True Stories of False Confessions

In a recent piece on Huffington Post, I discussed Rob Warden and Steve Drizin's new book, True Stories of False Confessions.

What makes this book so compelling is that it's not simply an academic exploration of false confessions. Instead, it's a collection of articles from the best writers around, from John Grisham to Alex Kotlowitz, detailing real false confession cases.

It's extremely important to have narrative accounts of these kinds of cases because false confessions are profoundly counterintuitive--after all, why would anyone act so radically against his or her own self-interest by confessing to a crime he or she didn't commit? A good writer can explain not only that false confessions are disturbingly common, but also why and how they happen.

Once you read a few of cases from True Stories of False Confessions, you'll see that our criminal justice interrogation system is broken and in desperate need of reform.

At the end of their book, Warden and Drizin propose a handful of critical policy changes that they believe would greatly reduce false confessions.

As I concluded my Huffington Post piece, I'd argue that "just as important as any particular policy reform is the need to change the mindset of ordinary citizens, who may be selected as jury members to decide the next false confession case.

Despite what we see on television or even what our intuition may tell us, 'a confession is just a piece of evidence like any other evidence,' said Drizin in a recent interview. 'It's only as valuable as the other evidence that corroborates it. View it with suspicion. That's what we hope to happen here. Because the system breaks down when there's a confession, and it shouldn't.'"

If you want to learn more about false confessions, check out this recent podcast of Innocence Speaks that features Warden and Drizin talking about their new book.