WEBVTT - Episode 4: The Snitch 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.280 David Toles had always been a huge mystery for Lee Harris. 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:09.600 During the trial back in nineteen ninety two, Tolls had 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.440 been brought out as a last minute witness by the prosecution, 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:17.200 and his testimony was earth shattering. He tells the jury 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.200 that over a game of prison Blackjack, Lee had told 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.000 him all about the Danea Fightler attack. Lee had bragged 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.120 about wanting to have sex with Dana that summer night 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.200 back in eighty nine, and when she refused, he had 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.120 pulled her into an alleyway and shot her in the 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:38.120 back of the head. In other words, Lee Harris had 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.839 confessed it was like a bomb went off in that courtroom, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.040 but the only casualty was Lee, who had said he 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.320 had never seen the man before in his life. Even so, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.040 it was tolls His testimony that ultimately sealed Lee's fate. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.920 So when Robert first started looking into Lee's case in 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.800 two thousand and one, finding Tolls was his first order 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:04.320 of business, and that he did, tracking him down in 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:09.160 a Wisconsin prison, and in typical Robert fashion, direct to 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.279 the point, he wrote to Toles asking for the truth, 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.520 and to his surprise, he didn't just get a response, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.720 he received two pages worth. I know you won't ever 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.600 be able to forgive me for what happened, wrote Tolls. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.200 He had been just twenty four when this all happened, 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.679 and every year since had been pure hell. Robert had 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.800 hoped that he could get Tolls to open up more, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.920 and what started it as one letter morphed into many. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.039 They turned into phone calls, each more frantic, more apologetic. 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:41.959 But the crux of it all he alleged that the 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:46.720 police had made him testify against Lee. Robert and Lee 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.160 were floored Tolls could unlock everything for them, and for 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.800 a time it was looking that way. Toles was sending 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.840 vibes that he was ready to formally recant his testimony, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.360 but then ghosted them, leaving Robert and Lee with well 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:09.520 a whole bunch of nothing. The letters he had sent 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:14.919 were typed, unsigned and undated, meaningless in legal terms. For Lee, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.480 it was like another bomb going off, only this time 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.080 it also claimed Robert as well. Still, Lee clung to 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.639 the hope that Tolls his conscience would again get the 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.400 better of him and he would finish what he'd started 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.840 with Robert. Yet, whenever he checked in with the powers 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:32.680 that be to see if Tolls had come out of 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.600 the woodwork. They maintained nothing of that nature had ever 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:42.440 been recorded. Meanwhile, the years piled until twenty sixteen, That 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.240 is a whole fifteen years after Robert first made contact 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.919 with David Toles. Robert had just received another delivery of 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.160 Lee's old case paperwork and started making his way through 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.320 dozens upon dozens of files. He has no idea what 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.239 he's looking for or where to start. Then he sees it, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.359 a file name Tolls. He clicks on it, and there 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:11.000 it is, in black and white, a formal recantation done 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:15.120 in front of witnesses in two thousand and four. And 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.160 when Robert starts reading Tolls is erratic communication. First the 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:24.320 guilt and regret and then the vanishing act. It all 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:33.440 makes sense. iHeart podcasts. I'm Daks Devlin Ross and this 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:57.600 is Crying Wolf Episode four, The. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:05.240 Snitch prepaid collect call from an inmate. 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:12.200 Robert is pacing up and down chain smoking. He's waiting 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.360 to be connected to leave for their weekly check in. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.520 He's been waiting to tell him all about what he's 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.480 discovered for days. He's been fantasizing about how he's going 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.719 to tell him and how his friend will react. Finally 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:25.960 it's time. 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:27.680 You may stop the conversation. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.400 Now, I've had news to give you for almost a week. 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.400 My friend, Yeah, are you sitting down? 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:37.200 I'll click down. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:42.160 Remember in two thousand and four David Tolls Toll. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.560 He gets straight to the point that recantation from Tolls 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:47.000 it does exist. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:53.640 After all, the safe attorney recorded it. The whole thing 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:55.880 is on its way to you. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.719 It's recorded, so on, so on, so on. 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.040 Let me get ahead of you. He tells him that 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.200 he was taken down to a tunnel. He was showing 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.880 pictures of you. He was showing pictures of the victim. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.839 He was asked if he knew you. He was instructed 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.680 to get to know you. He practiced the story. What's 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.520 all in there? He even mentions my letters. He says, 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.400 I started hearing from people. He said, I want to 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.919 do the right thing. When I read this thing, I 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.080 start feeling sorry for David Tols. