Jessie was alone with detectives, without parents or a lawyer present, for 4 hours 45 minutes before he made his first confession.
Misskelley wasn't alone with the detectives the whole time, as he went with Allen to visit his father to get the
polygraph release form signed after the initial interview, as documented in the
interview timeline. In reality there was around 3 hours of actual questioning prior to Misskelley first confessing to his presence at the murders, and the questioning was done with his father's consent.
that confession wasn't enough for an arrest warrant because he said the crime had happened in the morning
Rather, Misskelley gave conflicting accounts regarding the time of the murders in his
first recorded confession, including saying "all of this stuff happened that night". But then moments later he said "I went home about noon", which suggests Misskelley had a poor understanding of time.
So they went back to him later in the afternoon to get a "clarification" statement, during which they can be blatantly heard leading Jessie to bring the time later and later until they get him to say a time after the boys were last seen alive.
The
clarification statement starts out:
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Just sit there. Jessie, uh, when when you got with the with the boys and with Jason and Baldwin when you three were in the woods and then the little boys come up, about what time was it? When the boys came up to the woods?
*B01 MISSKELLEY: I would say it was about it was about five or six, five or six.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Now, did you have your watch on at the time?
*B02 MISSKELLEY: Un-uh.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: You didn't have your watch on?
*B03 MISSKELLEY: Un-uh.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Uh, alright you told me earlier around seven or eight or, wh-which time is it?
*B04 MISSKELLEY: It was seven or eight.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Are are you sh-
*B05 MISSKELLEY: I remember it was starting to get dark.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Ok, it
*B06 MISSKELLEY: I remember it was starting to get dark.
DETECTIVE GITCHELL: Ok, well that clears it up. I didn't know, that's what I was wondering, was it getting dark or, or what.
*B07 MISSKELLEY: We got up there at six but the boys come up when it was starting to get dark.
The only think close to "leading Jessie to bring the time later and later" is Gitchell's "alright you told me earlier around seven or eight" which would only be leading if it's a lie, but there's no evidence that it is. Besides that, Misskelley cut Gitchell off to offer "it was starting to get dark" of his own accord, twice in a row no less, which is hardly the behavior of someone being lead.
Thanks for the clarification. I went back to the wiki article out of curiosity and checked the citation on that reference, but it's referencing one of the documentaries. (I understand there are tons and tons of documents (and documentaries) relating to this case and I've barely skimmed.)
Check out
Wikipedia's talk page for the entry to see the ridiculous excuse given for including the 12 hour interrogation lie and ignoring the actual documented timeline.
When one considers, rationally, Jessie's mental disability, it is easy to see (if one is familiar with the mentally challenged) just how easy it was to manipulate his statement and morph it into what the prosecution wanted to hear.
Rationally, you're engaging in supposition which lacks any actual evidence to support it. Furthermore, there's evidence against claims of Misskelley's suggestibility the form of his resistance to
Stidham and Wilkins' attempt to get him to confess to a fabricated story of him robbing a convenience store.
The prosecution attempted to place that idea in the minds of the jury, but the truth is that the only "knot" used was a half-hitch.
Rather, there were two square knots along with one triple half hitch and one quadruple half hitch on Moore, two triple half hitches and two single half hitches with figure eights on Stevie Branch, and all four knots on Christopher Byers were double half hitches, as Lisa Sakevicius
testified in detail regarding during the Baldwin/Echols trial.
Once it was repeated twice starting with alternating hands, making a square knot.
I'm no not expert by any stretch, but I know
half hitches and
square knots, and I'm at a loss as to make sense of what you've said here. Would you please elaborate?
