Interview · Wrongful convictions

Joshua Tepfer

Senior Attorney and Co-Director, The Exoneration Project, Chicago; Partner, Loevy & Loevy

https://youtu.be/c1QB1wfpjNY ↗

Chapters

Key moments from the conversation, each paired with a Korean case that raises the same question.

Chapter 01

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Individual misconduct, or systems that protect it?

His view of wrongful convictions moved from honest mistakes, to deliberate misconduct, to the institutions that let misconduct last.
Wrongdoing exists in every field. What marks a failing justice system is that it does not find and correct it.
His sharpest criticism is for institutions that protect their own legitimacy or people instead of exposing failure.

The Korean parallel

Yakchon intersection murder case (2000)

A 15-year-old was convicted of killing a taxi driver after a coerced confession. Another suspect was identified while he was in prison, yet the case was not corrected until a 2016 retrial. In 2021 a court awarded compensation for the wrongful conviction.

Chapter 02

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When does one wrongful conviction reveal a pattern?

One wrongful conviction does not by itself prove a pattern of misconduct.
But acts like planting evidence or fabricating testimony justify looking at the officer's other cases.
He separates systematic misconduct from isolated errors caused by poor training, mistaken identification or the limits of forensic science.

The Korean parallel

Samrye Nara Supermarket case (1999)

Three young men, poor and with intellectual disabilities, were convicted after confessing to a robbery that ended in a death. They were acquitted at a 2016 retrial after the court rejected their confessions as unreliable.

Chapter 03

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Why are teenagers so vulnerable to false confessions?

Interrogation can push suspects to value immediate relief from questioning over the long-term cost of confessing.
Teenagers feel immediate pressure more strongly and find long-term risks harder to weigh.
So even lawful interrogation that isn't deliberately abusive can carry a serious risk of false confession.

The Korean parallel

Suwon homeless girl murder case (2007)

Five teenagers were prosecuted after investigators obtained confessions tying them to a girl's death. The convictions were overturned, and a later civil judgment criticised prosecutors for misleading questioning and for not giving the teenagers a fair chance to explain.

Chapter 04

Discussed throughout the recording

Why does correcting a wrongful conviction take so long?

Courts and prosecutors put new cases ahead of reopening judgments they consider final.
Post-conviction hearings can be postponed again and again, and lawyers meet resistance when they point to earlier official misconduct.
A system built to resolve new cases gives too little time and money to correcting old errors.

The Korean parallel

Kim Shin-hye case (2000–2025)

Kim was sentenced to life for allegedly killing her father. A retrial was authorised in 2015, but she was not acquitted and released until January 2025, roughly 24 years after her arrest.

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Josh Rovner →