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STATE OF LOUISIANA                                 * 40TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
EX REL                                                        * PARISH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
JOHN FRANCIS WILLE, Petitioner     * NO. 85-0225 "A"
VERSUS                                                       * STATE OF LOUISIANA
JOHN WHITLEY, Warden                             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 

                    PETITION FOR POSTCONVICTION RELIEF

    Mr. Wilte files this Petition for Post-Conviction Relief requesting that
this Court vacate his judgment of conviction for first degree murder and sentence
of death. This Petition is divided into the following sections. The first section
sets forth an introduction to the case, section two details the procedural
history, section three sets forth the facts supporting the claims for relief, and
section four presents the constitutional violations occurring in the prosecution
of Mr. Wille.
                                                         SECTION 1

                                                   INTRODUCTION

    John Francis Wille did not kill Nichole Lopatta, nor did he have anything to do with her abduction and death. He is innocent of the crime for which he is convicted and sentenced to death.  He walked into a charged courtroom, burdened with false confessions, missing access to critical information hidden by the state showing that it was physically impossible for him to have committed the
crime with a lawyer woefully inadequate for the job. Mr. Wille's last hope at trial was his lawyer.  However, his lawyer was sentenced by Judge Caire to represent Mr. Wille as a punishment for being convicted of federal felonies involving fraud and deception on government agencies. Not only that, his lawyer, a politician and businessman, had only tried two cases before a jury. One was a burglary, one was a personal injury suit.
    Things got worse. Shortly after trial began, his lawyer had what he describes as a nervous breakdown; finding himself on the floor of the Judges chambers crying uncontrollably and unable tocontinue. The judge, rather than granting a recess, ordered Mr.Wille's unprepared, young co-counsel to take over.

His conviction was a result of a no-holds-barred prosecutionthat fs not only reprehensible and
unethical, it is manifestlyunconstitutional. His confessions are false, procured by over-zealous law
enforcement officers who cared not for the truth--they were looking to solve the tragic crime of
Nichole's death.  The prosecutors bought these .confessions" hook, line and sinker. They, too, cared
nothing about the truth; to make matters worse,they hid evidence that would have exonerated Mr.
Wille.  This case is a miscarriage of justice and reversal is required.

Mr. Wille, at twenty-one years old, wanted to be somebody. He had been the scapegoat of his family,
suffering much abuse; hewanted attention. soon after his arrest he began talking wildlyabout various
murders he said he committed. As to most, thepolice were unconcerned, knowing them to be false, but
they soonlearned how to get Mr. Wille to say anything. Lt. Tom Perryremembers, "He's not saying
alot, but if you tell him something about a certain crime, he'll tell you about it." The tacticswere
standard issue: drugs, sleep deprivation, promises.

Mr. Wille comes before this court with a most seriousallegation, backed up by some of the world's
leading experts inthe psychology of false confessions.1

Aside from Mr. Wille's propensity to tell lies, theprosecution sealed his fate through a series of
intimidation ofwitnesses, deception, and coercion. The state had no evidenceinculpating him in this
crime except his word. There was noblood found in the car, and no forensic evidence linking him
toHichole's murder. Three key defense witnesses would havedevastated The state's case, but they
were not called to the
______________________

1Drs. Gudjonsson and MacKeith have set the pace in thisfield and have been invovled in such cases as the Guilford Fourand the Birmingham Six; cases in which convictions wsre procuredby false confessions, and later  reversed.


stand. One, an innocent bystander, would have shown that it wasabsolutely impossible for the Mr.
Wille to have committed themurders as he said he did, so the bysts-nder's identity, despitethe
prosecutor's obligation, was suppressed. Another witnesscould have positively placed Mr. Wille in
Milton, Florida on theafternoon Sichole was kidnapped, some 160 miles away, so lawenforcement
officers brought this witness into an interrogationroom for six hours in the middle of the night to
"convince" herthat her information was inaccurate. A third would havetestified that Billy Phillips and
Nichole Lopatta died ondifferent days, but trial counsel failed to call him to thestand. What is also
important here is that Billy Phillips, aparanoid schizophrenic with a history of self-mutilation, mayhave
cormnitted suicide. Certainly, he did not have wounds on hisbody consistent with anything Mr, Wille
said.

    If the crimes had happened as John Wille confessed, therewould have been blood all over the car;
there was none. If thecrimes had happened as John Wille confessed, Billy Phillips wouldhave bled to
death; but he drowned. If the crimes had happenedas John Wille alleged, he would have had to drive at
least 60miles, commithorrendous actB, stopping here and there, in alittle over a one hour period Of
time; physically impossible.

    An innocent man has been sentenced to death. Justice andthe law require reversal.

                                                         SECTION 2

Information Required by C.Cr.P. art. 926D

The 40th Judicial District Court of the Parish of St. Johnthe Baptist, Division "A", sitting in Edgard,
LouisiaNa ischallenged by this application for postconviction relief.

Petitioner was convicted by a jury on December 6, 1986, andsentenced to death on December 8, 1986.
He was convicted of onecount of first degree homicide, under La.R.S. 14:30. Be Blednot guilty and not
guilty by reason of insanity at arraignmentand trial.

Petitioner was represented at trial by George Oubre and Robert Beenel, who were both appointed by the court to represent him because of his indigency.
Petitioner did not testify at trial.

    Appeal of right was filed and the conviction and sentencewere conditionally affirmed at 559 So.2d
1321 (La. 1990).  Petitioner was represented by court appointed counsel, Michael S. Pawer and
Denise LeBoeuf, Michael S. Fawer PLC, 530 NatchezStreet, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 on direct
appeal. The casewas remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine if aconflict of interest existed
between petitioner and George Oubre,his trial counsel. At the remand hearing petitioner
wasrepresented by Robert Becnel and Barry Landry; the hearing,before the trial judge, found no
conflict existed.

    Petitioner's conviction and sentence of death were affizedat 595 So.2d 1149 (La. 1992). On
appeal from the evidentiaryhearing petitioner was represented by Robert Becnel.

    This is petitioner's first application for post-convictionrelief.

                                    STATE OF FACT SUPPORTING CLAIMS

                                                    INTRODUCTION

    The case against John Francis Wille is John Wille's word.  His confession to the murder of Nithole
Lopatta was the only substantive evidence introduced at his trial. That confessionwas obtained after
Judy Walters, his girlfriend and co-defendant(2), had given a number of statements implicating him in
the murder. His confession was obtained, using her statements,after he had confessed to other
murders, then retracted thoseconfessions. Nis confession is unreliable; it is untrue. JohnWille has been
convicted and condemned to death on his own word, and that word is false.

Judy Walters confessed to witnessing John Wills commit anumber of murders. Her confessions were
much lengthlet and more
______________________

2John Wille and Judy Walters were arrested within two daysof each other and charged with arson and burglary in Santa RosaCounty, Florida. They were co-defendants in that case.


elaborate than Petitioner's. She was convicted of the first degree murder of Nichole Lopatta and of
Billy Phillips, the hitchhiker who allegedly participated in Nichole's rape, abduction, and murder.(3) Her
confessions were obtained during weeks of interrogations conducted under illegal and coercive
conditions. The fact that she confessed to these murders, implicating John Wille, was told to Wille
during his own interrogation; facts "elicited" during her confessions were used to formulate leading
questions which appear in his statement.(4)  Walters's numerous confessions were coerced; they are
false.

    Sheila Walters, Judy Walters's daughter, was 13 years old at the time of Nichole Lopatta's murder.
She was interrogated for hours by law enforcement officers from the FBI and Jefferson Parish, with
no friendly adult or guardian present; she was told she could help her mother by corroborating her
mother's story.  She confessed to participating in the kidnapping of the child, and said that she
witnessed the murder of both Lopatta and Phillips.  Petitioner's jury was told by an FBI agent that
Sheila's statement agreed with Wille's confession. She took the stand at his trial briefly, only to refuse
to testify.  Her confession was not voluntary, and it is false.

    All three people recanted their confessions; they began recanting almost immediately. The reasons
that they confessed to murders they did not commit are different in each case. The evidence that
supports the claim that their confessions were false was never presented to Petitioner's jury. Much of
it the state failed to disclose to the defense, in violation of Petitioner's constitutional rights to a fair trial;
the evidence which was disclosed was not presented because the court appointed attorney, George
Oubre, failed to provide Petitioner with
___________________

3 State v. Walters, 514 So.2d 257 (La. App. 5th Cir. 1987),cert. denied, 523 So.2d 811 (La. 1988). Wille's false
confession admits to the killing of Billy Aden Phillips. He was indicted but never tried for that murder.

4"The law enforcement officers who questioned defendant had already obtained a detailed statement from Judith
Walters and were able to ask probing questions." 559 So.2d at 1327, n. 2.


minimally effective representation.

    This is a:case about three people who confessed to heinoustand horrific
crimes of which they were not guilty. There is agreat deal of evidence that these
three confessions areunreliable; there is much to explain why and how such a
thingcould happen. Petitioner requests a hearing before this court,so that he may
present this evidence and provide theseexplanations.

THE TRIAL OF JOHN FRANCIS WILLE (5)

    Jodee Loparia, last saw her daughter Nichole at about 4:30p.m. on June 2, 1985
at her home in the Tres Vidas apartmentcomplex in Jefferson Parish. T. 2093.6
After returning from arestaurant at about 6:00 p,m., Ms. Lopatta, discovered
thatNichole was missing and sent another daughter out to look forher. T. 2095. She
eventually called the police to report thatNithole was missing. T. 2096. A search
party was assembled, andafter an unsuccessful search of the immediate area of
thecomplex, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was called to ¯assist. T. 2100.

    The next day, FBI Special Agent VicHarvey was put in chargeof coordinating a
task force to search for the missing child. T. 2110.  Numerous interviews in the
complex were conducted, themedia was alerted and flyers were distributed. T.
2114. Thecase received extensive media coverage and "literally hundredsof" calls
were receivedby the task force with possibleIinformation about the girl's
disappearance. Id.

    Based upon this initial investigation, a prime suspect wasidentified; he was
a friend of Ms. Lopatta's named Gerardo Perez. T. 2117.  An extensive search was
conducted over the next fewdays involving numerous agencies and about 400
military personnel

    5The facts discussed in this section are adduced from thetrial record and from information that was
disclosed to Mr. Wille's counsel prior to trial. Numerous facts which suppressedfrom counsel at trial will
be discussed infra.

