The Interrogation

Not that this is what happened in the Reid case, but as I continue to write this story, I am reminded of the Scottsboro case in 1930s Alabama . This landmark United States Supreme Court case (Powell v. Alabama) established the principle that indigent criminal defendants be afforded counsel when charged with a capital offense. The case centered around nine Black boys whose lives were turned upside down after being falsely accused of having raped two White women on a train. The boys were arrested despite the fact that the story had been made up by the women; that's right, the rapes never occurred. When the young fellas realized that their proclaim of innocence was falling on deaf ears with the police, to satisfy their interrogators, they gave in, stopped professing their innocence, and began pointing the finger at one another.

At some point during the police interrogation in the Reid case, a different picture began to emerge. The motif that appeared before, during and after police involvement with the three young witnesses (Richard, Tyrone, and Dajuan) and suspects was that Dwayne did it and that he acted alone. But, for some reason or other (after hours of interrogation), the three young men began speculating for the detectives why they thought Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett might have been closer to the end of the block to where the killer stood with his victim.

Despite the fact that Reid and Bennett were several feet away from the killer when he shot Mr. Janke, the young men began toying around with placing Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett in the same picture frame with the confessed killer. It was at this juncture that their stories became inconsistent. This was the crossroad where obvious guesswork on the part of the three young witnesses came into play. It became clear to me that they were trying to make their story coincide with Ms. Hill's. Police statements show that their answers were no longer consistent, and that they began to do a lot of flip-flopping.

Since Ms. Lorraine Hill was unable to identify anyone, it was essential to get an involved witness to corroborate her story that there were two males who stood one on each side of Mr. Janke, because without that, the Commonwealth had no case against either man. Mr. Mackey, whose girlfriend was pregnant at the time, told a private investigator that after being threatened with being locked up for something that he did not do, that he began to go along with whatever the police wanted.

Early during Dajuan's interrogation, the seventeen-year-old was asked by a detective, "Why did you come forward to us, the police, and tell us that Wayne (Dwayne) shot the guy?" and he responded, "I was scared that you all were going to lock me up for murder. I didn't know he was going to shoot anybody. I was a block away." Dajuan Bennett and Tyrone Mackey's police reports are consistent with King's in that Mr. Reid was not standing near the professed killer when he robbed and shot Mr. Janke.

Ms. Hill gave her scenario of what happened to the police detectives four days before the original three, soon-to-be government witnesses gave theirs. Tyrone Mackey, his brother Richard King and Dajaun Bennett seemed consistent throughout their statements to the police in that Dwayne robbed and shot Mr. Janke. Never did any of them outright say that it was Dwayne, Carlton and Giovanni. So, why did it suddenly change?

When a parent hears something break in a room where children are playing, he/she usually stops what they are doing, goes into that room and asks, "Is everyone alright?" However, after finding no injuries, the next question that usually follows is, "Who did it?" Not wanting to be falsely accused and having to face the consequences, the innocent party points out everyone at that time who was involved. Most of us can relate to the singsong mantra of, "it wasn't me, it was so and so and them." But, if "so and so and them" are blood related, w-e-l-l, the parent just might be faced with, "ums", "uhs" and "I don't knows".

The Bennett cousins appeared to be the exception, because from the very beginning they placed the onus where it belonged, which was on their cousin, Dwayne. They could have easily lied and pointed the finger at the three who were unrelated to them, but they did not do that. Since each of the three involved witnesses (Dajuan Bennett, Tyrone Mackey and Richard King) was interrogated in a different room, why then was Dwayne's name the only one to keep popping up as if he had acted alone? Why was Dwayne the only one out of the six to be lashed out at? Why does everyone except for Dwayne mention not wanting the incident to be on their conscience? And, why did Dwayne become angry with the five for being upset with him over what he had done? Do you really believe that this is how willing partners in a robbery/murder behave?