Confessions: Evidentiary Reliability of

Abstract

In law, confession is a potent form of evidence. Yet, throughout history and in countries all over the world, innocent people have confessed to crimes they did not commit. Some false confessions are “voluntary”; others are elicited through the psychological process of interrogation, often involving weak and vulnerable suspects. Research shows that confession evidence is powerfully persuasive to judges, juries, and others—leading them to presume guilt even when the confession was coerced. Important reforms to police interrogation practices have been proposed, most notably the requirement that all interrogations be video recorded in their entirety.