The Substance of False Confessions…

[Jackpine Radical]

The Substance of False Confessions

Brandon L. Garrett, University of Virginia School of Law

forthcoming: 62 Stan.L.Rev. _ (2010)

Abstract

A puzzle is raised by cases of false confessions: How could an innocent person convincingly confess to a crime? Post-conviction DNA testing has now exonerated 240 convicts, 39 of whom falsely confessed to rapes and murders. As a result, there is a new awareness that innocent people falsely confess, often due to psychological pressure placed upon them during police interrogations. Scholars increasingly examine the psychological techniques that can cause people to falsely confess and document instances of known false confessions. This Article takes a different approach, by examining the substance of false confessions, including what was said during interrogations and how the confession statements were then litigated at trial and post-conviction. Doing so sheds light on the phenomenon of confession contamination. Not only can innocent people falsely confess, but all except one of these exonerees were induced to deliver false confessions with surprisingly rich, detailed, and accurate information. We now know that those details could not have originated with these innocent people, but rather must have been disclosed to them, most likely during the interrogation process. However, our constitutional criminal procedure does not regulate the post-admission interrogation process, nor do courts evaluate the reliability of confessions. This Article outlines a series of reforms that focus on the insidious problem of contamination, particularly through videotaping interrogations in their entirety, but also by reframing police procedures, trial practice, and judicial review. Unless criminal procedure is reoriented towards the reliability of the substance of confessions, contamination of facts may continue to go undetected, resulting in miscarriages of justice.

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Entire working paper version available for download at

http://law.bepress.com/

[H2O Man]

1. "True Stories

of False Confessions," by Rob Warden and Steve Drizin, was published in 2009. They work with my friend Rubin, at Northwestern University School of Law. Fascinating book. I think that you would enjoy it.

[2 Much Tribulation]

2. Even more common than this OP suggests: folks protect friends, family, avoid high charges w/ falsity

Like if there was circumstantial evidence that made it look quite possible it was you, and you could take a certain 5 years (per police suggestion) vs rolling the dice on 25-30 you might well take the 5 years to avoid losing the rest of your life.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Reminds me of the case of the "Norfolk Four."

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[NNN0LHI]

5. Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge can tell you how its done

http://www.truthinjustice.org/jon-burge.htm

Torture allegations dog ex-police officer

When Jon Burge was fired and left Chicago for Florida 10 years ago, he left turmoil in his wake.

By Leonora LaPeter, St. Petersburg Times
August 29, 2004

Jon Burge

TAMPA - The burly man strode confidently from a Tampa courthouse last week, his lawyer placing a protective hand on his back as he passed the news cameras lying in wait.

Curious passers-by stopped and wondered about the guy with the shock of pure white hair smoothed perfectly back.
"Who's that?" someone asked.

Few know him here, and that's how he likes it. But back in Chicago, Jon Burge is big news. He's known as the police commander who, for 20 years, tortured suspects to make them confess.

The accusations are like something out of a wartime prison: electric shock and cattle prods; near suffocation with a typewriter bag; mock executions with a pistol.

Four people who confessed to him were released from death row last year; they're suing him. A special prosecutor has been on his tail for two years.

Fired from the Chicago Police Department, he settled into a waterfront community of brick and stucco houses on Tampa Bay 10 years ago, his police pension intact, a boat out back. He has never been charged with a crime.

[Heidi]

6. Recommended.

:kick:

[customerserviceguy]

7. Much of our Bill of Rights

is devoted to the knowledge of how false confessions were obtained in the Europe that the Founding Fathers were glad to have escaped. At the time, it was thought that only physical torture would produce such confessions, but we clearly have better knowledge today of how psychological torture is just as effective at obtaining such results.