    6Citations to the record are as follows: "R. "is to therecord on appeal; "T. "is to the transcript of the
trial. 


and law enforcement officers. T. 2153.
    On June 6, 1985,' the body of a little girl was discovered by a citizen
walking through a wooded area near Interstate 55 and Highway 51, approximately
8 miles north of LaPlace. She was identified as Nichole through her
fingerprints. The following day, Dr. Paul McGarry performed an autopsy and
determined that the cause of death was strangulation. T. 2482, App. 21.

    Also on June 6th, a citizen discovered the body of an adult male floating
in the water under Interstate 55, about 2 miles from where Nichole's body was
located. Law enforcement officers determined that the bodies were unrelated
as the time of death of the two appeared to be different; it was determined
that the adult male, later identified as Billy Phillips, was dead a few days
before Nichole. Mr. Phillips as cause of death was determined to be drowning.
App. 22.

    Mr. Wille was represented at trial by a convicted felon,George Oubre, and
bya young, inexperienced lawyer, Robert Becnel. Mr. Oubre was in essence
sentenced to represent Mr. Wille; the trial court, Judge Walton Caire,
appointed him to thecase in order to fulfill probation conditions of his
felony sentence. Mr. Oubre had pled guilty to giving false statements to
banking institutions, fraud, received a fine and was ordered to perform 416
hours of community service. Mr. Oubre,s total trial experience prior to the
appointment consisted of two jury itrials (one criminal and one civil) and a
traffic case before a judge. He had never been involved in a capital case.?
With just 40 hours left to fulfill his felony sentence, Mr. Oubre was
appointed to this case.

    Mr. Oubre was well known in the community and the state. He had
represented the citizens of St. John, St. James, St. Charles, and Ascension
Parishes as a state senator, and had received about a half a million votes in
his race for attorney general. He was
_________________________________

    (7)Although Mr. Oubre was an assistant district attorney for eight years in the '60's he never tried a
case at that time andprimarily represented the Police Jury and various agencies in St. Charles Parish.
Hearing on Remand at 13. 


indicted on the federal felony charges the day after he returned from the
well-publicized Paris trip with then newly elected Governor Edwards. His
indictment and subsequent conviction received nationaI media attention and
was the subject of numerous stories locally. He assumed the role of lead
counsel.
    At the time of the appointment, Mr. Becnel had been a member of the bar for
18 months. He, too, had never been involved in a capital case.
    The sole direct evidence against Mr. Wille consisted of two statements he
had given on August 27, 1985 at the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department in
Milton, Florida. Circumstantial evidence presented by the state was the
testimony of a witness who in August, 1985, stated that she identified
photographs of Mr. Wille and Judy Walters as appearing in the Popeye's store
where she worked on June 2, 1985 at 8:00 p.m. She did not make an in-court
identification of Mr. Wille.
    The state also presented the hearsay testimony(8) of Vic Harvey who stated
that Mr. Wille's confession was fully corroborated by statements given by Ms.
Walters and her 14 yearold daughter, Sheila. Harvey stated that based upon
interrogations with Ms. Walters, the investigators were able to "Corroborate"
the alleged facts she told, T. 2137, and that Mr. Wille's statement was
"completely corroborated" by Sheila Walters. T. 2143. Harvey went so far as to
say "Mr. Wille's statement was sufficient that it could be cooperated in
almost every detail and it was cooperated in every detail capable of
cooberation.. (sic) T. 2192
    The only other evidence implicating Mr. Wille was a hair
found on Nichole's body that was "consistent" with his hair. The state's
forensic expert explained that his evidence was a very

    (8)Defense objection to Harvey's testimony was overruled bythe court, who erroneously stated, "Mr.
Harvey was present whenMrs. Walters did this. Therefore, he has the right to say what cMrs. Walters did in his
presence. If he were not present I wouldnot allow it. it would be hearsay." T. 2139. At another timethe court
stated, "Well, if [Harvey] spoke to the person, if hespoke to Mrs. Walters he can say that because that's
directevidence that he himself heard." T. 2145. 


limited value in inculpating Mr. wille because hair can only beused to exclude
a suspect. T. 2425.
    The state's witnesses testified that no forensic evidence was found
linking Mr, Wille or the car he was allegedly using to the murders of Nichole
or Billy Phillips. For example, the one fiber found on Nichole's body could be
linked to fibers found in the car, no blood or other body fluids of any
evidentiary value were found in the cars nor on any of the physical evidence
allegedly associated with the crime. T. 2174.
    Mr. Wille was not without a defense, however his lawyers were woefully
inadequate for the job and failed to call two key witnesses to trial. One
witness, Sandy Becker, would have testified that John Wille was at her house
in Milton, Florida on June 2nd in the early afternoon. App. 55. The other
witness would have established, as the coroner had initially believed,that
Billy Phillips had been dead for 2-3 days prior to Nichole's death. App. 15.
    However, even if his lawyers were able and competent, the state's
misconduct alone would have ensured a conviction.

             PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT -- EVIDENCE HIDDEN BY THE STATE

    The state possessed information that was exculpatory and favorable to Mr.
Wille's defense, yet it hid the evidence in order to stack the deck against
him. Even though Mr. Wille has yet to receive the 6,200 documents held by the
FBI, the complete St. John the Baptist Sheriff,s Office's files on Mr. Wille
and the various crimes the sheriff seems to believe he was involved in, and
the complete Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office's files on the investigation
into the kidnapping and murder of Nichole and the death of Billy Phillips,(10)
what Mr. Wiile has been able to
_________________________

    9The car was taken to the FBI lab in Washington for analysis. Print. 2172.

    10Undersigned counsel filed a public records act request with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
many months ago and received a small amount of documents. When undersigned counsel recently contacted the
office to make sure that all of the documents in its possession had been disclosed, they learned that about
900 documents were withheld.  However, the Sheriff's office now claims it cannot locate the missing
documents. 

 uncover thus far from law enforcement records is shocking.
    The information uncovered recently presents due process Violations under
the Brady doctrine. First, the prosecution knew or should have known that some
of the evidence is false, second,the prosecution knowingly presented evidence
or failed to correct evidence when it appeared that created a false
impression, and third, some of the evidence is favorable and/or exculpatory to
the defense. Mr. Wills presents the black letter law on these issues infra,
and shows that the state cannot now be heard to argue that the due process
violation is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, nor that there is not a
reasonable probability that confidence in the verdict is undermined.
    In sum, aside from the gross misconduct regarding coercing and
manufacturing confessions from Mr. Wills, Ms. Walters and young Sheila
Walters, discussed in detail in the sections following, the state failed to
disclose the following:
        -> Nichols was last seen at the apartment complex after7:00 p.m.;
        -> Danny Fredricks, a suspect and Billy Phillips roommate,also
           failed  a polygraph test after police found blood on his walls
           and a hacksaw in his possession;
        -> FBI Agent Vic Harvey, committed perjury, lied on the stand and
           gave testimony that created a falseimpression;
        -> A wealth of evidence that could have impeached many ofthe
           state's witnesses;
        -> The state found not one, but several (between five and
           twenty) fibers on Nichole's body;
        -> Mr. Wills and Judy Walters gave confessions that were
           verifiably false.
    The discussion must first begin with the fact that the state possessed
evidence that shows it was physically impossible for the crime to have taken
place as the state's proof suggests. The state's only direct evidence linking
Mr. Wills to this crime,i.e., his two statements admitted at trial, is
directly contradicted by the fact that Nichole was seen at the apartment complex after
7:00 p.m.
    Carley Treadway was interviewed on June 11, 1985. He seems to be the last
person to see Nichole at the apartment complex and gave critical information
to assist the task force in learning about Nichole,s disappearance. In this
interview, Treadway explains that Re saw Nichole at 7:00 p.m. at the complex's
pool. The pertinent portion of his interview discovered recently is as
follows:

        Q. O.K. when was the next time thac you saw her then?
        A. About 6, about 6:50.

        Q. About 6:50? Why would you say it was 6:50?
        A. Because that,s when we had to come in about 7:00. I had to
           go get them.

        Q. O.K.
        A. They checked in with my sister. I was swimming.

        Q. O.K. where, did you find them at 6:50 when you
           went to look for them or what?
        A. Uh, No, I didn,t find them until about, about 7,

        Q. Wait minute, let's back up a little bit? You
           stated more or less, it was 6:50 in the afternoon?
                A.  Yes

        Q. O.K. Mike Polit, your brother, told you to go look
           for the kids at around 6?
        A. Around 6:50.

        Q. About 6:S0 PM?
        A. Yea.

        Q. O.K. did he state why he wanted you to go look for the kids.
        A. Because it was late for them to be out.

        Q. Who was at the end of the sidewalk?
        A. It was Nichole, Pepper, Dawn and Kelly, listening
           to a little radio.

        Q. O.K. what time was this?
        A. It was 7:00.

        Q. How do you know it was 7:00?
        A. Cause when I got back it was 7:01, 7:0, getting to get on 7:02.

        Q. What you say, you found the kids by the pool?
        A. They were at the end of the sidewalk by the pool.

        Q- O.K. what happened at this time, what did you do?
        A. I brought the two kids home,  Pepper ran into the
           house and we stayed there the rest of the night.

        Q. What two kids you brought home?
        A. Pepper and Dawn.

                    Q. Pepper and Dawn. O.K. who did you leave at the
                        pool,  I say at the, more or less what they call
                        the breezeway where the kids were playing?
                   A.  I don't know, I think Nichole and Kelly might have
                        went home, and so, that was the last I
                        seen her, I stayed in the house.

                    Q.  O.K. when you brought Pepper home, you left, who
                          was left playing?
                    A. There was Nichole and Kel.

                    Q. Nichole and Kelly was left playing there?
                    A. Yea.

                    Q.  O.K. what time again you say was the next time
                           that you saw the girls?
                    A.  It was about 6:50 when I went look for them and
                          last seen them about 7:00.

                    Q.  That's when your brother told you to go look forthe kids?
                    A.  Yea, that's

                    Q.  In other words you hadn't seen the kids say
                          between 2:15 and say ten minutes to seven?
                    A.  I seen them before that when they checked in, and
                          that was it, cause I was swimming.

