Understanding the Mystery of False Confessions. Don't miss our researcher/expert responses at the end of this article: Saul Kassin, Walter Katz, Karen Franklin, and Larry Barksdale.“I would never confess to something I didn’t do!”It is naturally hard to understand why anyone would confess to a crime they had not committed. Yet, in North America we can trace false confessions back to at least 1.
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Salem Witch Trials where “large numbers of mostly women were tried for witchcraft on the basis of confessions extracted by torture and threats” (Kassin, 2. More than 3. 00 years later, people continue to falsely confess to crimes ranging from academic cheating to murder. But the mystery of why someone would falsely confess persists.
Unlike the Salem Witch Trials, most false confessions today are provided under psychological duress, but without torture or threats of physical harm. Do the generally accepted modern police methods still produce false confessions, or does the responsibility for false confession fall entirely on the confessor? There is a tendency to believe “others” might well confess under duress–but most people think they, themselves, would never do such a thing (Horgan, Russano, Meissner & Evans, 2. This belief illustrates the reality that most of us have no idea of what it feels like to undergo an interrogation. More than 8. 0% of those taken into custody by the police waive their Miranda rights (Sangero & Halpert, 2. This is very similar to the numbers waiving their rights in actual custody situations, and comports with the general impression that “if you have nothing to hide you have no reason to insist on legal counsel”. Kassin, a leading researcher in the false confessions area, refers to this as the innocence- confession paradox–wherein the Miranda warning does not protect those most in need of protection–the innocent.
Innocent people think, since they did nothing wrong, that cooperating with the interrogators will simply expose their innocence. Instead, waiving their right to silence exposes them to the risk of false confession. Those who have a criminal past are much less likely to waive their right to silence (Sangero & Halpern, 2. Your parents do that to you growing up. I mean your brother is not going to tell on himself.
I have never once said, . I don’t care how much she told me that he has done told on me, I am in trouble, it would be easier if I would go ahead and admit it.”—Mock juror.
Still, why would anyone confess to something they have not done? If you believe justice will prevail, why would you confess, especially to a very serious crime? There are a number of possible reasons, but the most compelling relates to the power of the interrogation process.
The majority (about 6. Redlich, Kulish & Steadman, 2. Something powerful clearly happens during the interrogation process itself.
An eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other dramatic event that he or she has witnessed. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the.
The Innocence Project has cleared 2. Their FAQ on false confessions offers the following summation of false confessions: “Over 2. DNA evidence in the U. S. After all, why would they confess if they didn’t do it (Adams, 2. The common sense of this is so powerful that juries tend to weigh the confession (even if recanted after legal counsel is provided) as the single most compelling piece of evidence.
List of false apparitions - Latest news (November 2013) 'And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. The evidence of at least two witnesses was required for convicting the accused (Num. To learn more about exonerated men and women, visit the Death Penalty Information Center’s Innocence Database. Today, due to the work of.
Saul Kassin lists the three major forms of false confessions: Voluntary confessions: This is a confession made to protect someone else, made because you are delusional and believe you did the crime, or made to attract attention to yourself. Examples include the 2. Lindbergh baby, or more recently, John Mark Karr’s confession to killing Jon. Benet Ramsey or Amanda Knox’s false confession to and subsequent conviction for murdering her roommate in Italy. If the suspect is a juvenile, mentally handicapped, experiencing extreme grief, or sleep- deprived–under the pressure of the interrogation session, they can actually come to believe they committed the crime and thus confess. They were tried, found guilty in 1. DNA evidence showed him to be the real perpetrator.?
While there are certainly personality variables that play into false confessions, most people in the legal system (judges, attorneys and jurors) under- estimate the power of the situational forces acting upon police suspects. Even “normal” people without impairments that reduce resilience (like mental illness) can be worn down by an interrogation and give false confessions (Davis & Leo, 2. What an innocent (and many guilty) interrogation subject wants to do is to explain their innocence, and be reassured that their explanation is valid. The “wearing down process” in interrogation thwarts such attempts on the detainee’s part. Instead, the interrogation focuses on the detainee’s wish to be understood, but from the perspective of guilt: how they want to be seen as cooperative, how they want to share with the interrogator a less culpable sense that the detainee must have been caught up in the moment and behaved atypically. As part of this process, the interrogator reassures them that they will be seen as a better person if they cooperate, that the legal outcome could be improved if they confess, or tells the detainee that co- perpetrators, if any, are also being interrogated and that he or she may want to assign blame to them before they assign it to the detainee (Davis & Leo, 2.
