Court upholds tossing Portland man’s alleged confession to killings

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The state’s highest court has upheld a judge’s suppression of an alleged confession made by Homer Lee Jackson III, marking a significant setback to a Portland case that has been pending since his arrest for allegedly killing several people.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the court found Thursday that two Portland police “detectives’ methods and inducements may have persuaded defendant to tell the detectives what they wanted to hear, whether or not that was the truth.”

Police arrested Jackson in October 2015 and accused him of strangling two teenagers and two women in their 20s who worked as prostitutes in the 1980s. He’s pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder charges.

The state Supreme Court upheld the 2017 ruling by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael A. Greenlick, who threw out statements Jackson made during more than seven hours of questioning by detectives.

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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com