COMMENTARY: "The science behind false confessions and the cases involved with them," by Kate Mathis, published by Plain error, the official Blog of the Innocence Project of Florida, on January 21, 2016.
GIST: The concept of false confessions is a difficult one to grasp. It seems almost impossible to believe that someone would confess to a crime they did not commit. However, according to science and research, it is actually very possible and once explained, easy to understand why someone may give a false confession. According to a study performed in 2013, innocent people experience initial physiological differences than guilty people when it comes to being accused of a crime. People who are innocent experience less stress when being questioned because they know they are innocent. This lack of stress can make them feel as though they are not at risk, and therefore do not need to protect themselves. For example, they may not invoke their rights, such as their rights to silence and counsel. In addition, research shows people can even create false memories and visualize themselves engaging in criminal activity. In another study published in 2015, forensic psychologists interrogated college-aged students. After spending three hours misinforming and encouraging the participants that they had committed a crime, researchers were able to convince 70 percent of them that they had actually done it. Not only did participants confess to the crimes, they also recalled details about what they did. Another forensic psychologist compared false memories to a Wikipedia page, susceptible to editing by other people. She explained that once people are convinced something is true, their imagination takes over and they start to visualize a situation using their own or others’ past experiences, perhaps even drawing from movies. One can no longer distinguish between what is true or false once memories have been put together and internalized. These findings are supported by statistics. In a report published by the National Registry of Exonerations, the leading cause of false homicide convictions of individuals then exonerated in 2013 were perjury or false accusations, the majority of which were deliberate. Official misconduct was also named as an issue. The report also shows that 74 percent of all homicide cases in the Registry’s database were related to false confessions. Statistics from the National Registry of Exonerations also show that youth are more likely to confess to crimes they did not commit. For crimes allegedly committed by people under 18 years of age, 38 percent of exonerations in the last few decades dealt with false confessions. This correlates with the 2015 study performed on college-aged students. Last year was no different—false confessions continued to be an issue. In fact, false confessions were involved in almost a fifth of all exonerations in 2015. .........Hopefully 2016 will prove to be a better year, with fewer miscarriages of justice and more exonerations of innocent people who were wrongfully imprisoned."
The entire commentary ca be found at:
http://floridainnocence.org/content/?p=12300
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
