Court throws out confession in Arizona Buddhist temple slayings

A federal appeals court Thursday threw out a Thai teenager’s confession to the 1991 murders of nine worshipers at a Buddhist temple near Phoenix, ruling that it was coerced by police who interrogated him for nearly 13 hours and failed to properly inform him of his rights.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling is its second to censure Maricopa County sheriff’s detectives’ treatment of the then-17-year-old suspect, Johnathan Doody.

In the 8-3 ruling, the majority noted that the same interrogation team had obtained four other confessions from adult suspects in the temple slayings; all confessions were later proven to be false.

“Nearly 13 hours of relentless overnight questioning of a sleep-deprived teenager by a tag team of officers overbore the will of that teen, rendering his confession involuntary,” the majority said. The ruling also chastised the interrogators for misstating the Miranda rights, telling Doody he had a right to counsel “if” he was involved in a crime.

“In such a circumstance, the invocation of one’s right to counsel would be tantamount to admitting one’s involvement in a crime,” the panel majority ruled.

In the opinion written by Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson, an appointee of President Clinton, the majority said the detective who read Doody his rights when he was detained more than two months after the killings gave such a distorted reading that “it consumed 12 pages of transcript and completely obfuscated the core precepts of Miranda.”

Doody was born in Thailand and brought to Arizona after his mother married a U.S. airman stationed at Luke Air Force Base west of Phoenix.

Doody’s attorney, Victoria Eiger, said she would petition the court for the release of her client, now 35. He is serving nine consecutive life sentences.

Arizona state Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard could order a new trial of Doody on the murder and robbery charges, but the confession cannot be introduced as evidence, Eiger said.

“We’re at a crossroads. Our attorneys are trying to decide whether we will go up to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari or turn it over to Maricopa County authorities,” said Goddard’s press secretary, Molly Edwards.

She said Doody would remain at Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye while authorities decided how to proceed.

On the morning of Aug. 10, 1991, the bodies of nine worshipers at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist Temple were found arrayed in a circle, with gunshot wounds to their heads.

After detectives got the four initial suspects from Tucson to confess, they tied the murder weapon to a friend of Doody and obtained confessions from Doody and another teenager accused of the killings, said court documents.

Charges against the four who confessed were dismissed.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski concurred that Doody had been wronged by the Miranda misstatements but agreed with the three dissenters on the 11-judge panel that Doody’s confession was voluntary.

carol.williams@latimes.com