Convict gets chance to prove innocence
By Cynthia Levy, New Pittsburgh Courier
December 13, 2007
Daron Cox has been waiting 11 years to prove his innocence. While restrained, the then-18 year old confessed during a six-and-a-half-hour interrogation that he killed a Homewood teenager.
Last Wednesday, Judge Jeffrey A. Manning heard evidence during a Post-Conviction Relief hearing that said …
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Judge hears post-conviction appeal
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Gangland Violence Snares Cox, But Did Police Get the Right Man?
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Case Shows How A Questionable Confession Trumps Lies and Contradictions Every Time
By Cynthia Levy
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
PITTSBURGH -- In November 1996 when Brian Roberts, known as “Little B”, pointed a gun at a cop, he was arrested with that automatic weapon and 34 rocks of crack cocaine, but walked free after telling police the gun and drugs belonged to Roland …
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Western Pa. Case Issues Mirror National Trends
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Did they confess? No One Will Ever Know For Sure Because of Failures to Record All Custodial Interrogations
By Bill Moushey and Elizabeth Perry
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
Attorney Francis Sichko agreed to let state police polygraph 18-year-old Tiffany Pritchett in the middle of her 1994 murder trial because if she passed the test, Washington County’s prosecutor led him to …
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False Confessions: Da’ Ron Cox / Only evidence remaining against him is confession
September 1, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Friday, September 01, 2006
By Cynthia Levy, Special to the Post-Gazette
In November 1996 Brian Roberts pointed an automatic weapon at a police officer and was arrested. He was carrying 34 rocks of crack cocaine. He walked free after telling police the gun and drugs belonged to Roland Cephas.
Mr. Cephas was busted and vowed retaliation.
Ten days later, as Mr. Roberts stood on Sterrett …
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False Confessions: Three stories
September 1, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Second of two parts
Friday, September 01, 2006
A recently published study of overturned convictions between 1989 and 2003 found that 15 percent of them involved false confessions. Most resulted from police pressure, often on vulnerable suspects.
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University, which investigates allegations of wrongful convictions in partnership with the Pittsburgh …
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