Witness discounts confession to Ore. baby killing

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An expert witness has discounted the confession of a Springfield woman accused of killing her newborn baby.

Angelica Swartout is being retried on an aggravated murder charge. A jury was unable to reach a verdict in February.

No remains have been found, and her confession has been central to the case. Swartout has disavowed it.

The Eugene Register-Guard reports (http://bit.ly/Lup5bE) University of San Francisco law professor Richard Leo testified Thursday that detectives may have unintentionally encouraged Swartout’s confession through their lines of questioning.

Leo also told the judge, Suzanne Chanti (chahn-tee), that when considered along with the lack of other evidence against Swartout, the confession was “almost certainly false.”

The judge ruled out that part of the testimony, saying it’s the jury’s job to weigh all the evidence.

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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com