 Alphonso James* By Gretchen Schuldt Alphonso James was arrested in 1985 for killing Delbert Pascavis just hours after Pascavis' body was found. James' name was given to police by a mentally unstable man who wore cowboy chaps and was described by area children as "crazy." James was young, poor, and black. Pascavis was gay, which police noted again and again in their reports. James, 17, was taken to the police station where he was held for more than eight hours. Police said he was given his Miranda rights and that he refused the food, drink, a phone call, and a lawyer. He confessed, police said. James, who had a borderline IQ of about 75, said he was coerced into signing the police-written statement and recanted shortly after he signed it. He denied guilt during his trial and during the 31 years he served in prison. James was waived into adult court, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was paroled in 2017. Here's the thing about that confession: It doesn't match up with other evidence and testimony. But that didn't bother the police. They had their guy. Some inconsistencies, as compiled by the Wisconsin Innocence Project:
During the trial, defense lawyer Martin Kohler asked Detective Gilbert Wank, who wrote James' "confession," about what the police did not ask James. "You didn't ask him what the inside of the apartment looked like, isn't that correct?" Kohler said. "That's correct," Wank said. "Did you ask him if he had walked up and down Booth Street looking for the car or how he knew which red car to go to?" "No, I didn't." "Did you ask him how he knew that the car across the street was the car that fit the keys?" "No, I didn't." Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 "Did you ask him about the ransacking of the apartment?" "No, I didn't...." "Did you ask him which door he exited at the apartment?" "No." "Did you ask him why he wanted to take the car?" "No." "When he said he went through the pockets of the deceased did you ask him if he found anything else in those pockets?" "No, I didn't." "Had you been given a description of what Mr. Pascavis looked like?" "No...." "You didn't ask Alphonso what he was wearing that night, did you?" "No, I didn't." "You didn't ask him what the victim was wearing that night, did you?" "No, I didn't." "When you put together a homicide case, you stated that it's important to get as much information as possible, isn't that correct." "That's correct." "Things to substantiate a person's store, isn't that correct?" "That's correct...." "No attempt was made to tape record this conversation, was there?" "No." "Yet, those things are available if you need them, isn't that correct?" "Yes, they are...." "And even though this was a murder investigation, you just didn't care about all these other facts, isn't that correct?" "No, that's not correct." "Well, what's wrong? What is correct?" "I care about it, but my job is to get the statement. My job wasn't to make a story for Mr. James. Mr. James was to give me the story. I wasn't to give Mr. James a story." Wank testified that James called Patricia Lewis, a girlfriend, after he gave his statement. "He informed her that it was all, and he wouldn't be seeing her for about 20 years because he killed a guy," Wank testified. Wank did not report James' statement for abou three months. He did not even make a note of it, he testified. "I just though it was such an ironic statement that when it occurred that it shouldn't be recorded," he said. He reported it only after conferring with Cook, the assistant district attorney, he said. The Milwaukee Police Department enjoyed a remarkably high homicide clearance rate of about 84% in the era of James' arrest, much higher than the 65% or so average seen in other large cities. The question is, what did police do to get it? *Photo courtesy of Hupy & Abraham 
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