Nearly 19 years ago, six Thai Buddhist monks, a nun and two novices were shot to death in Wat Promkunaram, a temple in Phoenix, Arizona. The August 1991 homicides have been called the worst in Arizona history. In 1994 two young men were convicted of the murders and sentenced to prison.
Now a full panel of the 9th Circuit Court has overturned the conviction of one of the young men, Jonathan Doody, because his confession was coerced. "We can readily discern from the audiotapes an extraordinarily lengthy interrogation of a sleep-deprived and unresponsive juvenile under relentless questioning for nearly 13 hours by a tag team of detectives, without the presence of an attorney, and without the protections of proper Miranda warnings," one judge wrote.
The prosecutor at the trial in 1994 sought the death penalty. Many Buddhists, including relatives of the dead monks, wrote to the prosecutor to change his mind. The prosecutor ignored these pleas, but a judge spared Doody's life because it wasn't clear that Doody was the shooter. Doody was sentenced to 250 years in prison.
Prosecutors intend to re-try the case. At least one juror from the first trial has said there was enough evidence to convict Doody without the confession. The apparent motive was robbery, although it isn't clear from news stories that anything was stolen.
Not to diminish the tragic seriousness of this crime, but it does bring to mind this story of the Japanese monk/poet, Ryokan:
one day when Ryokan returned to his hut he discovered a robber, who had broken in and was in the process of stealing the impoverished monk’s few possessions. In the thief’s haste to leave, he left behind a cushion. Ryokan grabbed the cushion and ran after the thief to give it to him. This event prompted Ryokan to compose a haiku:
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.