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Montana Bride May Have Had Statements “Shaped”

Could the Montana bride, Jordan Graham, who is accused of pushing her husband off of a cliff at Glacier National Park, be a victim of confession shaping? Attorney for the bride, Michael Donahoe said i...
Montana Bride May Have Had Statements “Shaped”
Written by Lacy Langley
  • Could the Montana bride, Jordan Graham, who is accused of pushing her husband off of a cliff at Glacier National Park, be a victim of confession shaping? Attorney for the bride, Michael Donahoe said in court filings late Friday that he thinks this is the case, according to AP.

    Among other things, Donahoe claims that FBI investigator Stacey Smiedala sent a police detective from the room so that he could “shape” Jordan Graham’s first interrogation, which took place on July 16, without having to record it. He also claims that her statements about his death being an accident, and her fear that no one would believe her were twisted into an exaggerated version.

    The recorded portion of the transcript stated that her and Cody Johnson were arguing about whether they should have waited to get married, eight days after the wedding. She said Johnson suggested they drive to the National Park, and at one point, he was talking to her like a child and grabbed her arm. She said that she knocked his arm off, and pushed him in one motion, which caused him to accidentally fall.

    “I think I didn’t realize that one push would mean for sure you were over,” Graham said, according to the transcript. “I felt like I shouldn’t have gotten married at that time, but not, there were not any issues of being with Cody, no. I feel like he’s the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with.”

    According to the prosecution’s court filings, she initially said that Cody Johnson disappeared on July 7th after he drove off with friends. Then she led park rangers to his body three days later so the search would be called off “and the cops will be out of it.”

    Donahoe is now asking a federal judge to dismiss the murder indictment against Jordan Graham, in order to block prosecutors from using the statement in question. He also hopes that this action will disallow them to introduce a new theory that Graham blindfolded Johnson before he was pushed.

    Image via youtube

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