False Confessions

I recently read "The Rag and Bone Shop" by Robert Cormier and it makes me angry. Angry to the point of hatred. That may seem extreme for a short YA novel, but I hope any adult reader would have a similar reaction. That every YA reader would be totally horrified. When asked about it as he was writing it, Robert Cormier only replied, “Well, it has something to do with intimidation.” Boy! Does it ever!

"The Rag and Bone Shop" is a finely crafted, gripping tale of the abuse of power, chicanery and coercion. The murder of a 7-year-old girl is secondary to the story. Everything revolves around the police department’s ham-handed attempts to interrogate and force a confession from an innocent, young boy. That’s why this story fills me with anger—big time. Because it violates—with intent—every meaning of the Fifth Amendment and a suspect’s rights under Miranda as well as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s rulings under Commonwealth v. Juvenile, 389 Mass.128 (1983) with regard to juvenile suspects.

Robert Cormier got the idea and wrote the story sometime after finishing Frenchtown Summer (published 1999) and before his death in 2000. It takes place in Monument, a fictional Massachusetts’ town. The timeframe isn’t specified, so it must be presumed to be contemporary to when written. As such, the techniques used by the police department to keep a parent away from the interrogation of her 13-year-old son and those used by the lead interrogator to coerce the boy should not satisfy the most basic court scrutiny. Particularly galling is when the interrogator realizes the boy’s innocence he continues to push and pry for a false confession which he finally gets. The only reason this false confession isn’t used in court is because the real killer timely confesses. Yet that false confession ultimately destroys the boy and—though appropriately ruins the interrogator’s reputation—leaves me angry. Angry at a system that allows such abuse to happen.

"The Rag and Bone Shop" is a cautionary tale. Without obviously preaching, Robert Cormier makes every reader aware of how easily confessions can be manipulated and coerced—especially from the young and naive. Makes everyone realize the importance of knowing and fully understanding one’s rights. The police may say that “only guilty people need lawyers” but that isn’t true. False confessions still lead to convictions and imprisonment today. They destroy innocent lives and those that coerced them are rarely held accountable later.

Excerpt from “Interrogation Gone Bad: Juvenile False Confessions in the post-DNA Age”:
“A study of 340 exonerations since 1989 showed that 13% of adults in study falsely confessed but 42% of all juvenile wrongful convictions involved false confessions. The younger the defendant, the greater likelihood there is of a false confession. Gross et al found that of all juvenile wrongful convictions, 69% of the juveniles aged 12-15 falsely confessed compared to 25% of the 20 juveniles aged 16 and 17.” (https://www.nij.gov/topics/courts/ind...)

Excerpt from the Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog:
“In Massachusetts, if the juvenile is under 14 years of age, an interested adult must have been present during the interrogation. If over 14 years of age, the juvenile must have had a meaningful or genuine opportunity to consult with an interested adult. Finally, in all circumstances, there must have been a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of Miranda’s protections.” (https://www.bostoncriminaldefenselawy...)

See also: Commonwealth v. Juvenile, 389 Mass.128 (1983) (http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/389/38...)