NCJ Number
173591
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology Volume: 88 Issue: 2 Dated: Winter 1998 Pages: 429-496
Date Published
1998
Length
68 pages
Annotation
This article explores whether contemporary American psychological interrogation practices continue to induce false confessions like the "third degree" methods that preceded them.
Abstract
The article analyzes how likely police-induced false confessions are to lead to the wrongful arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of the innocent. It examines with field data whether confession evidence substantially biases a trier of fact even when the defendant's statement was elicited by coercive methods. The article explores this issue with cases in which the defendant's statement not only has been coerced but also is demonstrably unreliable, and in which other evidence proves or strongly supports the defendant's innocence. In addition, the article discusses the selection and classification of the 60 disputed confession cases under study; describes findings; analyzes the deprivations of liberty and miscarriages of justice associated with the cases described; and discusses the import of this research. Notes, tables