Stigma against false confessors impacts post‐exoneration financial compensation

Abstract

False confessors are stigmatized more than other exonerees. Traditional theories of stigma suggest that this difference may result from confessors being seen as more responsible for their own wrongful conviction. In the current study, we examined an important tangible consequence of stigma against false confessors—namely, that it might impede their ability to win financial restitution in post‐exoneration civil lawsuits. Mock jurors (N = 129), recruited online, read a case summary in which an exoneree is seeking damages after being wrongly convicted due to a false confession or eyewitness misidentification, which either did or did not result from police misconduct. When the exoneree falsely confessed in the absence of police misconduct, mock jurors rated him as most responsible for his own conviction and expressed the most doubt over his actual innocence. Contrary to legal criteria, they also awarded him smaller compensatory and punitive damage awards. Notably, the false confessor was seen as more responsible than the misidentified exoneree even if his interrogation was highly coercive. In turn, false confessors who were seen as more responsible received smaller damage awards. Implications for trial procedure and exoneree compensation are discussed.

Cumulative Disadvantage: A Psychological Framework for Understanding How Innocence Can Lead to Confession, Wrongful Conviction, and Beyond

“…Compared with those wrongfully convicted on the basis of mistaken eyewitness identifications or other forms of evidence, those wrongly convicted by confession are more likely to be perceived as guilty and less likely to be seen as deserving of government assistance—even after exoneration (Clow & Leach, 2015). The enduring negative stigma associated with falsely confessing also undermines people’s willingness to financially compensate these innocents (Kukucka & Evelo, 2019; Luna & Kieckhaeifer, 2018). False confessions can be so influential as to precipitate a series of negative judgments of these individuals as lacking intelligence, suffering from mental health issues, not entirely innocent, and, ultimately, less deserving of government-sponsored reintegration aids such as psychological and career counseling and job training (Scherr, Normile, & Putney, 2018).…”

The Exoneree Health and Life Experiences (ExHaLE) Study: Trauma Exposure and Mental Health among Wrongly Convicted Individuals

“…Third, there is mounting evidence that exonerees who falsely confessed to the crime of which they were wrongly convicted are more stigmatized than other exonerees. In various studies, laypeople rated false confessors as less warm, intelligent, and mentally healthy than other exonerees (Clow & Leach, 2015b;Scherr et al, 2018b;, blamed them more heavily for their wrongful conviction (Kukucka & Evelo, 2019;Savage et al, 2018;Scherr et al, 2020), and saw them as less deserving of financial compensation (Kukucka & Evelo, 2019) or reintegration services such as psychological counseling (Scherr et al, 2018b). As a result, false confessors may show poorer mental health than other exonerees, but no study has tested this possibility.…”

Opinion Versus Reality: How Should Wrongfully Convicted Individuals be Compensated Versus How They Are Actually Compensated

“…As noted above, some existing compensation statutes limit or deny access to recompense if the exoneree contributed to their wrongful conviction by falsely confessing (Scholand, 2019). Though exonerees excluded from receiving compensation due to a false confession are able to file civil rights and torts lawsuits, research has highlighted that mock exonerees who falsely confessed were given less compensation by research participants than exonerees who were also declared legally innocent but had not confessed at any point (Kukucka & Evelo, 2019). Though this research was not the first to look at the impacts of false confessions on exonerees (Clow & Leach, 2015), it was the first to show how determinations of future compensation could be hamstrung by a false confession.…”

“…The National Registry of Exonerations reports an average of 9.0 years lost due to wrongful imprisonment as of July 2021; participants were asked to determine a compensation amount for 10 years to use a round number for easier calculations. Instead of providing a range of possible compensation amounts to match Kukucka and Evelo (2019), participants were asked for a compensation amount as an open-ended question to ensure that participants were not limited or biased by the possible choices.…”