Confession (law)

In the law of criminal evidence, a confession is a statement by a suspect in crime which is adverse to that person. Some secondary authorities, such as Black's Law Dictionary, define a confession in more narrow terms, e.g. as "a statement admitting or acknowledging all facts necessary for conviction of a crime," which would be distinct from a mere admission of certain facts that, if true, would still not, by themselves, satisfy all the elements of the offense. The equivalent in civil cases is a statement against interest. History: This specific form of testimony, involving oneself, is used as a form of proof in judicial matters, since at least the Inquisition. The value of confessions, however, are discussed, and law generally request cross-checking them with objective facts and others forms of evidence (exhibits, testimonies from witnesses, etc.) in order to evaluate their truth value. Confessions were first developed in the Roman Catholic Church under the Sacrament of Penance, where the confession of a sin is considered to be enough to absolve oneself. This aspect concerning moral guilt has been carried on in various legislative codes, in which a criminal is considered worse if he does not confess to his crimes. Reliability: On one hand, confessions obtained under torture have often been considered to be not objective enough, since the use of such means may lead to the suspect in confessing anything. However, when the confession reveals secrets only known to the perpetrator (such as the location of the body or murder weapon), the confession is reliable. On the other hand, even without torture, various cases of avered false confessions demonstrate that, in itself, one man's confession is not a sufficient proof. False memory (including memory biases, etc.) or privileges granted under plea bargaining might lead to such false confessions. In Japan, the legal requirements dictate that confession is admissible as evidence only if it contains elements only the guilty could have known. However, many miscarriage of justice cases in Japan are due to the police faking the confession of guilty secrets. Scientific Reliability: Confession evidence can be considered, arguably, the best piece of evidence of guilt in the criminal justice system. However, false confessions do occur, therefore there must be some flaws in the interrogation process. In a scientific article “Confession Evidence: Commonsense Myths and Misconceptions” by author Saul M. Kassin, 5 myths in the confession evidence system were identified. These myths are 1) Trained interviewers can detect truth and deception, 2) Miranda protects the accused from interrogation, 3) People do not confess to crimes they don't commit, 4) Police, prosecutors, judges, and juries can distinguish true and false confessions and 5) It is possible to determine whether a false confession error was harmless. In the case of trained interviewers, many interrogation teams are practiced in the “Reid technique”, which identifies behavioral cues common for a guilty suspect including slouching, fidgeting, and avoiding eye contact. These cues have not been empirically validated to demonstrate deception in scientific studies. In terms of the Miranda, it has been found that innocent suspects are more likely to waive their rights than those who are guilty, so therefore Miranda rights in most cases do not protect accused innocents from interrogation (article 1). Through the use of minimization, when an investigator justifies the crime with possible excuses to make it easier to confess to, and the use of the false evidence ploy, mentioning evidence that proves the suspect guilty (which actually does not exist), many innocent people end up confessing to crimes they have not committed. Most people can't recognize a false confession, because confessions are trusted and a jury or judge would see confessing to a crime in which the suspect did not commit as something against self-interest, which in most people's minds does not make sense. In terms of how harmless a false confession is, it has been shown that confessions can affect other pieces of evidence and the way they are presented, which can affect a judge or jury's perception of guilt. Through debunking these myths it can be demonstrated that confessions can not be the be all end all in a criminal investigation, and the criminal justice system should implement more tactics and procedures that prevent false confessions from occurring.