruling at the CCA broke along familiar lines in this sharply divided court: Judge Keller wrote the dissent and Paul Womack wrote the majority opinion. Both are good reads (as such documents go) and provide much more background for those interested.The debate boiled down to whether the judges feel false confessions are possible when not overtly coerced and whether they agree it's possible that information from the crime scene was leaked...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).