False confession
False confession commonly occurs during interrogations of suspects. The idea of someone lying to an interrogator should be a question of someone’s psychology. Usually, when giving a false confession, the person doing it, he or she has the idea that the moment he or she tells if the interrogator will be satisfied with the answers given. Also, when providing testimony in court confessions made voluntarily should be admitted in evidence, and the trial judge shall permit to hear relevant evidence on the issue of voluntariness. Therefore, confessions are considered as evidence if given voluntarily ( legal Information Institute , US Code 3501).The person giving the confession knows in the back of the mind that the court will consider his or her confession.
Over the last couple of years, many people have been exonerated after giving a false confession, later on, to be proven innocent. Many of the cases involve sexual assault, but with use DNA evidence that was not prior during their hearings, many people are proven guilty. We should narrow down to the questions; why is it easy to give a false confession? Why would one risk time behind bars for no reason? According to researchers, they are several factors that led to a false confession. Some of them include substance use, the threat of force by law enforcement during interrogation, mental disability, lack of knowledge, stress, mental confusion, hunger, and untrue statements during interrogations about the presence of incriminating evidence. (Innocence project .org)
A case example of one of the factors; mental disability, is the Earl Washington case. He served ten years in prison for a wrongful conviction for the murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams. In his confession, they were proof that he did not commit the crime. He said Rebecca was short, but in the real sense she was 5’8′. Also, in his confession, it was clear that he did not know the race of the victim. Earl Washington had an IQ of 22. He honestly did not know about the case, but he confessed it in writing. It is also shown that he was summoned more than five times. Upon further interrogation, by police, they concluded that Earl Washington would politely defer to any authority. When police officers asked questions, he would comply and affirm responses to gain their approval. He was exonerated after a rare plasma protein was not found in the victim’s items of clothing by a forensic analyst. That proved he was innocent. Most of the cases may lack clarity which may point out evidence. In many cases, false confession seems to sabotage a lot of cases, and they are no serving of equal justice. Confessions should be considered as authentic in courts but with the truth.