***

Anthony Sylvanus made his formal confession to the Langley killing in 2001, 20 years, two months, and 20 days after the doctor's death. By that time, Detective Suminski had passed away. Two Philadelphia detectives were present for the confession, as were Sylvanus's public defenders -- the Commonwealth had already agreed to offer a life sentence for the crime -- and the interview took place in the more neutral Criminal Justice Center rather than the police homicide unit. Sylvanus calmly detailed the crime, informed the detectives that he had committed the murder with a juvenile named Raymond Ortiz, and added that he had confessed his transgressions to a priest some time before his fingerprint alerted police.

Did he know Felix Rodriquez? Not by his last name, but Sylvanus knew a Felix from the neighborhood. In 1981, when both of them were in the county jail, they had run into each other. Sylvanus had asked Rodriquez what he was in for, and Rodriquez told him he'd been accused of a homicide somewhere on Kensington Avenue where a guy was killed in his store. Sylvanus assumed he was talking about the Langley robbery and murder; even 20 years later, he remembered the exchange:

Q: Did you tell him that you robbed that store?

A: No.

Q: Did you know that it was a doctor's office?

A: I knew, but Felix never mentioned anything along those lines that it was a doctor's office.

Q: Why didn't you tell him?

A: 'Cause I was facing serious charges already. It was stupid. I didn't care if he took the fall or not. Better him than me.

When the statement was concluded, Sylvanus signed the bottom of every page. An error appeared on page three, and he initialed there as well. One last thing was on the detectives' minds.

Q: Are you aware that people are incarcerated for this crime?

A: Yes, when I first confessed to this murder, you came back and said there is a problem, that someone else was arrested for this crime.

Q: We explained to you earlier that two people confessed to this crime and were sentenced to prison. Can you explain that?

A: They were either crazy or stupid.

***

Anthony Sylvanus may have been joking, but he wasn't far off when he commented that only a crazy or stupid person would admit to a crime he hadn't committed. False confessions are often obtained from those suspects most vulnerable to suggestibility and compliance; juveniles and adults suffering from intellectual disability predominate the list of known exonerees who falsely confessed. In the case of Atkins v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court, while barring the death penalty for mentally retarded people, expressly noted their greater likelihood of falsely confessing, and thus facing "a special risk of wrongful execution."

Russell Weinberger turned out to be intellectually disabled, with an IQ score between 60 and 65. Perhaps Detective Suminski knew this--at the very least, he might have had his suspicions when Weinberger spelled "Cumberland" without an e or an a. On the other hand, some such confessors come to believe in their own guilt. Had Weinberger convinced himself that he was guilty of Langley's murder? The evidence isn't clear. A few years after the trial was over and he had been given the 15-to-30-year sentence he had bargained for, Weinberger complained about the deal he had received--not that he had confessed to a crime he didn't commit, or that the police had framed him. His complaint was that he should have been given the three-to-10-year sentence he had initially been offered. But in the late '90s, when he came up for parole, Weinberger professed his innocence and was turned down. Members of the parole board felt that he had "failed to take responsibility for the crime."