LEXINGTON -- Burr Datz wanted to hear a full-blown confession.

Datz, director of Washington and Lee University's leadership development program, sat in the last row of the college's Stackhouse Theater, waiting for Jayson Blair, disgraced former New York Times reporter and the night's featured speaker, to deliver.

Blair spoke to about 150 students, journalism professionals and professors at W&L's Journalism Ethics Institute on Friday night. He had plagiarized and fabricated facts in about half of his 73 stories at one of the nation's leading newspapers more than six years earlier. He has said that this would be the last time he would speak publicly about his transgressions and 2003 resignation.

Datz stayed through Blair's 15-minute presentation, during which he read from behind a lectern onstage.

"He said it. 'I did it. I'm sorry. This is what I learned,' " Datz said before ducking around the corner 10 minutes into the question-and-answer portion.

Students pitched the first few questions, benignly:

How prevalent is plagiarism in journalism? How were you able to go so far?

Blair -- his orange pullover sweater and tendency to shift his weight at center stage -- fielded them gamely. His lies, including making up names, not going to the scenes of stories and lifting material from other writers, ballooned because they started small, and the pressures of the post-Sept. 11, 2001, newsroom at the Times didn't help.

A few questions in, Toni Locy spoke up, sending her question in a more indignant tone. How could these baby steps become such big fabrications?

"Why didn't you recognize that? Why didn't you stop?" asked Locy, a former reporter who had worked at USA Today during a similar scandal involving one of its reporters, Jack Kelley. Locy now teaches legal reporting at W&L.

"I was sick, and that is a large part of it. I was immature," Blair said, acknowledging that he had some personal problems. Lying is like the gradual process of erosion, and he became desensitized to breaking ethical rules, he said.

For the rest of the question hour, emotionally charged back-and-forths came from the many nonstudents in the audience. Did you realize what you were doing was wrong? Are you sorry? How could you let this happen?

Upon his resignation, The New York Times published a 7,200-word article in May 2003. "The widespread fabrication and plagiarism represent a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper," the story began.

He's since rebuilt his life, now employed as a life coach specializing in substance abuse, mood, developmental and attention deficit disorders in Northern Virginia. He will still be willing to talk in classes and private discussions about his journalism career, he said.

So why should anyone trust Blair now?

"I don't know," he said, microphone off, moments before walking onto the stage.

The third time that question was asked, in the final minutes of the presentation, it came from CBS "Sunday Morning" producer Jon Carras.

"People have to decide for themselves what they're willing to believe," Blair responded.