āPlease Donāt Do Itā, āHe Didnāt Do Itā, āNo Judge, Not MY BABYYā . . . are the words you hear on trail when the judge or duty plea the defendent guilty. He ACTUALLY didnāt do it your honor. The system is pretty messed up on society especially on False confessions. āDid the time but not the crimeā. People are being wrongly convicted for crimes they havenāt done and the problem with that is the times of innocent people and youth are being wasted in a cell or in holding. False convictions and confessions are important because the majority of people has been through a false confession before. From a minor to a major crime, someone is being interrogated and forcing that person to confess in a crime that did not commit as we speak. Our goal is to inform our audience and help them understand the basic information of false convictions/confessions and how it can be an impact on society.
There are 3 branches of the U.S Government, all under the constitution with 3 different powers. The first branch is the Legislative Branch. This branch makes the laws and it falls under the congress, senate, and the house of representative. These laws have to be approved by presidential appointments from two senators from each state and then the number of congressmen is based on the population from each state. Second Branch is Executive. The executive branch carries out the law. They also veto or rejects, bills passed by Congress, and commander and chief of the military, and the laws must be faithfully executed. The last branch of the United State Government is Judicial. The judicial branch evaluates the law and falls under the supreme courts and federal courts. It also interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases and decides if laws violate the Constitution. Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. The problem is that this branch may be the weakest branch because it cannot act unless it is called for by a case and it’s meant to protect the liberties of the people. The courts do not have power in the government and the judiciary branch has no power over society.
A false confession is “an admission to a criminal act ā usually accompanied by a narrative of how and why the crime occurred ā that the confessor did not commit.” This includes Characteristics of false confessions make them difficult to research. Police usually don’t keep records of them, or, if the confessed offenders are convicted, it is often difficult to prove their innocence. In addition, there is no known estimate of the incidence rate of false confessions which makes it difficult for researchers to sample random cases where false confessions may or may not be present. If sampling were possible, in many cases there are not recordings of entire interrogations or other records that would provide researchers enough data to accurately analyze the confessions. Most of the research on false confessions is based on an analysis of the DNA exoneration because of the limitations. DNA exoneration allow social scientists to examine characteristics of the interrogations leading to known false confessions, but they are not able to manipulate and measure potential variables that may cause false confession.
Dr. Richard Leo, a false confessions expert who testified in the Beatrice 6 case, discussed the three types of false confessions. One of them is Voluntary False Confessions. A false confession is knowingly given in response to little or no police pressure. Researchers and psychologists suggest that innocent suspects may voluntarily do false confessions for a variety of reasons which are a pathological desire for notoriety, need for self-punishment stemming from guilt over prior transgressions, inability to understand fact from false evidence due to mental issues or impairment, and last but not least, the desire to protect the actual perpetrator. (Usually somebody that person knows or fears)
Compliant False Confessions is false confession knowingly given to put an end to the interrogation or to receive an anticipated benefit or reward in exchange for a confession. These confessions likely occur when innocent victims succumb to social pressure during interrogation and believe that the short-term benefits of a false confession outweigh the long-term costs of prolonged interrogation.Ā A famous example of a compliant false confession in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, discussed below, in which five young suspects were told they could end their lengthy and coercive interrogations in connection with the rape and murder of a female victim if they provided statements placing themselves at the scene and incriminating others.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Persuaded False Confession ā a false confession knowingly given by an innocent suspect who comes to doubt the reliability of his memory and thus comes to believe that he may have committed the crime despite no actual memory of having done so. Also called “internalized false confessions,” these types of confessions are admittedly rare but exceedingly prejudicial when entered into evidence.
