Law professor comments on legacy of Buddhist temple massacre

Gary Stuart, Senior Policy Advisor at the College of Law, recently was quoted in an article in The Arizona Republic, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the 1991 Buddhist temple massacre, and exploring its impact on Arizona law enforcement and the Arizona judiciary.

“The slaying 20 years ago of nine people at a West Valley Buddhist temple, while tragic in its own right, also changed the face of Arizona politics and still shines a light on the issue of police interrogation techniques,” writes reporter William Hermann in the Aug. 14 article.

Police detectives at first coerced confessions from four Tucson men, who were soon proven innocent, then extracted confessions from two Valley teenagers, Johnathan Doody, then 17, and Alessandro Garcia, then 16. They were convicted and sent to prison, but Doody has appealed, saying his confession was coerced.

Stuart, who authored a book on the case and the confessions coerced from both innocent and guilty suspects, Innocent Until Interrogated, said “the danger to society and constitutional mandates are every bit as important in true confessions as they are in false confessions.”

Stuart said the U.S. Supreme Court will have another opportunity this fall to revisit the case because the Arizona Attorney General’s Office has petitioned the court for a second review. The Court decision on whether they will review the case will likely be announced the first Monday in October. If the Court does not take the case on review, it will be returned to Arizona under a writ of habeas corpus. The state will then have to either retry Doody, or release him. If the Court accepts the case, another round of briefing and argument will be scheduled on what is becoming the most important “true coerced confession” case in America.

Read the article here.

Stuart also was quoted in an accompanying article, “Buddhist temple murders altered police interrogation policies.” Read that article here.

Stuart earned degrees in business and law at the University of Arizona. He joined Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in 1967 and has tried more than 100 jury cases. He serves as an adjunct professor at the College of Law and at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, and also served an eight-year term on the Arizona Board of Regents. His books include: Innocent Until Interrogated, Miranda: The Story of America's Right to Remain Silent and The Gallup 14, a novel.
 

Judy Nichols, [email protected]
Office of Communications, College of Law
480-727-7895