'We'll give you the death penalty': How police 'forced innocent boy, 12, to confess to strangling his sister, 11'
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A 12-year-old boy found guilty of murdering his 11-year-old sister said he was forced to confess to the murder after hours of 'terrifying' police interrogation - although he had nothing to do with it.
Police suspected Thomas Cogdell, now 18, had strangled his sister at their Camden, Arkansas home after his shock at her death stunned him into silence. Hours later, he admitted he was to blame.
Although found guilty, Cogdell insists he had no part in her murder and was coerced into a confession. After two years in jail, he was released when a judge found he was unfairly questioned.
Distress: During interrogation, Thomas Cogdell, then 12, told police 36 times he did not murder his sister. He said when police turned off the recorder, he was pressured into confessing his 'guilt'
During questioning following the 2006 crime, the boy - an intelligent bookworm - told police 36 times he had had no part in the killing.
But when he asked for food, officers switched off the tape recorder. Three-and-a-half hours later they switched it on again - and Cogdell confessed to the murder.
They had allegedly used tactics such as threatening him with the death penalty. He was unaware a child cannot be sentenced to such a penalty.
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ShareHe eventually told police he had snapped because his sister was bossy and he put the bags over her head to teach her a lesson, The Commerical Appeal reported.
But in reality, he had made up the confession, believing that DNA evidence would clear him.
Police had told him they found a fingerprint on the plastic bags. He can be heard at the end of the recording whispering to his mother: 'I didn't do it. It's OK, Mom. They won't find my fingerprints.'
Murdered: Kaylee Cogdell, 11, was found dead on her bed with bags tied around her head. Her brother remained calm, which police saw as a sign of guilt
As it turned out, police were unable to read a clear print and the boy was found guilty of murdering his young sister as she slept.
'I was terrified,' Cogdell, now 18, said in a recent interview. 'They wouldn't believe me and they said they would give me the death penalty.'
The case is just the latest example fuelling the debate about whether police interrogations should be recorded.
In August 2006, Cogdell was awoken by his mother, Melody Jones. Together they found 11-year-old Kaylee sprawled on her bed.
Her head was covered with two Walmart bags, and she had been tied up with the family dog's lead and a measuring tape, The Commerical Appeal reported.
When his mother became too hysterical, he calmly called 911 and gave directions to their family home.
Police dragged him in for questioning, turning their attentions away from his mother, who Cogdell and his grandparents insist is guilty of the murder.
Melody Jones admitted to police she had repeatedly smacked her daughter the night before her death when she refused to come home as she had been told.
They ignored her confession that she was on Social Security disability due to mental illness, including bipolar disorder, and that she sometimes failed to take her medicine.
A video of the questioning show investigators repeatedly telling the boy: 'You or your mother did it.'
Although an unknown male's DNA was found on Kaylee, investigators ruled out the possibility of an intruder as there were no signs of a break in.
Interview: Cogdell's mother, Melody Jones, is treated more compassionately than her son during interrogation. Cogdell believes his mother, who had a history of mental illness, is guilty of killing Kaylee
Cogdell said when the recorder was off, he was told he could go home if he told investigators he was to blame and he'd go to jail if he didn't, according to The Commerical Appeal.
But in at least 36 recorded denials, he is heard pleading with police.
POLICE RECORDINGS: THE DEBATE
Eighteen states now require police to record interrogations – an issue that has been debated by federal law enforcement officials for several years.
FOR
The International Association of Chiefs of Police, based in Virginia, believes recording 'can help protect both the suspect(s) and interviewing officers against potential assertions of police coercion or related interrogation misconduct, and may increase the likelihood of successful prosecution.'
Tennessee Representative Vance Dennis sponsored a bill during the last legislative session to require the full recording of all interrogations, but the measure failed.
'The risk of wrongfully incarcerating someone for years and years and the risk of someone committing a heinous crime getting off ... justify recording every interrogation,' Dennis told the Commerical Appeal.
AGAINST
Eddie Bass led the charge in April that defeated the bill.
'You can have an individual there and you're doing things like you should and you've got him singing like a bird,' Bass said. 'And he asks: "Hey, am I being taped?" Well, if you answer 'yes,' to some of 'em, it's over. And maybe this is a child rapist.'
Others have argued that law enforcement can best decide when to record.
'I wouldn't kill my sister. I didn't do it, OK?,' he said. 'I didn't. I didn't kill my sister. Is there any way I can prove that to you?'
Crying, he offered to swear on a Bible or take a polygraph test.
One of the detectives asked: 'What are you crying for?'
He responded: 'Because you are accusing me of something I didn't do -- of killing my sister.'
When police left, Thomas let out shrill cries and said to himself: 'Why? ... I didn't do it, but they won't believe me. Help. I'm scared.'
He was eventually convicted of second-degree murder by a Ouachita County judge in March 2008.
The high court threw out the confession in 2010 - but on technical grounds as he had told police he didn't understand what it meant to waive his rights to remain silent and have an attorney with him.
He served two years in jail but has not been cleared.
'I lost my faith in the justice system,' Cogdell said. 'I don't believe in any of it anymore.'
Memphis defense attorney Gray Bartlett told The Commerical Appeal that police are often trained in the type of military tactics used in questioning suspected terrorists.
'It's so contrary to common sense,' he said of false confessions. 'But what happens in these interrogation rooms is that they break down people's will.'
Steve Drizin, a lawyer with the Center on Wrongful Conviction of Youth, said: 'The interrogation is one of the most riveting examples of psychological torture I have ever seen.'
But prosecuting attorney Robin Carroll to the Appeal: 'No evidence or court holding has been forthcoming to cause my office to doubt anything done in the case, or its basis.'
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