I don't even understand how CW could be "railroaded" into a confession. He has legal representation - and while it's a public defender, it's also an extremely high profile case. We can read the motions they filed. They have been on it, aggressive, strategic, and smart. And again - it's all very, very public. We can see what they have been doing and preserving his rights. This isn't some 15 year old kid who got talked into signing his life away by some intern for a non-violent crime. Nor is he in a foreign country without an interpreter, or signing his name to a confession in another language.
As much as it's hard to understand how anyone could defend someone like CW, it gives me faith in our legal system to see the job they are doing. And with such a high profile case, I would suspect every move they made was discussed and reviewed. And knowing this case could be extra scrutinized. Does not having time to consult with Mommy violate his rights? Also, given this family dynamic, I think it could be very true that CW hid behind his lawyers to his parents. I think
@gitana1 made that point in your awesome podcast. He is such a coward! I feel he can't even take ownership of his own decisions and face his parents - easier to blame it on his defense team. Sorry, mom, the lawyers told me to do it. Poor Chris, victimized again.
It seems very possible that his defense team told him that his "confession" of Shanann strangling the girls was not going to be a viable defense. I referenced the Lululemon murder case in Bethesda here before, but it reminds me of it in the ludicrous cover story the suspect told investigators. The girl murdered her coworker in a Lululemon store, with multiple objects, then stepped in the blood and walked around the store in men's sneakers to make male sized footprints out of blood everywhere. She tore the girl's pants to make it look like she was raped. Then gave herself some superficial cuts, tied her wrists with zip ties, and blamed it all on two masked men. And no matter how much the evidence was showing otherwise - she kept insisting her story was the truth. The police who initially believed her eventually thought otherwise and arrested her.
By the time she got a private attorney, her counsel knew the tale she had told the police was not going to be feasible to defend. And that if they put her on the witness stand, she would be destroyed on cross examination for all the lies and contradictions she had told. The victim's family did not want a plea deal because they wanted the maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. (Did not qualify for a death penalty case in Maryland.) And knew the DA had enough to get that conviction. And they did. She had a top criminal defense attorney and the best defense they could come up with was that she "snapped" and "unfortunately and stupidly caused the death of Jayna Murray." ("Unfortunately" and "stupidly" inflicted over 331 individual and separate wounds to her victim.)
I'm sorry/please delete if too off topic. My point with this specific case is that even with a top private criminal defense attorney, that's still the very best defense they could come up with. They knew they couldn't defend the ridiculous story and subsequent lies she had told the police investigators. If a plea had been offered (the defense team did approach the DA on a plea, but they declined to even have those talks), she would have taken it. CW's story of murdering SW as in a rage for strangling her daughters is as ludicrous to me as blaming two masked men.
CW was finally wise to do the same and blaming his public defenders for "forcing" him into a plea deal is so wrong and offensive.