                    Q.  O.K. could you explain this to me? Could you tell
                          me, do you remember what type of clothing Nichole had on when
                          you left her by the pool at approximately 7:00, 6:50 you said?
                    A.  I don't remember her pants, but she had a light blue shirt on.

                    Q.  She had a light blue shirt? Anything else abou the shirt that you remember?
                    A.  It was like a T-shirt, something like a T-shirt, light blue.

                    Q.  O.K. do you remember anything else about her?
                    A.  I just glanced when I got the kids. I told them to come home and that was about it.

                    Q.  O.K. do you know anything about Nichole changing
                           any type of clothing, during this
                           particular time?  Did she borrow a shirt from
                           Pepper or one of her other friends?
                    A.  I don't know, I don't know that.

                    Q.  O.K. at 2:00 when they first went to get thecandy, did you, can you tell me
                          what type of clothing she had on at that particular time?

                    A. That was the shirt, a blue shirt.

                    Q.  O.K. that's the same Shirt that she had on at 7:00
                          that evening when you were, the
                          last time that you saw her, before they asked you to go look for her?
                    A.  Yes, sir.

App. 25. (sic passim).

    Treadway's knowledge was corroborated by his sister, Bonnie Polit. She was interviewed on June 5,
1985; the report states:  Ms. B. Polit advised Detective Biggs she learned from her brother, Michael, on the night Nithole disappeared, Carley Treadway, brother, went out to look  for Pepper and Dawn - her two (2) children at approximately 1845hrs., to no avail.  Approximately twenty (20) minutes later he again attempted to locate his nieces and found Pepper, Dawn, Nichole Lopatta and Kelly McElveen located by the pool listening to a radio.  Carly .physically took Pepper and Dawn home leaving Kelly and Nichole by the pool. On same day, Detective Biggs verified the above information with Carley Treadway and Michael Polit.

App. 25.

    Further corroboration that Treadway was out looking for his nieces near 7:00 p.m. was known
to the state through Nichole's mother. During a detailed statement on June 17, 1985, Jodee Lopatta
told Vic Harvey the following:

       SGT. TAFFARO: Getting back to the ah, we're now at about 7:00 P.M. - 7:10 P.M. around
       the [time]  this fifteen year old brother of Tara came looking forPepper and at the [same]
       time you're now looking for Nichole, wondering where she's at -
       JODEE:   Righti

App. 28.

    The great importance of this evidence is that it is completely inconsistent with the state's proof,
i.e., impossible to have been accomplished. The apartment complex is about 40 miles from the
where Nichole,s body was found. According to the state,s evidence, Mr. Wille and company lured
Nichole into the car in Terrytown, drove across the Mississippi River to a secluded area near
Interstate 55 and Highway 51 north of LaPlace, raped, sodomized and strangled the girl, stabbed
Phillips 82 times and cut off his hand, engaged in more sex, drove to another location to dispose of
Billy's body, drove to a gas station to change clothes and wash up, and then drove to Kenner and
ordered chicken at Popeye's at little after 8:00 p.m.
    At trial, state's witness Davis testified that persons resembling Mr. Wille and Ms. Walters came
into the store at "about seven, eight, several hours before we closed." T. 2460.ll
_________________________
 

11Debra Davis, the Popeye's employee called by the state,was interviewed in August, 1985. She first states that shebelieves Mr. Wille and Ms.
Walters came into the store "after 7,close to 8 o'clock.. When she is asked, "So, could it have beenafter 8 o'clock then since it was dark?" She replies,
"It couldhave been., App. 24.


 George Perez was a prime suspect who, as Harvey testified,¯ was probably checked out as
thoroughly as I've ever seen." R.  2117.12  Even though the "investigation focused on Mr. Wille
exclusively once we determined he committed the crime," (R. 2164,emphasis added), it is the province
of the fact finders, not the police, to determine who committed the crime. The state's suppression of
evidence that inculpated Perez prevented the defense from calling into question the state's
investigation,offering an alternative theory of who killed Nichole, and from performing an independent
investigation of Perez.
    George Perez was seen by Nichole and her sisters masturbating on the girls' bed. (It is unknown at
this time whether the state informed trial counsel of this.)
    Danny Fredericks lived with Billy Phillips. On June 28,1985, Fredericks agrees to take a lie detector
test, which was accomplished on July 2, 1985. On that date, Fredericks failed the polygraph, and "could
not give logical reason for failing test"  App. 26.  Jimmy Phillips, brother of Billy and roommate of
Fredericks, reports on July 2d that there is blood on the wall of their house and Fredericks "was hiding
a hacksaw on the backporch." Id.  Later that evening, the police seize the hacksaw ,and samples of the
blood on the wall.
    The state failed to disclose to the defense that one of  its key witnesses, FBI agent Vic Harvey,
committed perjury on the stand.  Prosecutor Daly was present when Harvey, under oath, testified
before the grand jury to things that differed from his trial testimony.
    At the grand jury hearing, Harvey states,  "[Nichole] was last seen by a responsible adult at
probably three-thirty in the afternoon."  Grand Jury Transcript 8.   Harvey knew this to be
_____________________

12Perez was given a polygraph test on June 11, 1985. Hefailed it. The questions that he responded "no" indicateddeception. They were: Did you see
Nichole the day shedisappeared; Did you cause Nichole's death; Do you know for surewho caused Nichole's deathf and Can you take me to where any
ofNichole,s missing clothes are. He admitted to having sex withjuveniles. This information was supplied to trial counsel.


alse; he was present when Nichole's mother was interviewed on June 17, 1985, when she told
him that she left Nichole at about, fifteen minutes to 5:00.' App. 24. He also knew that Matthew
Alan Breland saw Nichole at the pool between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on June 2nd, and that Carley
Treadway saw Nichole at 7:00 p.m.  However, it was not in the state's interest to present this
evidence to the grand jury because, even with the information that Nichole could have been taken
from the complex at 3:30 p.m.,one juror stated, "the time frames don't make much sense to me."
Grand Jury Transcript 63.
    In an apparent attempt to divert any questions regarding why the labs were unable to find any
evidence of blood or body fluids in the car, Harvey tells the grand jury that, "our guys in
Washington tell us if you get in the back seat of a car and it's a vinyl car, vinyl car seat, not
cloth, and you scrub it with tide and water you can just about get rid of all the evidence."
Grand Jury Transcript 57. What Harvey fails to tell the grand jury is that there were cloth covers
over the vinyl seats that were sent to Washington for analysis which revealed negative results.
App. 24.
    Harvey also states, contrary to known facts, that, .We know that they were not in Florida
where they said they were initially. We,ve talked to the people that they initially used for an alibi
and they said they were not there. We know the girl was not in school." Grand Jury transcript at
69.  First, Sandy Becker's affidavit belies this statement, App. 55, and, second, Sheila Walters was
in school on June 3rd. App. 18.
    Further, in order to divert any problems regarding inconsistencies of the statements and known
facts, Harvey makes up facts as if they were true. For example, he states, "But [the Popeye's
clerk] distinctly remembers he and she coming in and he getting those extra bags." Grand Jury
transcript at 62.  Debra Davis, the clerk, testified at trial and gave a pre-trial statement where in
she states that the man asked for a single bag.
T. 2454. Harvey headed up the investigation; he interrogated Mr. Wille.  He lied on the stand and the state knew it.

                         A.  Yes, 'sir. I either had the information related to me personally or
                                 by the persons who received it.

                          Q.  And did you receive any information, andinformation whatsoever
                                 which would have lessened Mr. Wille's culpability for these actions?
                          A.  Absolutely not.

                                  A   We did not interview Mr. Wille till the end of August.

                    R. 2676-79.

    He himself interrogated Mr. Wille on August 10th and 11th, and while it is not known who the
"we" Harvey is referring to, it has recently been discovered that FBI agents Dill and McFaul
interrogated Mr. Wille on the 12th. This was not disclosed at trial.

    Harvey gave the impression that the pornography found near Nichole's body which contained 18
latent fingerprints that did not match Mr. Wille had nothing to do with this case. He stated,
"Simply we were never really too optimistic [of finding Mr. Wille's prints on the material] due to
the distance away from the body which the objects were found and the general debris area."
R. 2149.  He later stated that the pornography was twenty to twenty-five feet from Nichole.
R. 2181. It is probable that the agent was very optimistic regarding finding Mr. Wille's prints,
because in fact, he was told by Judy Walters that Mr. Wille placed the pornography on the
ground.  Mr. Wille shows infra that any inculpatory statement given by Ms. Walters is unreliable
and false, and that the pornography was not his.  The importance of Harvey's testimony is that it
gave the impression that Mr. Wille's prints could not be found on the materials because he had
nothing to do with it.

    The state failed to reveal information in its possession that Becker "provided a most specific
and unquestionable information as to her whereabouts in the occurrences with WALTERS and
WILLE..."  App. 24.  Law enforcement officers intimidated and badgered Sandy Becker, a friend
of Mr. Wille's and Ms. Walters's, with the ultimate goal of completely confusing her so that the
falseconfessionstheyHadorchestratedcouldnotbeimpeached.
Becker knew that she had seen Mr.Wille at her home in the afternoon of June 2nd, she told the police this.

                On August 12, 1985, I was living in Virginia when I received a letter from
                John Aguero a close friend and assistant state attorney inMilton,Florida.
                Mr. Aguero told me that the police were investigating crimes allegedly committed
                by John and Judy and wanted to question me about my knowledge of them.I
                agreed to come to Milton to meet with them afterMr.Aguero said he would try
                to reimburse me for my expenses.

                Shortly there after,my husband and I drove straight to Milton from Arlington,
                Virginia. Thedrive took about14 hours, and we arrived at about 6:00p.m.
                I called John Aguerro from outside of town, and he told me to come straight to
                his house, not to buy any newspapers because the police didn't want me
                to know anything.  Soon after we arrived at his house, he told us to go directly to
                the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department.  I was taken into a room with
                Cpl. Larry Bryant and anotherdeputy.  I wasi nterrogated for at least six hours.  I
                say interrogated because it was definitely not an interview.  OfficerBryant began
                asking me many questions about John and Judy and was specifically interested
                in whether I had seen  either of them on June 2, 1985.

