Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
November 7, 2004
MILWAUKEE - When 14-year-old Jerrell signed a confession
to his role in an armed robbery, he had been questioned for nearly
six hours and his repeated requests to call his parents had been denied,
according to court records.
Jerrell's 2001 confession led to his conviction in Milwaukee County
Children's Court and more than a year behind bars. He later said it
was a false confession.
"I got the thought that maybe I should say it so I could go home,"
Jerrell said to a therapist before his trial.
On Tuesday, his attorney will ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to throw
out the confession and consider a much broader question: Should children
have the right to have a parent present while being interrogated by
police?
Police in Wisconsin are not required to treat children any differently
than adults when questioning them. One of the Milwaukee police detectives
who questioned Jerrell said during trial he never lets children call
their parents.
In a brief filed with the state Supreme Court in the case, the office
of Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager argues that Jerrell was perfectly
capable of understanding his Miranda rights. The eighth-grader had
a 3.6 grade-point average and had waived his Miranda rights twice
before.
The brief dismisses research showing juveniles aren't able to understand
their rights and says a debate about allowing parents to be present
during questioning should happen in the Legislature.
Jerrell's attorney and juvenile justice advocates around the country
argue that children are not mentally developed enough to understand
their right to an attorney and are more likely to make false confessions.
They want courts to require police to let a parent or other concerned
adult sit in on interrogations of those under 17, and that all interrogations
should be recorded.
In Wisconsin, children as young as 14 can be prosecuted as adults
for rape and drug dealing, among other felonies, and children as young
as 10 can be prosecuted as adults in some homicide cases.
Thirteen other states already have passed laws or court decisions
saying that children are entitled to have their parents present during
interrogations.
The state Supreme Court said in a 1974 case that although police are
not required to allow a parent to sit in on child interrogations,
their decision not to could cause the child's confession to be thrown
out in court, because it could be evidence of coercion.
But in practice, police in Wisconsin rarely allow children to call
their parents, attorneys said.
"I've never seen that happen," said Dave Zerwick, head of
the juvenile division of the Milwaukee County public defender's office.
Milwaukee attorney Robin Shellow said she has represented more than
100 children in criminal cases statewide and none of them had a parent
present during the interrogation.
Shellow said confessions are admitted in court even when police suggested
bad things would happen if the child didn't comply.
"You're going to be raped in an adult prison. You're never going
to go home again. Your mom will abandon you," Shellow said. "These
are all things that have been said to children. They're all legal."
Courts have usually said it is acceptable for police to reject a child's
request to see a parent, said Jerrell's attorney, Eileen Hirsch.
Jerrell told the therapist that police implied he could be imprisoned
for more than 60 years if he did not confess, according to court records.
Sgt. Ken Henning, a Milwaukee police spokesman, said police sometimes
allow parents to be present in the questioning of their child.
"If a kid is arrested for homicide, are the parents going to
be there? No. If the kid is picked up for sexual assault? Yes. It's
a case-by-case thing," Henning said.
He said teenagers are just as capable as adults of understanding their
Miranda rights.
"If you can read and write, you can understand," he said.
Jerrell's supporters cite a clinical study that found an overwhelming
majority of teenagers complied with a request to sign false confessions
when presented with false evidence of guilt.
"It's time for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to tackle the problem
of false juvenile confessions, so that the youth of the state are
protected," Hirsch said.
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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