JUSTICE IN THE BACK ROOM

Seldom has police brutality and the zealous wringing out of false confessions from innocent victims been more tellingly indicted than in journalist Raab's cannonade against the New York Police Department. The ""back room"" of his title is the grilling room in every precinct station. And do the cops use their fists? they do, they do. The ostensible subject of Raab's jeremiad is the police handling of the Janice Wylie-Emily Hoffert murder in which a false confession was extorted from George Whitmore, a Negro. Later when Richard Robles is tried and convicted for the same crime, Raab also casts grave doubt upon the value of his confession. Although Robles is now serving a life sentence, Raab contends that he could not have committed the crime and that his admission of guilt was secured through brainwashing. Raab concurs with the recent Supreme Court decision outlawing confessions in which the accused has not had recourse to a lawyer and recommends a ""thirteenth juror"" in the grilling room.... Tightly written with no detail spared for the squeamish.