                        I explained toOfficerBryant that I sawJohn on June 2nd a Sunday in
               my house in the early afternoon about 2:00.  I told him I was positive about the
               date and time because the day before, Saturday, the1st I made a police report with
               my friend and employer,  Barbara Peden, regarding the theft of ringsf rom the
               trading post.  On Saturday the lst, Barbara told me that on Friday, the 31st, John
               and Sheila came into the store.  She said she noticed Sheila was looking
                at some Jewelry. After they left, she realized that 3 rings were missing and felt
                that Sheila had taken them.  Barbara and I called the sheriff's department and  a
                deputy named Randy came to thes tore in thea fternoon on June the 1st and
                we talked to him about the rings.

                7.     Even though I had had a falling out with John and Judy, and had asked
                them to move out of my house, I wanted to tell John about the police report.
                I stayed at home on Sunday in case John and Judy would come by, I told
                Officer Bryant that I spoke with John in my bedroom on Sunday afternoon.
                He became outraged and began telling me that I could not have seen John then
                and that I was lying.  I explained that I had no reason to lie, but he
                continued badgering and intimidating me, and insinuated that I was lying.
                Officer Bryantwas very hostile towards me.  The interrogation continued past
                midnight.  I was very,very tired from the long trip down and became confused due
                the badgering and hostile questioning.

                At one point, my husband came into the room, saw what was going on, and
                said that some of the things that Officer Bryant was saying were false.  Officer
                Bryant asked him to leave the room. My husband went outside and called
                John Aguero and asked him to come to the office.  Mr.Aguero came and spoke
                with Officer Bryant. I was allowed to leave after that.
         Either the next day or the day after, I went back to the sheriff,s office and was questioned by Sheriff Coffman, OfficerBryant and two other law enforcement officers.  I explained once again that I was positive that I saw John on Sunday the 2nd and showed Sheriff Coffman my calendar.  Sheriff Coffman began accusing me of being involved in the theft of the rings from the Trading Post.  They tried their best to get me to believe that I was totally confused about when I saw John, but I continued to tell them that I was positive that he was at my house on Sunday afternoon.

I will never forget that experience. Officer Bryant made me feel terrible, as if I had done something wrong by telling him the truth. It still bothers me to this day.

App. 55.
        The state,s failure to produce at trial the numerous statements given by Mr. Wille and
Ms. Walters violated due process for the reasons explained more fully supra. In
connection with this, the state's failure to disclose the many statements elicited from
Mr. Wille to which there is no independent recordation also violates due process.  There are:
        In the morning of August 8th, in an interrogation with Larry Bryant, Bryant tells Mr. Wille, "I
believe you spoke with the investigators from Louisiana last night about incidents there.
App. 1-B.
        In the evening of August 8th, Robert Hay of St. John theBaptist Sheriff,s Office, questions
Mr. Wflle about his alleged involvement in the death of Ida Boudreaux.  He states, 'Prior to
this statement didn't you say you had just gotten off and you came straight home?  App. 1-C.
During that same interrogation, Hay is questioning Mr. Wille about another alleged murder; he
states, 'Earlier you said Mark didn,t know how to swim.'  Id.
        Equally important, the state failed at trial and has since failed to produce information about
interrogations regarding Ms. Walters.  For example, on August 9th, Larry Bryant tells
Ms. Walters, 'previously we were talking and you said John Wille got your hair wet--tell us about
that., App. 2-B.  On August 18th, Ms. Walters was interrogated by FBI agents Peel, Harvey and
Scott.  During this session, the agents make numerous references to information discussed on
August 12th, however, the state has failed to disclose any information regarding what was being
discussed on the 12th regarding any alleged Louisiana murders.  App. 2-K.

    Furthermore, prosecutor Daley is fiat wrong When he states:  'Your honor, to the best of my
knowledge, the State has produced all of the oral statements that it has, well, of course I premise
it on this, the State has provided Defense counsel with any written record of those statements
made by Mr. Wille."   R. 1023.
    Joe Warren, a criminalist With the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, was given between five
and twenty fibers found at the autopsy of Nichole.  He sent the fibers to the FBI lab for
examination.  No reports of the analysis on these fibers have ever been produced.

                                JOHN WILLE AND JUDY WALTERS

John Wille
    John Francis Wille was born on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1964, in Amarillo, Texas, while
his father was the second of seven children born to Pat Heron Wille and John D. Wille. The
family moved back to Louisiana in 1966, eventually moving into the home they still occupy in
Laplace.  John's family life was troubled.  His father was physically and psychologically abused as
a child, and comes from a family in which there was suicide and mental illness.
App. 37.  His mother came from a very poor family; there is an extensive history of alcoholism,
suicide and mental retardation on her side. App. 39.
    John D. and Pat Wille brought their separate histories of familial problems to the raising of their
seven children. Their children report that life was unpredictable and often frightening in their
household. App. 38, 40.  Almost immediately it seemed that John Francis was singled out in the
family for particular blame and punishment.  His aunt, cousins, and sisters report that he was the
Child who seemed to get the most frequent beatings, and who was beaten most severely.
App. 46, 54.
    John was beaten a lot by Uncle Johnny and Aunt Pat. He got hit in the head a lot,
    usually with their knuckles.  Sometimes they would make him kneel on rice. I can
    remember the times that John would leave the house orrun away and Aunt Pat and
    Uncle Johnny would lock the doors so that he could not get back in.  They were always
    very mean to him.
App. 46.
    John was also the victim of his parents' verbal abuse as well.  The children, especially John, were
often called names such as "sons-of-bitches" and "bastard'.   John was told often that he was
"stupid" or "lazy", especially when his learning disability began to affect his performance in school.
App. 38.
The psychological abuse sometimes took an especially cruel form.

    John was also ignored and left alone often. UncleJohnny and Aunt Pat used to come over to
    our house andbring all the kids with them except John. They eitherleft him home alone or he stayed
    with his grandmother.  Even one Christmas day they brought the whole family over to celebrate, but
    they left John at home. When we asked where John was, they simply said that he had been bad and
    was not allowed to come.

App. 46.

John seemed to be Punished in ways that wereunreasonably harsh. John was always being yelled
at and blamed for things he often did not do.  I remember one Easter, John was punished for something.
I'm not sure why Uncle John and Aunt Pat were upset with him but all of John's brothers and sisters got a basket full of candy and John only got a basket full of rocks. I felt so bad for him.  He was just a kid.

App. 54.

        A pattern began to emerge very early in John's life. If  his parents discovered that one of
    the children had done something wrong they would gather them all in one room and punish
    them until the "culprit" admitted he or she was wrong.  The other children soon discovered
    that John could always be relied upon to "confess", even if he had not done anything wrong.
    The children would be made, for example, to kneel on the ridged linoleum floor until
    someone "owned up" to the infraction.  Anna, Melissa, and David would begin to urge John
    to confess, saying things like, "Come on John, Just say you did it.  You know you will."
    App.38, 40.  Eventually, John would give in and say he was in the wrong, even when he
    wasn't.  Sometimes the other children would then be invited to hit him or punish him
    themselves, for not confessing sooner.  App. 40.
        His mother confirms this.
        We had a rule in our house. If somebody did something
  wrong - like take their Daddy's lunch meat when they weren't supposed to--we would punish
    all of the children until One of them confessed. We would make them knee on the linoleum in
    the kitchen until one of them admitted they did it.  The kitchen is right next to the living room in
    our home and I could sit in the living room and hear everything that was going on in the kitchen.
    It may have taken as long as an hour or even more, but in the end John always confessed.  I
    could hear all the kids saying to him, "Come on John, just say you did itl   Tell them you did it
    so we can get up, John."  And it never failed that John would come to us and tell us he did it.
    It got to be a habit and after a while it didn't take any time at all for John to confess and get
    his whipping.

App. 39.

John thus began a pattern of protecting the younger children particularly his Sisters. He also
began a pattern of fantasizing and story telling.  Everyone who knew him confirms his
compulsive bragging and inventing.

By far the most bizarre trait I have seen in my son is his fantasizing, which became much worse after
he lost his grandparents.   He started concocting elaborate stories which not only weren't true, but
were obviously untrue to anyone who knew John.   For example, he would tell people that he was on
the high school football team that won the state championship.  He even told the Sheriff who lives across the street.  Now, anyone who knows John knows that while he did play football for a time, he did not play on any team that won a state championship.   John's grades fell through the floor and he ended up quitting in the 10th grade (he had repeated 2 grades).   Another example is he made up an elaborate story which he told a woman we know:  that John had a child-- a son--who died when his mother left him in the car while it was idling.   The child managed to slip the car out of gear and it rolled into the street in the path of an 18-wheeler truck which struck the car, killing the child.   When the woman asked me about this, I was dumbfounded.   It was the most incredible story I had ever heard.   I was doubly stunned because this woman lived in our community and I couldn't imagine how John could think he could tell such an obvious tale and not have it get back to us.   But that is the most curious thing.   John seemed to believe these stories.  When I confronted him, he actually became frustrated and irritated, as if he were upset with me for trying to take his fantasy from him.

App. 39.
 

    Other family members agree.  "[John] started when he was younger telling stories, and as he got to
be a teenager or older the stories got worse.  I grew to wonder whether John even knew what
the truth was."  App, 40.  "John's thinking is so confused he sometimes doesn't know fact from
fantasy."  App. 38.

As John got older I started to notice that he would make up strange stories, especially about himself and what he had done. He would claim fantastic things, such
 as that he was on a champion football team that had won the state championship, or that he knew someone he had no way of knowing or that he had done something he couldn't possibly have done.   Most of the time this was done in the context of  bragging or attempting to create an image of himself that he wanted others to have of him.   It was pathetic because it was obvious to everyone that John was a kind of pitiful kid who was starved for attention and didn't have much going for him.   John seemed to have no self esteem and to be desperately trying to get people to like him and accept him.

App. 37.

    John's unhappiness at home got much worse when his grandmother died.  "John took my
mother's death the hardest.  He was just about to turn 14.  When I told the children she had died,
John was stunned and couldn't accept it.  He began to cry uncontrollably and say, "You're lying,
you're lying, she's not dead", over and over.  Then he ran away and was gone
for hours."
App 39.
    John ran away again several times before leaving home for good.  He hitchhiked to Houston
when he was only 15, living precariously and coming home hungry and "bedraggled".  App. 39.
He also became involved with a series of older women, talking about how he helped them take
care of their children and how he loved them.  App. 46, 54.  When he was twenty years old he
met Judy Walters.

