FAQ

Q: What is the biggest misconception about false confessions?

A: That no one would confess to a crime he didn’t commit, except maybe someone deranged or subject to extreme compulsion such as torture.

Q: Why would an innocent person confess?

A: There’s no shortage of reasons. Could be desire for notoriety – when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped, over 200 people claimed to have done it. Maybe desire to protect a friend or loved one, or fear (if, say, the mob tells you to take the heat or else). Some people, such as those prone to blackouts, actually come to believe they committed the crime.  But in most cases, it’s a function of interrogation tactics geared to break people down. These tactics succeed too well – they break down innocent people.

Q: You mean lengthy interrogations under harsh lights in a cramped room, that sort of thing?

A: Not necessarily, although conditions of interrogation contribute to the problem. I mean the interrogation tactics that convince a suspect that he is doomed and face severe punishment unless he confesses. Then they dangle the carrot, directly or indirectly implying lenient treatment if only he confesses. At a certain point, the suspect concludes that he is simply better off confessing. It may be a foolish decision, but it’s not irrational. It’s the product of a cost-benefit analysis – an analysis often skewed by fear, fatigue, and ultimately desperation.

Q: Do false confessors tend to be of very low intelligence?

A: Again, not necessarily. It’s true that you don’t find many teachers or doctors or businessmen among the ranks of false confessors. People with a greater awareness of the protections afforded by the legal system are more likely to trust that if they hold out they will be vindicated.   But plenty of false confessors are just regular folks, American citizens who suddenly find themselves in a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Q: Really. “Normal” people confess falsely?

A: Absolutely. In one social science experiment, freshmen at Williams College confessed to something they didn’t do (pushing the wrong button and causing a computer system to crash) when confronted with false evidence. Laboratory experiments can’t replicate the real world, but we know that even the well-educated and well-to-do could be prone to confess falsely under the “right” circumstances.

Q: How do we know that false confessions occur in the real world?

A: The breakthrough was DNA testing. Hundreds of people convicted of crimes have been exonerated by DNA. To the amazement of almost everyone, roughly a fourth of them had confessed.

Q: Shouldn’t we find it reassuring that many false confessions are exposed as false before a person is convicted?

A: Not really. To be arrested, incarcerated, and tried is a tremendously nerve-wracking and disrupting experience. Lives are shattered in the process.

Q: Aren’t a lot of the people who confess falsely actually guilty of some crime – if not the one they confessed to, then another? These are not model citizens we’re talking about.

A: Even if that were true (and often it isn’t), it’s not very reassuring. Among other things, when a person is wrongly convicted of a crime, the police stop investigating and the real culprit remains at large and free to prey on others.

Q: How can we stop the tragedy of false confessions?

A: The crucial first step is to educate everyone about the problem – people in law enforcement but also the ordinary Americans who serve on juries and elect representatives. A major part of the problem is that everyone finds it so counterintuitive that innocent people confess. This has all sorts of ramifications. Police engage in dubious interrogative practices because they assume that the suspect still won’t confess unless he’s guilty. Judges and juries are very slow to doubt the truth of a confession. Even after DNA exoneration, many defendants remain incarcerated or have to face another trial, because prosecutors still refuse to believe that the confession was false.

Q: Are there specific reforms that would help reduce this tragedy?

A: Fortunately, yes. See Proposed Reforms