ALBANY – Weeks after the state’s chief judge called for legislation requiring police to videotape interrogations as an antidote to wrongful convictions, an appellate panel in Albany has affirmed a murder conviction because a recorded confession showed that, despite defense allegations, authorities did not violate the defendant’s rights.
In People v. Thomas, 103008, the Appellate Division, Third Department, said that despite the fact that Troy authorities questioned Adrian Thomas about injuries to his 4-month-old over the span of more than nine hours and lied to the suspect repeatedly to elicit a confession, the tactics were not unlawful or coercive.
