False Confessions in Criminal Cases: Causes, Cases, and Consequences
Introduction
In recent years, the media has shed light on many high-profile criminal cases in which people were convicted and jailed for offenses they did not commit, only to be later released. Some convicted prisoners globally have been acquitted, showing that police persuaded suspects to give false confessions, resulting in the conviction of innocent people (Vick et al., 2020). However, several misconceptions surround false confessions. The essay critically examines whether interrogators make people admit to heinous crimes they did not commit.
False Confession
False confessions imply statements from individuals who admit to crimes they did not commit. False confessions can occur in three ways: coerced-compliant, voluntary, or coerced-internalized (Rizzelli et al., 2021). They are typically accompanied by written statements explaining why and how the crime occurred, even though the confessor did not commit it. Features of false confessions make them challenging to investigate because police often lack records, and if the confessed criminals are jailed, it becomes hard to attest to their innocence (Gudjonsson, 2021). Most of the inquiries done on false confessions are based on the assessment of the DNA to exonerate the convicted because of many limitations.
Cases Involving False Confessions
It is necessary to know the many reasons that contribute to false confessions. They occur due to the implications put in the criminal justice system and devise the best way to protect innocent persons from life-changing wrongful convictions. Several well-known cases of false confessions resulted in wrongful convictions. These have assisted in highlighting people affected by police-prompted false confessions (Brandon & Davies, 2022).
For instance, in the Central Park jogger case, five boys were convicted of a crime they did not commit. The boys were still young children to be involved in such a heinous crime. They were psychologically and physically abused and interrogated for hours, being forced to admit to an atrocious crime they did not commit. This ruined their lives, and later they were set free (Green, 2017). Therefore, no adult or child should experience anything like this, and it should be stopped. Comprehending how circumstances such as this proceed to a point of the sentence better equips us to make that change.
Another case involving false confessions is that of Brendan Dassey. In March 2007, Brendan was charged with first-degree intentional murder, mutilation of the body, and sexual assault of Teresa Halbach (Ayers-Preboski, 2019). During his false confession, Dassey was in high school and aged 16 years with an IQ of 70 and was learning in classes with students who had intellectual disabilities (Nirider et al., 2018). The police interrogated Brendan four times over more than two days when he made a false confession (Gorden & Birkbeck, 2022). The police had known that Dassey was vulnerable because they knew he had an intellectual disability and could be vulnerable under pressure. The case sparked a public outcry because many people were angry about how he was interrogated, and most believed his questioning was illegal.
Conclusion
False confessions can be associated with police interrogation training manuals that lead to suspects confessing to things they did not even see or do. Police are believed to use illegal tactics to question suspects, leading them to confess to criminal activities. Most people believe that by asserting a false confession, the accused only attempt to get themselves out of the trouble they are experiencing during interrogation. Thus, grasping how such situations develop makes people better prepared to make that change.
References
Ayers-Preboski, L. E. (2019). Book review: Anatomy of a false confession: The interrogation and conviction of Brendan Dassey. Criminal Justice Review, 1(2), 073401681987199.
Brandon, R., & Davies, C. (2022). Confessions and statements. Wrongful Imprisonment, 1(3), 47-65.
Gorden, C., & Birkbeck, C. (2022). The role of vulnerability in the alleged false confession and subsequent conviction of Brendan Dassey. Case Studies of Famous Trials and the Construction of Guilt and Innocence, 162-189.
Green, D. A. (2017). Savage portrayals: Race, media, and the Central Park jogger story. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 46(1), 44-46.
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2021). The science-based pathways to understanding false confessions and wrongful convictions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-97.
Nirider, L., Crane, M., & Drizin, S. (2018). Gerald Gault meet Brendan Dassey: Preventing juvenile false and coerced confessions in the twenty-first century 1. Rights, Race, and Reform, 2(4), 217-226.
Rizzelli, L., Kassin, S., & Gales, T. (2021). Language of criminal confessions. The Wrongful Conviction Law Review, 2(3), 205-225.
Vick, K., Cook, K. J., & Rogers, M. (2020). Lethal leverage: False confessions, false pleas, and wrongful homicide convictions in death-eligible cases. Contemporary Justice Review, 24(1), 24-42.
