Questions of wrongful convictions raised in 1997 Alaska murder

Hours after an Alaskan teenager was found dead by a Fairbanks roadside in 1997, two of his high-school classmates confessed to killing him. The supposed confession came as a result of intense police questioning. They implicated two other boys, and all four were convicted of the murder. Ten years later, however, their guilt remains a question. The two men who gave confessions have recanted, claiming their confessions were false. A four-part investigative series on the case by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and a journalism class concludes today with stories on false confessions nationwide overturned by DNA testing and the tactics used by police in interrogations.

Why credit claims of innocence from any inmate who has already confessed?

 Science not long ago delivered a three-letter answer: DNA.

Visit the interactive series website here

. (Fairbanks Daily Miner)

Read more about false confessions and DNA exonerations here

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