JudyWalters

    Judy was born to an unwed teenager in Mississippi in 1953.  Her mother, Barbara Hurst, had
been raised mostly in a Baptist orphanage, because her feckless mother and father either
abandoned their children or were unable to care for them.  App. 45.  After Judy's birth Barbara
married a man twenty years older than herself, and bore him three children. Mack Hurst Sr.,
Judy's stepfather, was a pedophile.  He began molesting Judy when she was 7 years old, and
continued until he was jailed for it,when Judy was 13. App. 45.
    The Mississippi court permitted Mack Hurst's release from jail on Barbara's plea that she could
not provide for herchildren without his paycheck.  But the court refused to let Mack
and Judy live in the same house, so Judy began a series of moves

from institution to foster care. She was unhappy and self-destructive, and she married at
the age of 15.  The teenagers soon divorced; Judy got married again almost immediately,
to Vondell Walters.  App. 45, 34.
    Vonde11 and Judy Walters moved to Louisiana, and had two children, a girl Sheila and
a boy Billy.  She began a lifetime of severe vascular headaches, complicated by her depression.
Judy did not get the normal family life she craved after her own miserable adolescence. Her
husband Vonde11 began to demand demeaning sexual compliance from Judy; when he did not get
his way, he beat her.

        In the beginning the relationship was not abusive.  However, Vondell soon began talking about
    numerous sexual fantasies, which involved his watching me have sex with different men.  At first this was all talk.  I had two children and had to stay home with them, so he left me alone for the most part. However, there came a point when things changed.  Vondall became more and more insistent about my having sex with other men.  Healso had become quite abusive, threatening and beating me.  Finally he made me go to a bar in Metairie, where he picked out a man and took us to a motel room.  Vondell had been encouraging me to drink, and though I had never done so before, on this night I drank a tremendous amount of Southern Comfort. I recall having sex with a man I had never met while Yondell took pictures.
        This became a regular part of our marriage, and Yondell seemed to become more and more obsessed with sex.   It was always the same pattern:  Vondell would come home from work on a Friday night and say:
    "Judy, get ready, we're going out."  And no matter how much I begged and refused, he would threaten and beat me until I went.  I started to drink more and more in an effort not to feel or be aware of what I was doing.
    Yondell was very particular about how he orchestrated the evenings.  He had to pick the men and I was not allowed to talk to them at all.  He would photograph us as the men were having sex with me.   One time I had sex with as many as 5 men during one weekend.  At times, Yondell would then have sex with the men if they allowed him.  Vondell could rarely have sex unless it was under these conditions.   It was a horrible way to live.
    I felt like I was in a perpetual nightmare.   Nothing was normal or nice.

Affidavit of Judy Walters, App. 34.

    When John Wille first met Judy and Vondell, he had a girlfriend named Julie. Vondell was very
friendly to John at first, and invited Julie and John to live with him and Judy for several months.
John and Judy developed a strong friendship, which Yondell encouraged.  "John would come by
the house on Goodhope Street, in Norco, almost every day to talk to me.  During this time Vondell let John be a surrogate parent to Billy and Sheila--if something around the house needed attention, John would try to take care of it.  He helped the kids with their homework--Vondell would tell me to "Ask
John about it" when I raised a problem with the kids." App. 34.
    When Judy and John became lovers, Yondell at first had no objection, assuming it would be just
another "threesome", as he called it.  App. 24.  But John said he loved Judy and did not want to
degrade her, and Vondell began to treat John with hostility.  During 1984 Judy
and John were involved in several minor police scrapes for disturbing the peace; John was
arrested for trespassing at the house on Goodhope Street where Judy and Vondell lived.
App. 27, 34.  His court-appointed lawyer, Vic Bradley, was so struck by John's capacity to
tell outlandish stories as if he believed them that he asked for John's sanity to be evaluated.
And Judy's drinking became worse and worse.
    In December 1984 and again in January of 1995 Judy was arrested for drunk driving and public
drunkenness App. 34.  She was ordered by the court in St. Charles Parish to receive in-patient
care for her alcoholism.  She was discharged on March 1, 1985, after a thirty-day rehabilitation at
F. Edward Hebert Hospital.  Judy was determined not to allow her sexually and physically abusive
husband to coerce her into returning to the behavior that led to her alcoholism.  She and John
Wille were still involved; Vondell was still opposing their relationship.

App. 34.

                                    John Wille and Judy Walters in Florida

    In May of 1985 John Wille, Judy Walters, and Judy's daughter Sheila moved from Louisiana to
Milton, Florida, in Santa Rosa County.  App. 34, 44.  They lived precariously, staying with a friend,
Sandy Becker, until they wore their welcome out, and then on the property of new acquaintances,
Jane and Jerry Wells.  TheWells lived in a school bus, and permitted John, Judy and Sheila

Goodhope Street, in Norco, almost every day to talk to me.  During this time Vondell let John be
a surrogate parent to Billy and Sheila--if something around the house needed attention, John would
try to take care of it.  He helped the kids with their homework--Vondell would tell me to "Ask
John about it" when I raised a problem with the kids." App. 34.
    When Judy and John became lovers, Yondell at first had no objection, assuming it would be just
another "threesome", as he called it.  App. 24.  But John said he loved Judy and did not want to
degrade her, and Vondell began to treat John with hostility.  During 1984 Judy
and John were involved in several minor police scrapes for disturbing the peace; John was
arrested for trespassing at the house on Goodhope Street where Judy and Vondell lived.
App. 27, 34.  His court-appointed lawyer, Vic Bradley, was so struck by John's capacity to
tell outlandish stories as if he believed them that he asked for John's sanity to be evaluated.
And Judy's drinking became worse and worse.
    In December 1984 and again in January of 1995 Judy was arrested for drunk driving and public
drunkenness App. 34.  She was ordered by the court in St. Charles Parish to receive in-patient
care for her alcoholism.  She was discharged on March 1, 1985, after a thirty-day rehabilitation at
F. Edward Hebert Hospital.  Judy was determined not to allow her sexually and physically abusive
husband to coerce her into returning to the behavior that led to her alcoholism.  She and John
Wille were still involved; Vondell was still opposing their relationship.

App. 34.

                            John Wille and Judy Walters in Florida

    In May of 1985 John Wille, Judy Walters, and Judy's daughter Sheila moved from Louisiana to
Milton, Florida, in Santa Rosa County.  App. 34, 44.  They lived precariously, staying with a friend,
Sandy Becker, until they wore their welcome out, and then on the property of new acquaintances,
Jane and Jerry Wells.  TheWells lived in a school bus, and permitted John, Judy and Sheila
to live in an old trailer near them.  John tried to get part-time work, and they pawned items and
borrowed small amounts of cash.  App. 34, 44, 18.  Judy and John's relationship altered for the
worse. Subsequent psychological evaluations have shown them both to be dependent upon and
obsessed with each other. App. 4, 6.  John had already exhibited bizarre behavior, telling fantastic
stories to the Wells; he began to act obsessively jealous of Judy, accusing her of infidelities.  App.
18, 34.  Judy began drinking again, and continued taking Elavil, which had been prescribed for her
at the hospital in Louisiana.  She had several migraine headaches so severe she went to the
emergency room of the Santa Rosa County Hospital; she grew more and more depressed.  App.
20.
    Late in June, Judy was arrested for drunk driving in Mississippi.  This triggered Sheila's decision
to leave her mother and John and go to her grandmother in Laurel, Mississippi.
App. 44, 45.  At the July 4th holiday Vondell Walters visited and brought Billy, who stayed with
his mother and John Wille in Florida until their arrest.  App. 43.  Although Billy remembers John's
kindness and concern for him and his mother, John admits that he began hitting Judy during their
fights. App. 6, 43.  This was a new low for them; it was John's disgust for Vondell's abusiveness
that initially had brought the couple together. App. 34.

                                                        The Arrests

    In mid-July John and Judy had a falling-out with the Wells, who then ordered the couple to
leave their property.  On July 15, John and Judy reported to the police that the Wells had stolen
some expensive books and some jewelry from them. The next day Jane Wells filed a police
complaint, alleging that John and Judy had stolen jewelry, clothing, and pots and pans from her.
App.18.
    Judy, John, and Billy moved to an apartment on Route 4 in Milton.  Judy and John continued to
drink and fight; their relationship deteriorated.  In the early morning hours of August 6, 1985, John Wille and Judy Walters drove by the property where the Wells were living.  John set a rag on fire, and hung it from the screen door; he set another small fire in a shed between the trailer and the bus.
App.  l-A, 2-A.  The Wells called the police at 3:08 am to report that they had a suspicious fire
and they had seen Wille and Walters driving down their road.  App. 18.
    Judy quarreled with John about the arson at the Wells. She was drunk, and they fought. They
returned to the apartment, and sometime around dawn, she took all the Elavil she could find in the
hopes that she Would die.  App. 34.  John became alarmed at her condition.  Billy, who was 11,
remembers John giving his mother a raw egg to make her throw up, then telling him to get in the
car.  App. 43.  John dropped Billy off at a nearby store, called a friend to come and get him,
then raced to the hospital with Judy.  Santa Rosa County Sheriff,s Deputies Larry Bryant, Steve
Collier, and Charles Sloan intercepted John on the way to the hospital, expecting to interview and
perhaps arrest him for the arson.  App. 18.  After speaking to John, they followed him to the
hospital, where Judy was admitted for a tricyclic overdose.  App 20.
John was requested to follow them to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department, and complied.
He made a statement admitting the arson, but denying that Judy was even present. He was
arrested at 10:00 am. App. 18.

