Would you confess to a crime you did not commit? You may say you would never falsely confess to a crime under any circumstance (especially those with great penalties), but the truth is, false confessions happen more often than you realize.
For instance, take the case of Eddie Lowery. Although Eddie Lowery deep now knew he was innocent of rape, he inevitably confessed and consequently spent 10 years of his life in prison until DNA evidence and the help of the Innocence Project exonerated him.
False confessions can occur for numerous reasons and some people may be more susceptible to falsely confess. For example, the mentally ill and children are highly influenced by police during interrogation and subsequently confess more often than individuals who are not mentally ill or are adults. Other circumstances, such as being deprived of food, water, and the restroom, being interrogated for hours on end (which happened in Lowery's case - he was interrogated for more than 7 hours), and in some instances being beaten, also lead to more false confessions.
Interrogations can also plant false memories in the suspect's head to the extent to which they become real (much like the lost in the mall study described in class). According to Professor Garrett who studies cases such as Lowery's, facts about the case can be intentionally or accidentally brought up in interrogation which plants a seed in the suspect's memory. With constant contamination to the suspect's memory, these "seeds" can grow into evidence that one would think only the person responsible for the crime would know.
Much like you and me, Garrett was shocked by the amount of contamination that had occurred in the cases he studied. Interestingly, more than half of the cases he studied, the suspect was "mentally ill, under the age of 18, or both." Along with that, most of the interrogations were lengthy and held in a pressuring environment. Even more interesting, none of the cases Garrett studied had a lawyer present during interrogation.
Although in some cases evidence that is leaked during interrogations in accidentally, Eddie Lowery felt that the police intentionally contaminated his memories. According to Lowery, after he confessed, the police insisted he recall the process of the crime and corrected him when he got key facts incorrect. For example, Lowery recalled this from his interrogation: "How did he get in (police asking Lowery how the rapist got into the house)" "I kicked in the front door" - Lowery, "But the rapist had used the back door" - Police. Consequently, Lowery changed his story and admitted to going through the back door.
Why are false confessions so important? -- because juries are highly influenced by them when deciding on a verdict. Despite being cleared by DNA evidence prior to going on trial, 8 of the individuals in Garrett's study were still found guilty and sent to jail. Because juries are mostly interested in the details of the case and because false memories have been implanted in the suspect's brain, jury members tend to ignore other facts in the case and focus on the highly detailed confession.
If false confession are so common, what can be done to prevent them? Some police departments have started videotaping interrogations, especially ones that could result in severe punishments (death penalty). Ten states require videotaping and many supreme courts are encouraging tapings of interrogations.
Keeping the case of Eddie Lowery and many others in mind, how do you feel about videotaping interrogations? Do you feel it is necessary for all interrogations (even those where the consequence if found convicted is not severe) or just crimes that could possibly cause someone to serve the rest of their life in prison or even be put to death? Are there better ways to reduce the occurrence of false confessions? What do you feel can and/or needs to be done to free the dozens of innocent people currently serving time behind bars?
Here is a link to the article and more about Eddie's case.
(Thank you Alyssa for sharing!)
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