Anatomy Of A Bad Confession Update

We reported a year and a half ago about an extraordinary case that involves the death of a baby, a coerced confession and a virtually unprecedented legal claim.

It's the case of Nga Troung, a Vietnamese-American teenager who was accused by Worcester police of killing her baby back in 2008. While in her care, the 13-month-old child had stopped breathing. Worcester police aggressively questioned her for hours, pushed her to admit that she smothered her child, and and eventually she confessed.

A judge ruled that the confession was coerced. After spending three years in jail, she was finally released, and then filed suit against the city of Worcester for violating her civil rights.

Then, this past spring, the city responded with a counter-suit, arguing that it was her lawyer who was at fault for her wrongful imprisonment. Today, there's a hearing in federal court to consider the merits of that claim.

You can find all of WBUR's David Boeri's reporting on the Troung case here.

David Boeri, WBUR senior reporter