                                    The Murder Confessions- John Wille

    When Jane and Jerry Wells called the Sheriff's deputies to tell them of the arson and their
suspicions of John Wille, they also said that Wille had told them he committed an arson and murder
previously, in Laplace, Louisiana.  App. 18.  They were referring to the death of Ida Boudreaux, a
woman who lived near John's home.  John, whose stories often involved bragging about how
"tough" he was, had indeed told the Wells, Judy Walters, and others that he was responsible for the death of Ida Boudreaux.(13)   Santa Rosa County must have contacted St. John the Baptist Sheriff's Office immediately, because Robert Hay and Kenneth Mitchell, two deputies form St. John, were in Florida August 7, interrogating Judy Walters as she lay half dead in the intensive care unit at the Santa Rosa Hospital. App. 2-xx.
    This was not the only time the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department had heard a rumor that
John Wille was wanted for crimes in Louisiana.  In May, Vondell Walters, resentful of John Wille,
wanted his estranged wife to return to Louisiana to live with him.  He first tried to have John
arrested for allegedly kidnapping Judy.  App. 55.  When this failed, he told Judy that
the bodies of two murdered people had been found not far from Laplace and that "they" were
looking for John.  App. 32.  Judy told John, who called his sister Anna because Anna worked for
the St. John Sheriff's Office.  Anna told him that there were two bodies found in St. John in
June, and as far as she knew they didn't suspect John or anyone else from Laplace. App. 40.
    Once the Santa Rosa County deputies began interrogating John Wille, they had more than the
gossip of an angry husband or an aggrieved neighbor: they had the first of John Wille's murder
confessions.  On August 6, 1985, John Wille apparently confessed to the murder of Ida
Boudreaux.  On August 7, Santa Rosa County

        13It is Worth noting that neither the Wells nor Judy believed him.  Jane Wells stated to the police that "We thought he was talking through his hat just a 21 year old little kid blowing off steam... bragging... 2 or 3 times he had bragged about this woman he had burned up in the house because he wanted us to think he was some big terrible thing and I didn't buy it because I've raised three boys myself."  App. 18. Judy had been told by a real estate agent that Ida Boudreaux died in a house that was hit by lightning. "Then one day in Florida I heard John tell Jane and Jerry Wells that he had beaten up an old lady and burned her house down with her in it.  I knew this wasn't true, and so did Jane, because she told him so.  John used to tell stories that we knew were just talk, stories that couldn't be true."  App. 34.   See infra, for evidence suggesting that John Wille's confession to the murder of Ida Boudreaux was a false confession.

    "A police report in the arson file states that John Wille "referred to" the murder of  Boudreaux in his statement of 8/6.  App. 18.   There is no reference in Wille's 8/6 statement to Boudreaux.  App. 1-xx.  The first statement about Ida Boudreaux  in the petitioner's possession is in  App. 1-xx, dated 8.8.85.
For discussion of the statements that were never disclosed to the Deputy Larry Bryant reported that John made an offhand comment that he "didn't have to kill"
a man who had died on the highway.  On August 8, 1985, John confessed to beating Ida
Boudreaux, saying she then died in a fire he had started. App. 1-C.
    Later that same night John gave a detailed statement about the death of Frank Powe, a man
who had been found on 1-10 the morning of July 15, 1985, after witnesses saw him run over by
at least 4 cars. App. 18.  In that same statement he confessed to drowning a man named Mark in
Lake Ponchartrain, and to a hit-and-run accidental killing near Lafayette. App. 1-C.
He also told the nurse at the Santa Rosa County Jail that he had committed many murders, even
awakening once in a room full of blood, not knowing whom he had killed. App. 53.  He told a law
enforcement officer that he killed people between Pensacola and Panama Beach, Florida, and put
the bodies in a hole on the beach.  He said there were over 20 bodies in the hole. App. 47.
    The media attention was intense.(15)  Law enforcement officers
___________________
defense, see SXX, infra.
    15"A drifter who allegedly threatened to "do" to a Florida family "the way he had done some people over in Louisiana" was being questioned by authorities Thursday for as many as six murders in three states. Santa Rosa County Sheriff Maurice Coffman said John Francis Wills, 21, a transient, was "under investigation for as many as six homicides" and claimed the suspect confessed to all but one. Wills, who was being held in the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond, moved into the Milton area in June. He was arrested Tuesday on first-degree arson and burglary charges after he allegedly "attempted to burn a family up in a house" in Milton earlier this week, Coffman said ....Investigators began questioning Wills about the murders because the suspect reportedly told the Milton family "he was going to do these people over here the way he had done some people over in Louisiana," Coffman
said. Coffman said the investigation "kept progressing" and Wills "confessed to a number of them." Coffman said one of the slayings occurred in Santa Rosa County,  'approximately four" were in Louisiana and "possibly one" was in Texas, and "we don't know how many more."  Asked if he thought it possible the suspect was trying to get publicity, Coffman said,  "I don't think so in this case."  He said Wills knew a number of details from the Louisiana cases.  Coffman said the Santa Rosa County murder occurred "three or four weeks ago" on Interstate 10, where a Mobile, Ala., man was found dead along the highway.  Coffman said it had been investigated as a hit-and-run.  He said charges in that case would likely be filed Friday.  "He'll be charged here," said Coffman, but "I'm sure we'll place a hold on him" for Louisiana.  Coffman said the murders in Louisiana and Texas occurred "sometime I guess in the early part of this year."  He said several were in LaPlace, La.  One involved a 70-year-old woman beaten to death after she allegedly accused the suspect of stealing from her.  Coffman said her house was burned down.  Coffman said that the other LaPlace cases involved from Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and from the FBI came to Milton to interview John Wills.
John began recanting almost immediately, saying that he had not killed anyone, that he was "just
telling you a bunch of shit to get you all of my ass and it didn't work." App. 1-D,E.  John Wille
explicitly denied being in Louisiana in June, and denied that he had anything to do with the death
of Nichole Lopatta. App. 1-D,E.(16)  John said that he had not killed anyone, and the authorities
were just trying to make a big deal about his arrest. App. E.
    From August 9th through August 19th John Wills denied his murder confessions and made no
further statements.  In that time he asked continuously about Judy Walters, and was told he could
not see her.  He was moved to Escambia County jail in Pensacola so that he would not be
housed in the same jail she was. App.16.  And he was told repeatedly that she was making
extensive statements implicating him in several murders. App. 19, G,H.  Hewas also told that his
sister Anna, whom he had tried to protect all his life, was being forced to take time off work at
the St. John's Sheriff's Office. App. 39,40.  He was given Librium and Thorazine, and complained
of the way it made him feel to his family. App. 39.  On August 15 he was arrested and charged
with the murder of Frank Powe, the Alabama man found dead on 1-10, on the basis of his
confession and the statements of Judy Walters.  On August 18 he was admitted to the Escambia
jail infirmary as a suicide risk. App. 19.
    On August 20 John Wills again confessed to the murder of Frank Powe. This statement was
very different from the one he
_______________________

a man who was found in a bayou, a man who was "mutilated and buried," and a woman.  Coffman said another
case in Lafayette, La., involved a traffic-type death.  Coffman claimed Wills confessed to all except the girl," but
no charges had been filed in those cases by late Thursday.  He said Louisiana authorities were still questioning
Wills.  United Press International, August 8, 1985.

    16 There are references to Wille's alleged responsibility for the death of Nichole in the newspapers, see n. 7, and
Larry Bryant, the Santa Rosa County deputy refers to questioning by Louisiana law enforcement on August 7 in
App. 1-B.  No record has ever been disclosed to petitioner of this August 7th interview by Louisiana authorities.


made on August 8th, but much more like the statements made by Judy Walters on the previous
day.  Compare 1-B and 1-F with 2-L.  On August 27, 1985 John was interrogated for several
hours by FBI agents, Chief Fields of Jefferson Parish, and Sheriff Lloyd Johnson of St. John
Parish.  He initially told them that he had lied to investigators when telling them about murders.
He said that he liked to "bullshit" law officers and had never really killed anyone. App. 1-G.
He is told by the FBI that Judy has told them he committed the murders.  John eventually
admitted to killing Nichole Lopatta after he and Billy Phillips had raped and kidnapped her. He also
confessed to killing Phillips after this iviolence.  He said that he committed horrendous acts of
great savagery.  When he was done confessing, he said "I think I just put my ass in the electric
chair."  App. 1-xx

                                The Murder Confessions - Judy Walters

    Judy woke up in the Santa Rosa County Hospital intensive care unit on August 7th with no
memory of how she had gotten there. App. 20.  She was hooked up to a heart monitor, a
telemetry unit, she was being fed through two intravenous tubes, and was restrained.
App. 20, 34.  She was told that she had been admitted because she had tried to kill herself with
an overdose of Elavil, that she would have to see the psychiatric staff.  She was also told that if
she had made a "real" suicide attempt she could be committed.  She asked about John Wille and
no one could tell her why he was not there and had not been there for more than 24 hours; she
then asked who was taking care of her 11 yearold son, and no one knew. App. 34.
    In this condition she met Santa Rosa County Deputy Larry Bryant for the first time. He came
into her hospital room and talked to her "at length" as the nursing notes report. App. 20. He was
with two deputies from St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana. App. 2-A.  He told her that John
was under arrest for an arson she was involved in. Id.  She signed a waiver of rights..
form, and she made a statement. App. 18.
    Judy told the police that John, speaking angrily of the Wells, had said "if everybody thought he was playing around with them, they were wrong.
Because they didn't know who they were messing with and he'd watch them burn too."  He was
referring to an incident he had told her about some time before.  According to this statement, John
had told Judy that he had been angry with a woman for "getting him in trouble" and had set fire
to her house, but that everybody thought it was hit by lightning. App. 2-A.
Judy did not know the woman's name, did not know the nature of the "trouble" that she had
caused John, and did not know how John got into the house. She thought he said he started the
fire with gasoline in a utility shed. Id.
    Judy Walters cannot today remember giving this statement.  App. 34.   She remembers being
very afraid for her son, Billy, who, with his mother in the hospital and John in jail, was alone in
Milton.  She remembers being afraid that if they knew she had tried to kill herself she would be
committed and unable to care for Billy. App. 34.  She was only an hour or so out of a
life-threatening coma, and still very sick. App. 20.  She was confronted with three powerful men
who were asking her to make a statement implicating John, and she did as they asked.17
    The hospital records indicate that Judy was released early the next day because of her concern
for her son.  A Santa Rosa County deputy arrived to "transport" her.  She was "nervous, tearful,
shaky, according to the nurse. App. 20.  She was told she had to go the Sheriff's office to pick
up her car, which John Wille had driven there the day before.  When she arrived at the station
she was told that Larry Bryant wanted to see her.  He asked that she fill out some "forms" to
have her car released, and she complied. What she signed wae a waiver of rights form.  App.
18.  Bryant then asked her to make another statement, which she agreed to do.  (The police
report lists a statement, which was not recorded or is not included in the disclosed statements

