by TChris

A.M. was eleven years old in 1993 when Anna Gilvis, 84, was murdered in her Chicago apartment.

None of the boy's fingerprints were found in the home and a bloody palm print and a bloody shoe print could not be matched to the boy. No physical evidence linked him to the crime.

A.M. was charged with the murder a year later even though a blood trail suggested the 173-pound victim had been dragged from the kitchen to the bathroom. The boy was about 5 foot 1 and weighed 88 pounds at the time.

With no physical evidence connecting A.M. to a crime he probably couldn't have committed, why was he charged? Because he confessed, or so said Chicago Detective James Cassidy.

According to A.M., Cassidy yelled and swore at him, then promised that he could go home to his brother's birthday party if he would just tell the truth. Cassidy claimed that A.M. wasn't in custody, even though he was questioned in a police interrogation room, and that A.M. "spontaneously confessed" during the questioning.

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit -- ordinarily no friend to the accused -- concluded that an eleven year old with no prior criminal justice experience is "in custody" when he's questioned for two hours in a closed interrogation room with no access to a parent, lawyer, or way home. The court of appeals ordered expungement of A.M.'s conviction if he isn't given a new trial within 120 days.

The court was critical of the appellate courts in Illinois for failing to question Cassidy's account of the interrogation that led to A.M.'s alleged confession. Cassidy has a track record of getting innocent kids to confess.

In 1998, four years after Cassidy said A.M. had confessed, Cassidy said he obtained similar confessions from two boys, ages 7 and 8, in the investigation of the murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris.

The boys were later exonerated by DNA tests that were linked to Floyd Durr, who was charged with the murder and is awaiting trial.

In 2001, a Tribune review of 10 years of homicide cases in Cook County spotlighted numerous cases of alleged confessions improperly obtained from juveniles. Several of those cases involved Cassidy, who testified that juveniles spontaneously confessed to him outside the presence of a youth officer or parent.

Congratulations to Northwestern law professor Steve Drizin, who represented A.M. in the Seventh Circuit. Drizin hopes the decision will send a message to the police that children should not be interviewed as if they were adults.