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.080 Robert quickly gets down to the tricky task of conveying 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.280 to Lee as much detail as possible about what he's found. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.320 There's thirty three pages worth of transcript in only thirty 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:37.440 minutes of call time. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:44.480 Interview with David Paul two thousand and four Norma in James, Wisconsin, and. 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.680 He sets the scene. It's two thousand and four Rock 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:52.520 County Jail, Wisconsin. Six people sit around at table. There's Tolls, 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.239 of course, and his attorneys, someone from the Cook County 0:05:55.360 --> 0:06:00.400 State's Attorney's office, and two investigators from the FBI. Robert 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.320 takes the role of David Toles, and he's taking it 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:04.479 seriously from there. 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:06.719 Holes Well, from what I remember, I was in mc 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.000 Cook County jail, and this was in nineteen eighty nine. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.760 Here's how it went down. It's nineteen eighty nine. Tolls 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.680 is in jail waiting to be processed for burglary when 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.280 he's approached by two plain closed police officers who take 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:20.800 him aside. 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:22.640 Yeah. I went to a room and I was sitting 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.479 in there by myself for a while, and then they came 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.799 up and showed me a photo. Rate Okay, who I remember? 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:33.120 The last name Keen and Zulie, the names I never forget. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.799 That's right, Sergeant Thomas Keene In one, Detective Richard Zulei 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.760 has sought out David Toles in jail. They put a 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.800 picture on the table to show him. It's of Lee Harris. 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.880 Have you ever known Lee Harris before, never seen him 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.960 before in my life. So how did you know? Was 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.280 Lee Harris by not in the end when they asked me, okay, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.320 at the time, he didn't know. I didn't know. 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.279 Robert is getting into it, taking on all the roles 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:58.159 of the people speaking. 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.960 I told him I didn't know him, and he said, well, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.360 you don't want to get to know. That's one of 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:04.360 exact words. 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.799 I remember him being Lee Harris of course, And who 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.680 exactly does Tolls? Thanks said this? 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:15.440 Which one said that the headache sat one. What's his name, Zulie? Yeah, 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.200 it could have been Zulie. 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.160 Slowly but surely, Tolls paints a picture of how it 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.920 all happened. First, the police beeed him a story about 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:26.400 the knight Dana Fitler was murdered. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.080 He said, look, this gotta look professional. So when you 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.000 get to where you're going, call this number. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.880 The number is a police precinct. He's to call with 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.080 some new information about the Fightler case. And if it 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.400 was going to look professional, it was going to take time. 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:41.520 So over a period of months, two. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.320 Other individuals from the rehearsal, and it's still in my. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.880 Head, Tolds claims. Keen and Zuli help him rehearse his story. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.400 And this is how they want tolls to say. It 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:56.600 went down okay. On the night of June eighteenth, nineteen 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.120 eighty nine, Lee Harris is up in the Gold Coast 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.080 with two other guys the sing. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.320 This woman had pulled her into a power and then 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.120 she had supposedly been twenty on her and they drove 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.320 her around with her and took her to a cash machine. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:10.160 When she couldn't get no more money. I think it 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.680 was somewhere around one hundred dollars which she got hour 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.720 or so whatever, they took her in and nailing Mister 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.760 Harris was supposed to try half spected her. When she refused, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:19.640 she shot her in her head. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.800 There it is Lee Harris, once a mere witness to 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.480 the crime, was now the main suspect, and his ultimate 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.440 motive was raping Dana. When she refused, he and he 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.840 alone murdered her in cold blood. That is the story 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.600 told says was fed to him by the police. And 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:42.200 there was more. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.400 It was more like they got for bragging about promotion. 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:46.319 How they was going to get promotion, How it was 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.480 gig now that they had a way of closing it, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.280 you know, Zuli and this other officer that was present 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:54.480 with him. They had me handcuffed to a chair while 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:56.120 they laughed and bragged about promotion. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.839 So, according to Toles, while he's handcuffed to a chair, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.240 Zulian companies celebrate their career come up. As for Tolls, 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.320 he alleges that he was to repeat this information at 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:08.720 trial or else. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:11.680 This is what I was rehearsed, saying that if I 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:13.800 didn't do it, that the ball would come back down 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:15.959 in my lap. I later had a gun called on 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.439 me by a policeman in Chicago, which spook me in. 