An Introduction To Confessions As Evidence

The topic of confessions is long and complicated. They are considered the gold standard of evidence and, consequently, police and the prosecution work hard to obtain them . But I would like to begin what will be a series of blogs on this topic by recounting a story from my childhood.

I don’t actually recall many of the details of this incident because I was very young at the time. But the tale became a legendary yarn in our family history and was retold at family gatherings for decades. It all began when my aunt and uncle visited us in Texas.

My brother and I were thrilled to have a visit with our cousins, Kate and Beth. They were close to our age and we always had a blast playing together. The adults were chatting together in one room when the sound of breaking glass came from the room in which we were playing.

The four of us knew we were in trouble. A window was broken. Quickly, the adults came up with a plan. Since there were four parents and four children it was decided that each parent would take a child into separate room for questioning. The culprit would be found.

It only took a short while. Each parent emerged from their respective room stating that the child they questioned admitted to breaking the window. This was, of course, absurd. Only one child had broken the window. It was almost like my brother, my cousins and I had schemed to cover up the true guilty party. None of the parents were willing to admit to pressuring their child into confessing. Three of the four of us were lying. In essence the true vandal got off scot free. It was my first experience with false confessions.

Why would an innocent person confess to a crime they did not commit? There are many reasons and it happens more often than you could imagine.