17We know that Judy's recorded statement was preceded by an unrecorded interrogation because St. John
Deputy Robert Hay says to her "Prior to this statement you mentioned something about a can of gasoline .... "
App. 2-A.  No notes or account of this prior interview have ever been disclosed to petitioner.


of Judy Walters.  App. 18.)  Judy Walters was then arrested for arson.  App. 18.
        That is when the nightmare began. Larry Bryant began to talk about our having committed murders.  I didn't know what he was talking about. At first it seemed like a joke or a bad dream.  But he kept accusing John of having killed a woman in Louisiana.  He said that John had confessed to it.  I knew this wasn't true.
    I also knew that John made stuff up all the time.  It was his way of appearing macho and manly.  Everyone knew John was a big story teller.  It was just his personality.  I thought that the police would check into how Mrs. Boudreaux really died and would let us go.
           The first night I was in jail Larry Bryant came and got me and took me to a room in the basement. He  hit me and he asked me questions all night long.  At first this did not bother me much--I have been hit and degraded by men my entire life.  But then he began to threaten my children.  He told me that "bad things"
    can happen to little girls.  I remember him saying that Billy rode his bike near a pond that was deep enough to drown in, that Billy could get hurt, because "Accidents happen to kids."  I honestly think I laughed at him for the last time. I said  "You can't do anything to my son. " He kept on asking me questions, accusing me of murdering a man on the highway with John. I couldn't believe it.
          The next afternoon or night I remember getting a polygraph, and they told me I failed it.  That was the night  I saw Billy.  They let him come to see me in the jail, and when I saw him Larry Bryant had brought him in.
    Billy had a red mark on his face and a little bit of blood on his shirt.  I could see that his mouth had bled just a little.  I think I wanted to die right there.  I had been through this terrible week and this terrible night the night before, but I thought that Billy was safe.  I cried and cried, and told Billy to get away.  I just feel like I gave up
    something right then.  App. 32.
    Judy's son Billy confirms this.  He remembers being picked up by two policemen, one of whom
was Larry Bryant.  He wanted to know where his mother was; she had been taken to the
hospital several days earlier.  The policemen wouldn't tell him. When he showed them a badge
that John had given him to play with, they became very excited and angry.  Larry Bryant made
him put his hands behind his back and then put him in handcuffs.  Outside the station, Bryant
slapped him once or twice.  He was 11 years old.  App. 43.

            I cannot remember everything clearly that happened in the next weeks.   I was given drugs every day,  including Elavil, Lorcet Plus, Placidyl, Inderal, Valium, Phenobarbital and Demerol.  I was also given cup after cup of coffee for hours on end and was interrogated for as long as 12 hours at a time.  The coffee was very bitter, and made me feel strange.  One of the other inmates told me they put things in it.  I was kept from sleeping for long periods of time.

Sometimes Larry Bryant would give me injections in my hand.  I was kept isolated in a cell and was
            not allowed to see anyone except Harry Bryant.  Only he could come and get me, or bring me out of my cell.  It was like he took complete control of my life.  Sometimes he would take all  my clothes away and I was left with only a mattress;  the toilet and sink would have all the water taken out and I would stay there, thirsty and naked, until he came to gat me.
                    I was being taken from my cell at all times of the day and night.  I was questioned by many police officers and FBI, always with Larry Bryant, and Bryant questioned me alone night and day. He gave me drugs, so many pills and shots I did not know where I was sometimes.  Sometimes he would came for me in my cell and tell me  "Judy, we're going up in an airplane again.  The sky is blue.  The next thing I knew I would he back in my cell, and not know how I got there.  I was always tired, and always terribly afraid.  I think the very worst of it were the pictures.  He showed me so many pictures of the little girl who was killed in Louisiana that I wanted to die.  He said that they couldn, t bury her until I confessed everything.  He said I just forgot what we had done because I had to block it out, it wes so bad, and once I told them it would be better.
                    I ended up giving many, many confessions to several murders after I had been threatened, hit, drugged, assaulted, hypnotized and brutalized.  Larry Bryant told me over and over what John and I were supposed to have done.  Then he would tell me details of what John and I were supposed to have done and I would start to see it happening in my mind.  I knew John and I hadn' t done any of these things, but after awhile, I began to wonder if I was crazy--if it could be true that we had done these horrible things and did not remember it, just like Larry Bryant said.

App. 34.  Judy Walters gave statements that were recorded or memorialized and which claimed
that she had witnessed John Wille murdering Frank Powe (the man killed on 1-10), Nichole
Loparts, Billy Phillips.  She also implicated Wille in the murders of Ida Boudreaux and Michael
Faulk, although she only claimed to have seen Faulk's murdered body. App. 2-A,R. She says she
gave many more statements that have not been disclosed to petitioner. She says that none of the
statements she gave were true; she told a mental health worker and others that she began to
doubt whether or not the confessions were true only a few weeks after she was incarcerated.
App. 56, 32.
        One of the "confessions" that Larry Bryant manufactured involved the unsolved murder of
Faulk.  According to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department report, on September 6, 1985
Judy told Bryant that John killed Faulk after picking him up in a bar and after having sex with
him.  The report is a detailed summary of the what Judy states, including a description of the bar, the place where Faulk was killed, how the body was bound, where the body was placed, etc.  The report also discusses Bryant taking Judy to locations allegedly involved in the crime. App. 18.
    However, the crime remained unsolved until 1987.  It appears that the State Attorney for the First
Judicial Circuit of Florida knew that Judy had falsely confessed to this and other murders; he refused to
charge her with the crime, despite a detailed statement describing features that only the murderer
would know, or perhaps Bryant.
    Brook Sanderson of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office explains that even though Judy's
"descriptions...matched to a tee," something was wrong.

             Q:     Do you have any knowledge as to how this Judith -- Judy Walters would have
                          been able to have independently learned that this body was found in garbage bags
                          and that it was found in Alabama and the general location that she led you to?
                 A:     It was brought to my attention at that time by Curtis Golden [State Attorney for the
                          First Judicial Circuit] that he felt as if the information had been furnished to
                          Judy Walters.  Now, the information as far as the case; the location of the body,
                          how the body was bound, the color of the bags, things like that, that information
                          was fed to her.
                                And his suspicion was that it was fed to her bv Investigator Bryant with the
                          Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department.

State v. Stanaway,  No 87-1404,  First Judicial Circuit Court, Escambia County, Florida, Deposition of
Brook Sanderson, June 1, 1987 at 35-36, App. 32.  Not only was Golden concerned with the Faulk
case but he had doubts about other murders Judy confessed to.

It was also brought to my attention Curtis Golden, through his dealings with her [Judy],
apparently, there were some other -- a couple of other stories that had come up that she
had -- you know killings -- body being dumped over a bridge at a certain location.  They were
unfounded.  You know, no bodies were found, nothing at all to back up that story.  Things like
that.  That also concerned it as far as her statement and the truthfulness, I guess, of
her statements.

Id. at 42-43.

        Bryant's superior officers knew this too.  Former Chief  Deputy Larry Pearson, the man who
hired Bryant remembers his tactics well.

                         Bryant was a zealous investigator, however, he would often times cut corners.  It was
            characteristic of Bryant to spend a few hours with a suspect alone,and then call in others to
            observe a taped statement being made.  I knew that one of Bryant's technioues was to tell
             individuals details of a crime prior to that person giving a detailed statement.  I know for a fact
             that Bryant coerced some individuals into giving statements and believe that at times these
             statements were not totally a product of the individual's independent recall.
App. 47.
         At John Wille's trial, Special Agent Vic Harvey testified that her confessions
"corroborated" his. She did not testify; she turned down a plea bargain for 15 years in her own
case because she would have been required to give testimony consistent with the confessions, and
she could not do that. App. 45, 34.  She was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, for
Nichole Lopatta and Billy Phillips, and is serving two life sentences at Louisiana Correctional
Institute for Women.

Sheila Walters MurderConfession

        Sheila Walters had her 14th birthday on June 8, 1985.  In August when her mother was
arrested she was living with her grandmother in Laurel, Mississippi.  She had in effect left
her mother because of Judy's drinking, and she had a lot of remorse and conflict about choosing
the stability and comfort of life with her grandmother instead of staying with her mother. App. 6.
She gave two statements to the FBI, although she and her grandmother, Barbara Hurst, believe
that she was interviewed three times. App. 3-A, 3-B; App. 44, 45.

                      At some point the FBI came to interrogate me.  I had just turned fourteen at the time.  I think they came three different times;  twice I remember for sure. The first time they came to my grandmother's house, and they sat at the kitchen table.  We were real nice to them, and they seemed nice too.  It was the same man and lady who came every time:  Vic Harvey, and her name was Patty.  That first time I was still kind of mad about how things had been in Florida, living in that trailer and everything, and I might have said mean things about John or Mama but they weren't true.  I never saw John hurt anybody, and John never once hit me.  I know I told them we hadn't been to Louisiana after May, when we moved to Florida.  That first visit they showed me the picture of a little girl, I guess it must have been Nichole Lopatta. It was a normal picture of her, not like the ones they showed me in September.  I told them i didn't recognze her.
            I think the FBI people went through my bedroom at Grandma's that day or the next time they came, and they wanted to look in my "special box" of
                        pictures and things.   Grandma said it was all right.

When the FBI came the last time it was different.  We went downtown to the Laurel police
station, in the afternoon.  I remember seeing Vic Harvey getting out of the car in the parking lot.
He saw me and started yelling,  "You lied!  You lied to me"  I went with my grandmother to see
them in a big courtroom, but somehow they got her out of the room and I was alone with them.
There were a lot of them, all big men except Patty, who was there, and maybe one other woman.
They interrogated me for hours, and my grandmother wasn't there.  They kept telling me over and
over what happened when the people were killed. I kept saying, "No, that's not what happened,"
but they kept saying, "Yes, it did."