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.080 After that, it was pressure put on me. I didn't 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.240 feel like nobody else I could tell he had my 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:24.520 life in the sands. 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.800 David Toles was starting to look a whole lot more 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.000 like a victim, like another lee. In fact, I. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.240 Didn't ask for none of this stuff that happened. I 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:37.960 didn't ask for it. I don't know why I did 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.600 it because it was my problem, and that's it. That's 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.520 as far as that's as much as I'm going to 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:42.880 read it. 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.679 Okay, thank you, though, do you feel. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.600 Like you feel like you just took a hundred pounds ship? 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:49.800 Oh? 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.559 Yeah, you don't even know you don't even know what you'reing. 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:58.520 Yet it's come full circle under persision. I know what 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.480 happened here, you know, I know, I know it happened here. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.960 It's taken over twenty years, and now Lee finally understands 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.160 what the hell happened at the trial back in ninety 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.800 two where this so called confession of his came from. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.000 Who was behind it? And of all the people in 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.440 the world, it's his friend, the Sally he once evicted, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:22.880 who found it. 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.720 I've known Ai about just since Thursday, about seven o'clock 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.680 at night. Really, yeah, I've been going crazy. I've been 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.760 going in vain. I've been looking. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:41.400 Yeah, you ain't been amazing what I'm telling you all 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.360 the long. I've never talked to nobody. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.240 Yeah, No, You've been telling the truth. Man. Yeah, your goal. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.000 I'm so freaking excited. You have no idea. I mean, 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.320 for the first time, man, I really really feel like 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:57.960 we got. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:03.160 Some row, so much to talk about. But thirty minutes 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.160 goes by in a blink. When it's holding a lifetime 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:07.640 of questions. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:09.080 You have one minute left the. 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.960 Docking and streaking exist. If I've been waiting a week 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.560 to tell you about dying Wow, it's incredible. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.640 I'm a steady a double good nights. Wee. 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:24.280 Wow, you're not gonna sleep, You're gonna think about I'm 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:28.320 gonna Oh yeah, yeah, well I I. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:30.280 Strike it. 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.760 Oh, I mean it's it's true. Man, You're not yelty. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:33.720 You're not yelty. 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:34.200 Wow. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:36.040 So I mean. 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:49.040 Thank you for using the curis goodbye. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.320 In order to understand why Tolls might have been as 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.280 scared as he was, to understand how Lee came to 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.200 give twenty two witness statements, yeah, to look beyond Detective 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.840 Zuli to what was happening to black men and police 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.240 precincts across Chicago at the time. It's one of American 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:12.120 law enforcement's ugliest chapters. It's a narrow that few outside 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.600 of Chicago and below a certain age even know exists, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.280 and one that those old enough to remember have likely 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.760 wiped from their memories. To really make sense of it 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.840 and put it into context, I needed to speak to 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.040 someone who both knew all about Lee and had a 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:38.080 lot of experience in this world. I meet the Chicago 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:43.160 Criminal Justice Royalty and her cat Sonya Sodo Mayor named 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.320 for the badass Supreme Court justice in her stunning twenty 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.800 seventh floor apartment with jaw dropping and somewhat vertigo inducing 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:53.080 views of Lake Michigan. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.760 Oh the views. I love it. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.959 So please come have a seat anywhere you know, make 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:05.280 yourselves at home. Okay, my name is Andrea Lyon, and 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.480 I'm a criminal defense lawyer. I'll start by dating myself. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.480 I am the first woman in the United States to 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.160 ever try a death penalty case. So I'll tell you 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.920 how old I am. I've been practicing almost forty eight 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.359 years now. Like I said, it's almost forty nine. 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.760 Andrea earned the nickname the Angel of Death Row for 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:28.319 her trailblazing work overturning death penalty convictions. She was also 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.880 the first woman to serve as lead attorney in a 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:35.360 capital case. Across her illustrious career as a defense attorney, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.320 law school dean professor, and author, she has been a 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.720 fierce and unapologetic champion for those in the margins, challenging 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.240 a legal system that too often devours those without a voice. 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.720 Back in nineteen eighty nine, she was the chief of 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.560 the Homicide Task Force at the Cook County Public Defenders Office. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.480 In other words, anyone accused of a murderer in Chicago 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.880 who could not afford a law would beginning to know her. