Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder conviction on ground that his confession was involuntary, where: (1) defendant, as 16-year old of low intelligence, gave confession without presence of friendly adult over period of days, under circumstances where improper promises of leniency were made; (2) state court’s finding that instant confession was voluntary constituted unreasonable application of clearly established federal law, since it ignored totality of circumstances in assessing voluntariness of defendant’s confession and failed to apply “special circumstance” associated with juvenile confessions, such as juvenile’s age, experience, education, background, intelligence and capacity to understand Miranda warnings. Moreover, review of instant series of interrogations indicated that defendant changed his story on several occasions in effort to avoid conflict with his interrogators and to please them. (Dissent filed.)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Confession