What do you think about false confessions?
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Jenny Prey: "I could see where someone might get flustered enough that perhaps they would think that their only option is to confess and that if they're already committed to being kind of screwed over, confessing might be their best option out."Hook staff -
Gary Munn: "I think it's almost impossible to overestimate people's desire to get publicity and press coverage. Some people are willing to do anything and say anything."Hook staff -
Rebecca Meadows: "I think it's a possibility. Were not sure what kind of coercion that an individual was under at that time."Hook staff
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6 comments
Nope, They're guilty.
I think it's probably a big overlooked problem because most people could not conceive confessing to something if they didn't do it.
False confessions are a real problem. There is a large body of research on this topic, especially false confessions among juveniles. The details are too long to get into here, but under the right conditions - lengthy interrogations with no break, sleep deprivation, stress, emotional duress, being fed false information by interrogators, desire to stop the interrogation, etc. - just about anyone can end up giving a false confession.
Correct Newanda.
This is why you never speak to the police without a lawyer. As a friend of mine use to say "Prove it or STFU."
I must confess that I think they are false! Therefore a lie and perhaps not a good thing.
Our criminal justice system is highly compartmentalized. With too few exceptions, no one link in the chain – cops, prosecutors, judges, juries, defense lawyers – is held to account for unjust outcomes.
Furthermore, there are strong institutional incentives favoring things like coercive interrogation, investigative bias, prosecutorial zeal, and covert presumption of guilt that subvert the most fundamental of our professed commitments to the protection of an individual’s rights against the heavy hand of the state.
The problem is that there is no political will from the public at large to demand reform because most people – realistically perhaps – identify as victim rather than accused. We need to get back to the mindset of the authors of our founding documents who understood their own personal vulnerability to unfettered sovereign power.