Exonerations Due to False Confessions a Comparison of Race

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In the second case cohersion was the main factor, Miller went through threats, abuse and false reports of another suspect admitting to the crime as a partner. In both cases the meranda rights law were not developed, DNA testing was recent and not thought reliable in court and forced confessions including police brutality, were acceptablev methods of interrogation.

These contributing factors lead to wrongfull convictions based on a new understanding of confessions. Within the types of false confessions generally accepted by the scientific community, these confessions were coerced compliant false confessions. The confession was obtained after intense interrogation, both men admitted to the crimes even when they knew they were innocent. When it came to the trial eventhough the confessions were obtained with cohersion the jury still believed that the men were guilty. This is because it is commonly mistakenconcept that innocent people would never admit guilt to something that they did not do. This is a missconception because after intense interrogation people want the abuse to stop and they think the fastest was to get out of the situation is to say whatever they need to. There has also been alternative interrogation techniques that have been developed because of the rate of false confessions. Abuse is no longer acceptable in obtaining confession. The implenmentation of laws protecting people from purgery has also help change meyhods. Anothrer factor is not obtaining confessions when under the influence. A few guidelines in obtaining confessionstoday are: to ask open ended questions and avoid leading questions, also not releasing all the information about the cases to the new outlets. This leaves pertinante information that only the person commiting the crime would know to be used as a tool. Listen to, do not interrupt or ask repeated questions, are other techniques. Several other methods include: Listening 80 percent of the time and only talking 20 percent of the time. Do not give the suspect a writen statement to sign, this statement does not portray the events in the persons view but raher an interpretation of events based on assumptions.

These two cases used coerced confessions from African American males in their 20s, during a time when racial profiling was very common. The techniques used to obtain these confesssions were unethical and unjustifiable in today’s court system. Without new techniqes in obtaining confessions men like these would be convicted at a higher rate. Jury’s need to understand that when presented a coherced confession they need to rely on the physical evidence and not just the confession. The faulty convictions were due to similar factors. Race played an important role in both of the convictions.

All in all special attention needs to be paid to how a confession was obtained and the contributing factors that lead to convictions. Due to new research and techniques exonerations like these have been found. Think of the many cases were the person was not exonerated and instead died before being given the chance at a fair trial. Both of these men spent a great deal of time in prison for crimes they did not commit, convicted in the 1980s and exonerated in the 2000’s. Law enforcement needs to be mindful of their actions.