They would go through step by step, telling me we did this and then this. They tried to say
I was involved, that I had lured the little girl into the car.  I kept telling them that I had never seen
the little girl and that I was never involved in hurting her, but they wouldn't listen. They also
started showing me the worst pictures I have ever seen.  There were pictures of body parts all cut
up, and the little girl dead with worms crawling all over her.  They kept saying I should tell them
about it.  They would say "You did this" and  "Your mama did this", even after I told them "No" a
lot of times.  After awhile I thought I was going a little crazy.  I started thinking to myself,  "Well,
maybe we did do what they said, but why don't I remember it?"  Then they started telling me "If
you tell a lie, your Mama won't fry."  I remember Vic Harvey saying that as clearly today as I did
that day.  They said that if  I would just say what they told me to, the (sic) would let me go and my
mother wouldn't go to the electric chair.  They said if  I didn't tell them what they wanted, that my
mother would go to the electric chair and die, and that I would go to prison for the rest of my life.
I was really scared, and I Just wanted to get it over with.   Finally I said I would.

There were at least three tape recorders there: one was big,  like a half a suitcase. Another
was an old-fashioned one, like we had at school.  Then there was a little tiny one, the first
mini-cassette I ever saw.  They would tell me what to say and then turn on the tape. Then if I
got something wrong, they would stop the tape and tell me how they wanted me to say it.  I knew
that what I was saying wasn't the truth, and so did they.  If I said something that was wrong,
Vic Harvey or one of them would say  "You know that wasn't right"  and I would do it again. I did
it because I wanted to help my mother, because they told me she would be killed if I didn't do it.
Everything I said on the tapes was untrue.  I just wanted to help my mother and wanted to go home.

After we got done in the courtroom, they brought me into a little room.  Finally my
grandmother wast here.  They played part of the tape, and they made me say the things again in
front of my grandmother.  I thought I was helping my mother.  I really expected them to let her go
that day or the next day, because I had done what they wanted me to do.  Sometime when they
were done they made me put my initials right on the tapes they had made.  There were 2 regular-size
cassette tapes, and I think 4 or 5 small ones. They took a Polaroid of me too, and made me sign
the back.  When we left it was almost dark.

Affidavit of Sheila Walters Prior, App. 44.

            Sheila recanted her statement within a few days, after her counsellor, Dr. Dickerson, advised
her grandmother that he thought Sheila was not telling the truth. App. 35, 45.  At John Wille's trial,
Special Agent Vic Harvey testified that Sheila's confession  "completely corroborated"  his. T. 2143.
Sheila took the stand at John's penalty phase, but asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege on the advice
of her lawyer. App. 36.  At her mother's trial, a tape of her confession18 was played for the jury; they
were never told that Sheila denied the truth of the statement, nor of  the conditions of her interrogation.

                            Introduction To The Psychology Of False Confessions

            Petitioner asserts that he, his girlfriend Judy Walters, and her daughter Sheila Walters gave
false confessions to the murder of  Nichole Lopatta and Billy Phillips.  Mr. Wille claims that he is
innocent of  the crimes he confessed to; all three individuals have recanted their confessions, and deny
that they witnessed or participated in any way in the death of the Lopatta child or of Phillips. App. 34,
44.  Petitioner has retained psychological and psychiatric experts to assist the court in evaluating this
claim. App. 4, 6, 8.  An evidentiary hearing is required so that petitioner may present proof of the
factual bases for this argument, outlined infra.
            At an evidentiary hearing the expert assistance sought and received by petitioner can further
aid the court in understanding the psychological bases for this claim, and be tested by adversarial
examination.  The volume of material required to evaluate these false confessions cannot be shortcut:
the following short summary is introductory only.
            The most widely publiehed expert psychologist in the field
_________________

                 18Despite Sheila's memory of a number of tapes and taperecorders, only one tape has been disclosed
 to petitioner.    No record or account of the hours of questioning preceding the taping has been disclosed.


of  false confessions and the psychology of interrogative techniques is Dr. Gisli Gudjonsson, a former
police detective who specializes, with his colleague and collaborator Dr. James MacKeith, in
researching and analyzing confessions. Drs. MacKeith and Gudjonsson were able to evaluate the three
individuals who confessed in this case; their interim reports19 are appended as app. 4 and
app. 6. A partial listing of Dr.  GudJonsson's and their joint publications is given in theircurriculi vitae,
app. 5 and 7.  Drs. Gudjonsson and MacKeith live and work primarily in England; the American
forensic psychologist most active in this area is Dr. Richard Ofshe.  His curriculum vitae is attached as
App. 9, and his preliminary report20 is at App. 8.
        "Why do people confess to crimes they have not committed, which is clearly against their
self-interest?  The reason is typically a combination of factors which are associated with the
circumstances and nature of the custodial interrogation and the accused's psychological
vulnerabilities."  Gudjonsson, The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony, 204
(Wiley & Sons, 1992). After an extensive review of cases and literature on false confession, Dr.
Gudjonsson concluded:

            False confessions, which most commonly result from psychological coercion during police interrogation,
            are known to be the cause of wrongful conviction in a sizeable proportion of all cases where miscarriages
            of justice have occurred.. . Once a confession has been obtained, the likelihood of conviction is
            greatly enhanced.

Id. 232.

         The experts in the psychology of interrogation generally
_________________________

            19As explained more fully in their reports, in order to complete their evaluations Drs. Gudjonsson and
MacKeith require additional evidence, including questioning of the law enforcement officers who conducted the
interrogations, and reports or transcripts of all the additional statements not in petitioner's possession. These
examples are illustrative only; some of the material that can only be provided by an evidentiary hearing, and by
successful resolution of petitioner's efforts to obtain further documents by subpoena and litigation.

            20Petitioner was only recently able to secure Dr. Orshe's participation.  He requires additional time to
evaluate the confessions, as well as all the materials referred to by Drs. MacKeith and GudJonsson in their
reports. See n. xx, supra. 


agree on the terminology used to describe the three basic "types" of false confession. Dr.
Oudjonsson believes that the three types may overlap in certain individual cases more often
than is usually thought. The three types are:
        1. Voluntary False Confessions "These are offered without any external pressure from the
police. Commonly these people go voluntarily to the police station and inform the police that they
have committed the crime in question. They may have read about the crime in the newspaper or
seen it reported on television."  These are given by people most likely to be frankly disturbed,
(such as the 200 or more people who confessed to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.)
        The four main reasons why people give false voluntary confessions are a morbid or
pathological desire for notoriety, an unconscious need to expiate guilt, including guilt which may be
related to an imaginary bad act, an inability to distinguish fact from fantasy, and a
desire to protect or assist the real culprit.
Id. 226-27.

        2. Coerced Compliant False Confessions  The subject confesses to relieve intolerable
pressure of interrogation, or to obtain promised short-term gain.  The suspect does not confess
voluntarily, "but comes to give in to the the demands and pressures of the interrogators for some
immediate instrumental gain."  Those short-term gains frequently include a promise that the suspect
can go home after confessing, that the interview will be over, that the suspect will not be arrested,
or prosecuted, that the confession will give the suspect a method of coping with the demands of
the interrogation. "The subject's perceived immediate instrumental gain of confessing has to do with
an escape from a stressful or intolerable situation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[M]aking a false self-incriminating admission or confession is perceived as more desirable in the
short term than the perceived 'punishment' of continued silence or denial." Id. 227-28.
        3. Coerced Internalized False Confession  The subject doubts his own memory and comes to
believe that he did indeed commit the acts described, even though he has no memory of the acts. One condition associated with this type of false confession is where the suspect has no memory at all of the relevant days or times, because of amnesia or alcohol blackout. The second type of "memory distrust syndrome"  concerns suspects who, at the start of police interrogation are quite sure they did not commit the offense, "but because of subtle manipulative influences by the interrogator they gradually begin to distrust their own memories and beliefs. [Dr. Richard]Ofshe conceptualizes this type of coerced internalized false confessionas analogous to 'thought reform'. That is, coercive and manipulative interrogation tactics and techniques induce in suspects 'sufficient self-doubt and confusion to cause them to adjust their perceptions of reality.'" Id. 228, quoting Ofshec Coerced Confessions: The
Logic Of Seemingly Irrational Action. 6

                                    Cultic Studies Journal 4-5.
        Dr. Ofshe's work generally discusses the phases of the interrogation process itself, and the
incremental quality of the decision-making process whereby a suspect comes to say "I did it".
Some of these processes are the same for false as for true confessions, some are distinctive.
Ofshe considers the transactional analysis of the process between the two people involved in the
interrogation. He has distinguished two phases of interrogative encounters. Phase one is
persuasion, what most consider the interrogation:  the process of questioning which, if the
interrogator is successful, leads to admission. Phase two is the narrative, which he believes to
be far more important than usually thought. The narrative, rich with convincing detail, is what
makes the confession plausible to a court and a jury. See generally works by Ofshe, cited in
Gudjonsson, listed in app. 9.
        One of the most significant contributions to this field made by Drs. Gudjonsson and
MacKeith is their extensive research into the definition and occurrence of enduring psychological
qualities which, apart from any pre-existing mental or physiological problems, contribute to the
likelihood that a person will confess to crimes they did not commit. These vulnerabilities include:
        1.  Suggestibility, defined as the uncritical acceptance of information during questioning. It is
the subject's tendency, in a closed social interaction, to accept messages that affect subsequent
behavior.  To test this factor Dr. Gudjonsson has formulated two instruments, the Gudjonsson
Suggestibility Scale, GSS-1 and GSS-2.  The subject is read a Story, memory is tested at intervals,
then asked misleading questions to test "yield" in responses.  Then the subject is given negative
feedback, questions are asked again, and the difference in responses measures "shift". The test,
when combined with a battery of other tests usually given a research subject, also provides
significant comparative information about the individual's memory capacity.  Another category
discussed and researched by Dr. Gudjonsson is
        2.  Compliance, defined as the uncritical conformance to the demands of authority. Typically
this quality is connected to a tendency to cope by avoidance of conflict rather than confrontation.
Tests used to measure this factor include self-reporting on a self-esteem scale, the individual's entire
psychological, medical, and social history, and clinical evaluation.
        The testing and evaluation performed by Drs. Gudjonsson and MacKeith also provides
empirical informa