Of all the convicted people who have been exonerated by DNA testing, almost 30 percent confessed to crimes they didn't commit, according to the nonprofit legal rights group The Innocence Project.
What's behind these false confessions? False confessions expert Saul Kassin, PhD, discussed what we know about that behavior at a congressional briefing hosted on April 29 by APA's Science Government Relations Office.
The psychology behind false confessions "is more difficult to comprehend than suicide," said Kassin, a distinguished professor of psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Not having a similar experience themselves, [people don't] fundamentally understand that they can be broken into doing things they would never dream of doing."
His research helps to explain why people implicate themselves. He's found, for example, that vulnerable suspects, including teenagers, people with intellectual impairments and those with mental illness, are more likely to make false confessions, especially if they are under pressure from interrogators. Police are permitted to lie about evidence and imply promises and threats through subtle but lawful tactics.
Kassin has also found that prolonged, sleepless interrogation sessions and trauma can lead innocent people to believe they committed a crime. For example, in 1988 Martin Tankleff was convicted of murdering his parents on Long Island. Detectives told Tankleff — who was 17 at the time — that they had found a lock of his hair in his dead mother's hand. They also falsely reported that his father said Tankleff had committed the crime before losing consciousness and later dying. Both assertions were lies.
Tankleff initially believed he must have done it, saying, "My father never lies."
"False evidence is disorienting and confusing. And here is someone who had just seen his parents bludgeoned, stabbed, and lying in pools of blood," he said. A New York State appeals court vacated Takleff's conviction in 2007 based on new evidence in the case, and charges against him were dropped in 2008.
Once a confession is made, it's difficult to prove the confessor did not commit the crime, Kassin said.
"A confession is the functional equivalent of a conviction," he said. "Once a confession works its way into evidence, there are no safety nets."
Kassin has made policy recommendations based on his work, including recommending mandatory videotaping of entire interrogations, a practice that has been adopted by the FBI, more than 20 states and the District of Columbia. APA also recommended videotaping interrogations in a 2014 resolution.
— Stacy Lu