False Confessions
Yes, innocent people confess to crimes they didn’t commit…
Nothing is solved when innocent people falsely confess to crimes they didn’t commit. The guilty are not punished and the innocent needlessly suffer for the sins of another. At the surface, it seems incomprehensible that anyone would do such a thing but in reality it happens frequently in our American Criminal Justice System. According to the Innocence Project, 25% of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence resulted from False Confessions.
False confessions are primarily caused by psychological pressure, misinformation, and impairments of an intellectual or emotional nature. In terms of psychological pressure, suspects have been subjected to long interrogations under stressful conditions. Although physical coercion is outlawed in the United States, the mental toll experienced by some suspects can cause them to question their own perceptions or memories. They might also be exhausted due to lack of sleep or mental fatigue. In stressful situations like these, suspects have been known to misremember and/or falsely confess to crimes out of confusion or a breakdown of their mental faculties.
In the United States, investigators are allowed to lie and mislead suspects about what evidence they have as well as the strength of their case. In some circumstances law enforcement has doctored photos, lied about DNA results, or falsely claimed witnesses saw the suspect at the crime scene. Under these circumstances, suspects have been known to falsely confess out of confusion or inability to remember everything clearly. When confronted by this falsified evidence, even the most sophisticated individuals have been duped into agreeing with the false conclusions of law enforcement.
Minors and people with mental disabilities are much more vulnerable to suggestive practices by investigators. They’ve been known to “go along” with police officers during investigations. Sometimes they will simply “confess” just to end the interrogation, not realizing the long-term implications. In other cases, parents of child-suspects have been known to pressure their children into false confessions. Despite their best intentions, parents are also vulnerable to suggestion and pressure from police. There are many documented cases of parents being co-opted, by law enforcement, to push their kids into acting against their legal interests.
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