LA Murder Suspect Freed Over Coerced Confession

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man on trial for murder is a free man after a judge determined that Los Angeles police coerced him into confessing.

Edward Arch had spent more than three years in jail awaiting trial before being freed this week.

Superior Court Judge Harvey Giss granted a request by Arch's attorney to dismiss the case because of a lack of evidence.

Arch was 19 at the time of his 2007 arrest. He confessed after an interrogation by police about the death of a man who was shot following a verbal dispute with a group of men in North Hills.

The Los Angeles Times says the judge found that officers broke interrogation rules including wrongly promising Arch that he would receive leniency if he confessed.

Before confessing, Arch repeatedly denied being involved and offered to take a lie detector test.

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