182 interrogations from three California police departments he did not find any false confessions (Inside the Interrogation Room, 1996).

In August, 2002 the USA Today newspaper published a story called, Few Inmates Seek Exonerations with Free DNA Tests. The story contained the following quotes:

"Government programs that have offered free DNA tests to thousands of inmates to help them challenge their convictions have found few takers and have led to virtually no exonerations, prosecutors say."

"Many inmates fear the test would make a pardon or parole more difficult by confirming their guilt."

"... the results from such programs throw cold water on the notion that there are many wrongly convicted inmates in prison."

"Since 1989, DNA evidence has led to 100 exonerations nationwide."

While the phenomenon is rare, the issue of false confessions must be carefully examined. Over the past 10 years there have been a number of media reports about cases in which the defendants allegedly gave false or coerced confessions. In some of these cases it is impossible to know the actual facts of the crime and the identity of the perpetrator, but in others it is clear that a false confession was obtained from the defendant. A review of the media accounts, if accepted as true and accurate, reveal the following as to potentially common denominators in what are referred to as false and/or coerced confessions:

One of the most common ploys that a guilty person, who has voluntarily confessed to his crime, will take at the time of trial is to claim that his confession was the result of being beaten by the police or coerced in some other egregious manner. While the overwhelming majority of these allegations are blatantly false, there are occasions when interrogators act illegally and improperly during interrogations.

If we assume that all of the above allegations are true, and did result in false or coerced confessions, then several similarities glaringly stand out:

Juveniles
Mental impairment
Illegal police practices
Excessively long interrogations

As a result, every interrogator must exercise extreme caution and care when interviewing or interrogating a juvenile or a person who is mentally impaired. Certainly these individuals can and do commit very serious crimes. But when a juvenile or mentally impaired person confesses, the investigator should exercise extreme diligence in establishing the accuracy of such a statement.

And of course, it goes without saying that no interrogator should ever engage in any illegal interrogation practices, including any threats, promises or the exercise of any physically abusive tactics, which includes such manipulations as the denial of sleep for inordinate periods of time.

When a juvenile in custody, particularly a youngster under 15 who has not had any prior experience with the police, is advised of his Miranda rights, the investigator should carefully discuss and talk about those rights with the subject (not just recite them) to make sure that he understands them. If it is apparent that the suspect does not understand his rights, no interrogation should be conducted at that time. The same is true for a person who is mentally impaired.

The occurrence of false confessions is extremely rare - regardless of what our critics might claim. However, it can happen, and as a result, every investigator should be alert for the possibility of a false confession and make every effort possible to substantiate any admission in as much detail as possible.

Study of False Confession Cases Confirms Reid Position

One of the interrogation techniques that the United States Supreme Court has sanctioned is the verbal misrepresentation of evidence to a suspect during an interrogation. It has been the Reid position that misrepresenting evidence, in and of itself, was not going to make a "normal" person falsely confess (obvious care must be exercised with juveniles and mentally impaired individuals), but that it was always some other element that was the triggering mechanism for the false confession, such as illegal interrogation tactics (physical abuse, threats, promises of leniency, denial of physical needs, denial of rights, etc) and/or excessively long interrogations. A study published in the Criminal Law Bulletin, "A Test of the Unusual False Confession Perspective: Using Cases of Proven False Confessions" confirms this position.

After reviewing numerous false confession cases the author, J.P. Blair, states that "This study failed to find a single false confession of a cognitively normal individual that did not also include the use of coercive tactics by the interrogator." Earlier in the article the author defined coercive tactics as "the use of physical force; denial of food, sleep or the bathroom; explicit threats of punishment; explicit promises of leniency; and extremely lengthy interrogations." In other words, if these illegal tactics are not employed then the likelihood of obtaining a false confession is almost nil.

Click here for the complete study.

Below are two links to Northwestern University that report on a number of the above referred to cases.

Bluhm Legal Clinic - False Confession Cases - updated 1/22/02
(http://www.law.nwu.edu/depts/clinic/news/#juvenile)

The Problem of False Confessions in Illinois
(http://www.law.nwu.edu/depts/clinic/Articles/Illinoislistfinal1.htm)

Click here for our position paper on some of the issues involved in false confession cases.

Here are several articles and web pages that further address the issue of false confessions:

The guilty and the "innocent': An examination of alleged cases of wrongful conviction from false confessions Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; Cambridge; Spring 1999; Paul G Cassell; http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/guilt.htm

FALSE CONFESSIONS BY ADULTS by Bruce A. Robinson
http://www.justicedenied.org/false.htm

The Innocence Project : False Confessions
http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes/falseconfessions.php

The Psychology of False Confessions by Richard Conti
http://truth.boisestate.edu/jcaawp/9901/9901.pdf

The Truth About False Confessions and Advocacy Scholarship
By Richard A. Leo and Richard J. Ofshe
Criminal Law Bulletin
Vol. 37, Number 4
http://www.truthinaction.net/tafc.htm

MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES: A RESPONSE TO PAUL CASSELL'S BALANCED APPROACH" TO THE FALSE CONFESSION PROBLEM
by Richard A. Leo and Richard J. Ofshe
1997 Denver University Law Review, University of Denver
http://www.wm3.org/html/ofshe/ofshe3_1.html

False Confessions: Annotated Clinical Research
by Joe Wheeler Dixon PhD JD.
http://www.psychologyandlaw.com/false.htm

Center on Wrongful Convictions - Causes & Remedies: False Confessions
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/documents/FalseConfRpt1.htm

False Confessions: Scaring Suspects to Death
by Edwin Dobb
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/false_confessions.html

Proven False Confession Cases

by Richard Leo and Steven Drizin
http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/Master_List_False_Confessions.html