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.480 So when newsbroke of Dana Phitler's murder, her intuition and 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.920 experience told her to get ready. The crime was shocking, 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.360 and she sympathized with the Fightler family, but her job 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.560 was to also think about who would be accused and 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.880 how they were going to be treated guilty or not. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:27.640 I mean, it's the quintessential death ponly case, right, you know, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:35.360 white girl, gold Coast, young attractive black males scene with her. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:37.200 I mean, as soon as I saw it, I'm. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:38.080 Like, fuck me. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.200 You know, it's going to be bad. If they catch someone, 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:43.240 it's gonna be terrible. 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.520 Andrea was under no illusions the media was poised to 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.840 pounce on a classic race trope. 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:51.960 The only way it would have died down as a 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.040 story would be if it turned out that it was 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.200 her white boyfriend who killed her. Then it would have 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.200 died away. Why you say that, because then there's no 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.400 racial angle to it, and it isn't something that's titillating 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.680 to the public that you can frighten them with. Frightening 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:11.520 people gets you headlines. Frightening people allows you to manipulate them. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.240 Andrea's crystal ball is spot on. A couple of months 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.360 down the line, Lee is arrested and the case lands 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.600 in her lap. Sure enough, the city is pushing for 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.040 the death penalty, and she knows the case is going 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.320 to be tough, so she selects one of her finest, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.600 Shelby Prussak, as lead counsel on the case. And because 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.560 this is the kind of woman she is, she uses 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.600 her vacation time to join Shelby in court for some 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:44.240 added firepower. The trial starts in nineteen ninety two, over 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.240 two years after Lee's initial arrest in purp Walk, in 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.760 front of all the media. It begins with the win 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.520 of sorts. The judge rules there's reasonable doubt and lifts 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.840 the death penalty for Lee Harris. But then out of nowhere, 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:03.040 the prosecution drops its bombshell confession from Lee via their witness, 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.920 one David Toles. 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:11.760 The Tolls jailhouse snitch testimony got revealed to us either 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.760 right before or even maybe even during trial. I don't remember. 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:16.920 It was very very close to when we tried the 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:18.160 case that I do remember. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:24.680 The prosecutor leans all the way into the confession, dramatically 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.600 comparing Lee to the Murderous Narrator and Edgar Allen Poe's 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.960 The Telltale Heart. He paints a picture for the jury 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.320 of Lee hearing Fightler's heartbeat getting louder each time he 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:40.720 spoke with the police, boom boom, boom, until his guilty 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.920 conscience became unbearable and made him confess to Tolls. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.840 This is what they do when they think they might 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.360 lose a case. We believed that he was an informant. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.960 We asked about that. They denied it. That was a lie. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:03.440 And you know he put the lid on the case 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:03.840 for them. 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.240 Right. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.520 See, here's the beautiful and twisted power of a confession. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.520 It's the silver bullet. That silence is all doubt, And 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.000 if you're a police officer, it will save you a 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:20.080 whole bunch of actual boots on the ground. Sorry, honey, 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.240 I'm working laid again. Detective work. 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.479 Confession is the easiest way to clear a case. You 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.919 get promotions based on your clearance record, you get bonuses 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.280 based on that, you get publicity based on that. Your 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:39.280 fellow police officers admire it. You know, there's a culture 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:44.080 in the Chicago Police Department that encourages closing cases in 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:44.639 this way. 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.919 Closing a case. It all sounds so unthreatening, but trust me, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:56.080 it's not ever heard of the name John Burge. I 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:57.679 wish I could tell you he was a made up 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.320 character from a slasher flick, but he was a very 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.280 real and very sick man who once led a terror 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.680 ring against black people across Chicago. Burge was a Vietnam 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.639 combat vet who joined the Chicago Police Department following his 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.520 discharge from the army in the nineteen seventies. From that 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.200 point onward, he and many under his command tortured hundreds 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:23.119 of confessions out of black men, using brutal interrogation tactics 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:29.920 like Russian Roulette, suffocation, and racialized psychological abuse, tactics believed 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:33.760 to have been learned during his time at war. Back 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.919 in my investigative reporting days, I learned about Birge and 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.720 his Midnight crew by way of the harrowing stories his 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.280 victims told their lawyers at the People's Law Office in Chicago. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.240 Burgs was eventually caught and prosecuted, though not for his 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.919 abuses for lying under oath, But even after he was 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.200 removed from the force, the legacy of torture endured over 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.840 the years. In her line of work, Andrea has seen 0:18:58.880 --> 0:18:59.560 and heard it all. