I have yet to meet one person that believes they would confess to a serious crime they didn’t commit. Yet, it happens all the time. In fact, there have been approximately 375 exonerations due to DNA evidence since 1989 and in 29% of those cases, the exoneree had given a false confession. This means that almost one out of three DNA exonerations involved a false confession. And these statements have a tremendous impact in a courtroom. Confessions are so powerful, in fact, that juries will often discount actual physical evidence if it contradicts the confession. Just ask Jeffrey Deskovic who, at 16, confessed to the rape and murder of a classmate. Even though DNA from the semen taken from the victim’s body didn’t match Jeff, the jury convicted him. Jeff wasn’t exonerated until 15 years later when further DNA testing showed that the semen belonged to a known murderer who eventually confessed to the crime.
Our client, Jason Carroll, definitely didn’t think he would ever confess to something he didn’t do. And even after he told police the story they wanted to hear, hoping the truth would come out in the end, he never believed a jury would ignore the fact that his statements didn’t match the undisputed evidence in the case and convict him. But that’s exactly what happened.
Arrested at 19 years old, Jason has been in prison for 33 years for the murder of Sharon Johnson in Bedford, New Hampshire, a murder he did not commit. The only evidence linking him to the crime was his coerced confession, given at the screaming urgency of his own mother, then a police officer who says she had been promised immunity for her son if she could convince him to “talk.” Officers involved claimed it was one of the most intense interrogations they had ever witnessed, and to this day, I find the recording of it difficult to listen to. It was, as New Hampshire Public Radio Senior Reporter Jason Moon puts it, the day “a lie that refuses to die was born.”
Season Two of Jason Moon’s podcast, Bear Brook: A True Crime Story, which launched on February 20, delves into the murder of Sharon Johnson and how a false confession, a story Jason provided under emotional duress, led to his wrongful conviction.
Here is some additional background on the case:
Sharon Johnson was found dead in a construction pit in Bedford, New Hampshire in July of 1988. Jason was never a suspect in the murder or even questioned about it until November of 1989. Jason was interrogated by police, including by his own mother, over a number of days for countless hours without relief. Ultimately, Jason provided a series of statements over the course of the three-day interrogation that suggested he, his coworker Tony Pfaff, and Sharon’s husband, Ken Johnson, committed the murder. He recanted his statement multiple times, both while he was giving it and afterward. In the end, he was so adamant about his recantation that he refused to repeat the falsehoods in court in order to testify against his co-defendants, even though doing so would have likely resulted in a lighter sentence.
Jason’s statements were so inconsistent with the undisputed forensic evidence in this case, that it was more probable that he was guessing in response to interrogation questions than he had any actual knowledge. In fact, looking at these inaccuracies, it was shocking that Jason was ever a credible suspect, let alone convicted. Here are just a few examples:
In his false confession, Jason said he stabbed the victim using a small pocket knife that has a blade of about 2 ¼ inches. The wound in the victim’s back is around double that size and could not have been caused by that knife.
Jason was asked to pick Ken Johnson out of a photo lineup and he picked the wrong person due to the fact that he did not know who Ken Johnson was.
Jason said he and Tony returned Sharon’s vehicle to the mall parking lot on the night of the murder, but the car was not in the mall parking lot that night and was not found until days later.
Jason said he used the alleged money he was paid for his participation in the murder-for-hire to purchase a car stereo for the truck he was using. The owner of his truck, by contrast, told police that the stereo had been put in the truck before Jason began using it.
Tony Pfaff, Jason’s co-defendant, was acquitted of the charges likely because the jury did not believe his “confession” was true due to the substantial inconsistencies. Shockingly, the charges against Ken Johson, the alleged mastermind of the crime and the one who supposedly hired Tony and Jason to kill his wife, were dropped. But Jason was found guilty of this crime based on the State’s story that his co-worker, Tony, offered him money to help with the murder. Jason is the only one who was ever convicted of a crime.
This story has now been told for the last 33 years and Jason cannot escape it. But, the evidence shows us that it is just a story – a lie that refuses to die. Recently, Jason was denied a petition for an early parole hearing partly because, as the judge stated, he would not accept responsibility for the crime, leaving Jason in an impossible situation. He could have continued the lie and perhaps would be home free right now because of it. But he told the truth. And we will not give up.
We’re so grateful to our partners in this work, including the team at Foley Hoag and investigator John Nardizzi, as well as Jason’s sister, Jackie. In our fight for truth and justice for Jason, we have asked the trial court to let us test the DNA evidence, which has never before been tested, to help us demonstrate what Jason has said all along: He is innocent. We will never stop until we see Jason come home and can give Sharon Johnson’s family the closure they deserve.
Please take a moment to tune in to Season Two of the Bear Brook Podcast: A True Crime Story and thank you for your continued support in this fight.