They never even gave him a psych evaluation. Like they just kept battering him in the interrogation room and just on and on and on.
I mean anybody is going to be mentally broke down or emotionally broken down after so long.”—Mock juror. If the interrogation process continues without food, drink or sleep, “a perfect storm of glucose depleting stress, fatigue and sleep deprivation” occurs. Even if offered food or drink, a detainee may be too anxious or overwhelmed to accept.
This results in poor decision- making, cognitive decline and over- reactivity to stress (Davis & Leo, 2. The more depleted the detainee becomes, the less compelling the arguments of the interrogator need to be in order to persuade. Further, as they become more depleted, their ability to perceive manipulation by interrogators also declines. In this distorted environment, detainees are more likely to blindly see what the authorities are saying as a simple reality from which there is no escape (Wentzel, Tomczak & Herrmann, 2. Without a clear- headed act of will (which is undermined by the stress and circumstances of interrogation), the easiest path for a detainee is to do or say whatever must be said to make the interrogation stop (Davis & Leo, 2. Other researchers refer to the state of mind during a difficult interrogation as “interrogation myopia” (Scherr & Madon, 2.
When under the stress of the interrogation, all the detainee can “see” is the short- term situation in which they feel trapped. Their decisions are thus driven in- the- moment and not by their long- term interests.
In academic research, when participants are falsely accused of having engaged in cheating–their ability to understand Miranda warnings was significantly lower than those not accused of cheating. Being falsely accused, which happens during the interrogation of those who falsely confess, causes tremendous stress and interferes with comprehension of the warnings meant to protect the innocent. The detainee simply doesn’t “hear” or understand the words being said to them. It all seems unreal since they know they are innocent and a horrible mistake is occurring. Additionally, the expectation of a lengthy interrogation has been found to exacerbate the vulnerability of the detainee to make short- sighted decisions about confessing falsely to simply avoid the ongoing (and seemingly never- going- to- end) interrogation (Madon, Yang, Smalarz, Guyll & Scherr, 2. This short- sightedness is thought to be particularly likely among innocent detainees as well as those with psychological or cognitive vulnerabilities.
The innocent presume their innocence will prevail and that a false confession will be proven false in the long run and, in the short run, the interrogation will end. Those with psychological or cognitive vulnerabilities tend to be impulsive and that can also lead to a false confession due to the pressures felt in the interrogation room. Warnings differ across jurisdictions in the United States in length, reading difficulty and whether they are administered verbally or in writing. Further, if the police interrogators minimize the importance of the Miranda warnings, it can send the message to the suspect that waiving their rights is in their long- term interests–even though it most assuredly is not (Scherr & Madon, 2. There is, of course, no way to reliably estimate the actual rate of false confessions, but it is thought higher than commonly believed (Davis & Leo, 2. There are three errors that are most prone to lead to a false confession (Adams, 2. Misclassification error: The investigator enters the room believing the suspect is guilty (sometimes due to evidence or a “hunch”).
Coercion error: The interrogator accuses the suspect of committing the crime and makes implied or direct threats to convince the suspect it is better to confess now to quickly end the stress of the interrogation (necessarily without regard to the long- term consequences of confession). Supplying key details: The interrogator knowingly or unknowingly provides the suspect with key non- public details of the crime which the suspect then incorporates into a false confession. What researchers refer to as “investigator bias” is a key factor in false confessions.
If the detainee is examined with an intent to simply gain information, they are less likely to confess, either truly or falsely. But if the investigator approaches the interrogation believing the detainee is guilty, the ensuing interrogation is more pressure- filled and coercive. This results in the innocent detainee (who is likely to waive their rights) being at increased risk for false confession due to the pressure of the interrogation process.