Lawyer Says Agent’s Sex and Marriage Talk Spurred Client’s Confession
A lawyer for accused arsonist Wesley Irons says his confession should be thrown out because of psychological coercion by a U.S. Forest Service Agent who talked of sex and marriage while lying next to him in the grass.
The agent, Jane Wright, befriended Irons and was handcuffed along with him during his arrest, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The agent pretended to be in trouble because of her relationship with the man. While chained together, the two lay side-by-side on the grass where Wright talked about the future of their relationship. Another agent later encouraged Irons to confess to “save Jane,” a ploy that Irons’ lawyer calls the “save Jane ruse.”
“We had a fantasy world created by the Forest Service,” argued defense lawyer Gregory Isaacs. He is asking U.S. District Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton of Knoxville to toss the confession.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Schmutzer argued the tactics were legal, the story reports. “There was a ruse there, but there were no threats made, no promises made,” he said.
Irons is accused of setting hundreds of fires in the Cherokee National Forest.
