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"Confessing to Crime, but Innocent"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this piece in today's New York Times. Here are excerpts: [M]ore than 40 [persons] have given confessions since 1976 that DNA evidence later showed were false, according to records compiled by Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.  Experts have long known that some kinds of people ? including the mentally impaired, the mentally ill, the young and the easily led ? are the likeliest to be induced to confess.  There are also people like Mr. Lowery, who says he was just pressed beyond endurance by persistent interrogators. New research shows how people who were apparently uninvolved in a crime could provide such a detailed account of what occurred, allowing prosecutors to claim that only the defendant could have committed the crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 14, 2010 (boomark / email).