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.520 I had a case where my client, after they got 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:05.400 the confession from him, they had to put twenty seven 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:06.800 stitches in the back of his head and do an 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.760 operation on his testicles, and their explanation of how he 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.800 got his injuries was after he confessed, he fell down 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:17.800 the stairs, apparently hitting the back of his head and 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.719 his dick at the same time, which I think seems unlikely. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.320 Stories like this one, and there are hundreds, helped cement 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:32.200 Illinois's reputation as the false confession capital of America. According 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:37.560 to the National Registry of Exonerations, thirty percent thirty of 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:43.199 all US exonerations involving false confessions occurred in Illinois, and 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:47.639 the overwhelming majority of those cases happened in Chicago. In 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.960 almost every case, the accused asked the court to throw 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.720 out their confession, but the judge said no. The result 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.359 a system that either didn't care or didn't believe them, 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:02.720 and so the officers kept at it, some perhaps even 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:08.000 convincing themselves they were doing exactly what the system wanted. Today, 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.000 many of the victims of this perverse culture have found 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.359 a measure of justice millions of dollars have been paid 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.879 out in compensation to exanarees. But back in nineteen eighty nine, 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.560 when Lee Harris was in police custody, when David Toles 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:26.159 was being groomed as a snitch, people like John Burge 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.040 were still high ranking members of the Chicago Police Department. 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.679 Now, when all of these things about burg started to surface, finally, 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.600 instead of taking action, instead of looking at all of 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.560 his cases to see if they were false or not, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.720 they protected him. They defended him, They paid out judgments 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.919 and cases that he did. They didn't do what they 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.160 should have done, which was take them outside and tell 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.919 them we don't do this. I know it's harder to 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.480 clear a case without a confession, but so what. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.560 And then there's the very idea of confessing, who, in 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.040 their right mine admits to a murder they didn't commit 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.480 to most of us, it's unfathomable. But when that confession 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.960 is tied to a black person, young, poor, and already 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:14.480 criminalized in the public imagination, it suddenly becomes far easier 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:18.240 to understand why so many of these individuals were convicted. 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.080 The system didn't need proof, it just needed a believable story. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.840 There's a lot more public knowledge that there's such a 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.960 thing as a false confession now than there was in 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.840 nineteen eighty nine or nineteen ninety or nineteen ninety one, 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.840 when people thought, you know, they could pull my fingernails out. 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.600 I wouldn't confess, you know, I'm like, yeah, right, no, 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.520 you would. I mean, you go to Airy two violent 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:43.639 crimes at three in the morning. You're confessed to something 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:45.919 just to be on the safe side. It is a 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:50.560 very intimidating, frightening process. And you are very alone. And 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:52.400 I don't just mean physically alone. 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:54.280 I mean you are alone. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:22:00.439 You are against police officers, and once you start to 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.600 give them what they want, it's very hard to stop. 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:06.000 You mean hard for you to stop talking or hard 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:11.520 to stop the process both. The false confession phenomenon is 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.040 not just a case of some rogue officers turning sadistic 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:19.520 in pursuit of promotions. According to Andrea, it's a product 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.199 of the interrogation training that many police officers received. To 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:23.720 this day. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.680 The read method is taught to almost every police department 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:32.080 in the United States, and it tells you how to 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.479 coerce a confession. It tells you don't use realistic words 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:40.360 like rape or kill, say you know one thing led 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:45.399 to another, or you know you weren't seeing straight. It 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.399 tells them leave somebody in a room with nothing that 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.000 they can wear off their tension with. So not a 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.840 paper clip or a pen or anything. They're just there's 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:57.400 nothing there. 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:01.520 The method was first developed by John E. Reid in 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.280 the nineteen fifties. By the nineteen seventies, it had become 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:09.280 the go to interrogation approach in police departments across the 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:14.720 United States. It replaced the outdated third degree think suspects 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:19.919 being berated and confessing like an old cop movie's. Supporters 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:22.840 of the method say it's just good policing, but its 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:27.240 critics claim it's an express lane to false confessions, especially 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.879 from young people and people with mental health challenges. I 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:32.560 don't have to tell you which side of the isle 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:33.800 Andrea sitting on. 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:37.280