I was watching the discovery channel tonight and they had a great show about interrogation techniques...one part was about false confessions and how they can be elicited, and a guy on the show (sorry bad memory!) said something I took to heart because of my interest in this case, about how some people can not believe someone would confess to a crime they did not commit... That seems to be the stance of a lot of nons I see discussing the case. I thought it would be good to start a subject on it, because it does happen, and saying it does not is ignoring the facts, and not seeing that it is what happened in this case is one of the main reasons the wrong people are in jail for this awful crime. They used an example on the show involving a guy from Brazil who confessed after only 2 hours of interrogation to murdering a girl...the police had a witness that his car was at the scene and used aggressive interrogating techniques with him. They figured out two weeks later he could not have committed the murder, because he was not even in the country at the time. That was just after two hours! They said he actually believed he committed the crime after the interrogations,
http://people.howstuffworks.com/false-confession.htmFrom the above website:
"Usually, false confessions during a police interrogation fall into one of two categories:
* In a compliant confession, the suspect confesses for a reason. Investigators may have promised the suspect that they will be lenient if he confesses. On the other hand, he may have become so fatigued and upset by the interrogation process that he will do anything to end it.
* In an internalized confession, the suspect begins to believe that he committed the crime. This can happen if the person is particularly susceptible to suggestion. It can also happen if the investigator repeats the same scenario so many times that the suspect begins to feel as though he remembers it. "
I think Misskelly confession falls into the second category, and I found this website, I hope his name is on it one day:
http://aaidd.allenpress.com/aamronline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1352%2F2008.46:468-479I doubt this information would change a non's stance on the case, but I think it is interesting to note how common false confessions really are.
