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The Three Errors: Pathways To False Confession And Wrongful Conviction, Richard A. Leo, Steven A. Drizin
The Three Errors: Pathways To False Confession And Wrongful Conviction, Richard A. Leo, Steven A. Drizin
Richard A. Leo
Research has demonstrated that false confessors whose cases are not dismissed before trial are often convicted despite their innocence. In order to prevent such wrongful convictions, criminal justice officials must better understand the role that false confessions play in creating and perpetuating miscarriages of justice. This chapter examines police-induced false confessions and analyzes three sequential errors that occur in the social production of every false confession: investigators first misclassify an innocent person as guilty; they next subject him to a guilt-presumptive, accusatory interrogation that invariably involves lies about evidence and often the repeated use of implicit and/or explicit promises and …
One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo
One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions After A Century Of Research, Richard Leo
Richard A. Leo
In this article the authors analyze a century of research on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system while explaining the many lessons of this body of work. This article chronicles the range of research that has been conducted on wrongful convictions; examines the common sources of error in the criminal justice system and their effects; suggests where additional research and attention are needed; and discusses methodological strategies for improving the quality of research on wrongful convictions. The authors argue that traditional sources of error (eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, perjured testimony, forensic error, tunnel …
Psychological And Cultural Aspects Of Interrogations And False Confessions: Using Research To Inform Legal Decision-Making, Richard A. Leo, Mark Costanzo, Netta Shaked-Schroer
Psychological And Cultural Aspects Of Interrogations And False Confessions: Using Research To Inform Legal Decision-Making, Richard A. Leo, Mark Costanzo, Netta Shaked-Schroer
Richard A. Leo
False confessions are a major cause of wrongful convictions. In many countries, physical abuse and torture are still used to extract confessions from criminal suspects. Cultural orientations such as collectivism and power distance may influence the tendency to confess, and a suspect's past experience in a country that uses physical abuse during interrogations may render suspects fearful and more prone to falsely confess. After looking at interrogations outside the United States, we examine the issue of why false confessions sometime occur in the U.S. legal system. We prove an overview of the stages of a typical interrogation and provide a …
Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning From Social Science, Richard A. Leo, Jon B. Gould
Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning From Social Science, Richard A. Leo, Jon B. Gould
Richard A. Leo
There has been an explosion of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions in the last decade, reflecting a growing concern about the problem of actual innocence in the criminal justice system. Yet criminal law and procedure scholars have engaged in relatively little dialogue or collaboration on this topic with criminologists. In this article, we use the empirical study of wrongful convictions to illustrate what criminological approaches—or, more broadly, social science methods—can teach legal scholars. After briefly examining the history of wrongful conviction scholarship, we discuss the limits of the (primarily) narrative methodology of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions. We argue that …
Strategies For Preventing False Confessions And Their Consequences, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo
Strategies For Preventing False Confessions And Their Consequences, Deborah Davis, Richard Leo
Richard A. Leo
Researchers have amply documented that contemporary methods of psychological interrogation can, and sometimes do, lead innocent individuals to confess falsely to serious crimes. The consequences of these false confessions can be disastrous for innocent individuals. This chapter reviews the primary causes of false confession and resultant miscarriages of justice that are subject to the influence of law enforcement and the courts. We first review the major identifiable causes of false confession, offering suggestions for ways to minimize or avoid them. We offer four primary strategies for prevention of false confessions: (i) interrogation only of those for whom there is sufficient …