Yes, Innocent People Confess To Crimes They Haven't Committed
There's an op-ed in the LA Times -- "Innocent? Don't talk to the police" -- by a law prof, James Duane, whose video on not talking to the police I posted a while back.
Most innocent people mistakenly think to themselves, "Why not talk? I haven't done anything. I have nothing to hide. What could possibly go wrong?"Well, among other things, you could end up confessing to a crime you didn't commit. The problem of false confessions is not an urban legend. It is a documented fact. Indeed, research suggests that the innocent may be more susceptible than the culpable to deceptive police interrogation tactics, because they tragically assume that somehow "truth and justice will prevail" later even if they falsely admit their guilt. Nobody knows for sure how often innocent people make false confessions, but as Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski recently observed, "Innocent interrogation subjects confess with surprising frequency."
It happens especially in cases when the suspect is young and vulnerable. An analysis of 125 proven false confessions found that 33% of the suspects were juveniles at the time of arrest, and at least 43% were either mentally disabled or ill. Another study of 340 exonerations found that 13% of adults falsely confessed compared to 42% of juveniles. And nearly half of the exonerated children were put behind bars because of something they said to police without an attorney present.
In Oakland, police isolated and interrogated a 16-year-old named Felix in the middle of the night without a lawyer and denied his requests to see his mother. Eventually he gave them a detailed, videotaped confession to a murder, allegedly filled with numerous specifics only the real killer would have known. At that point, it looked like there was little chance this young man would be able to avoid a conviction; when a jury hears that someone has confessed, they are almost certain to convict. But fortunately for young Felix, it was later revealed that he had an airtight alibi: He had been locked up in a juvenile detention facility the day of the killing. The charges were dismissed, and he was released from jail.
A cop friend of mine told me not to talk to the police even if you aren't even a suspect. She warned that, in court, they can take one tiny thing you said -- take it totally out of context -- and use to to yank you into a prison sentence. Like how you "hate that girl." The sort of hyperbole many of us use without ever wanting to kill someone. Or it could be something more innocuous. Suddenly, you are a suspect. And in court, they only present the things that make you sound guilty.
Via @PINACNews, Cops coerce a 13-year-old kid into confessing to a murder he did not commit, sending him to prison for three years. A question from the video -- did he really understand Miranda rights? I think it's probably often unlikely that young teens do understand the rights and the ramifications of talking.
Related: Duane has a book coming out September 20 (that can be pre-ordered now), "You Have the Right to Remain Innocent."
I do have to say, I think Duane's advice -- not to talk to cops when a crime's been committed -- is right on, but I think there is a balance to be struck in a traffic stop. I write about this in "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck" -- from consultations with cops and First Amendment lawyer Marc J. Randazza, who brilliantly saved my bacon when a TSA worker thought she'd lawyer up and sue me for $500K.
Here's the excerpt on the nuances of what makes sense in a traffic stop. More in "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck" on what to do if they try to search you, and other dicey subjects.
Amy, to be perfectly blunt, Dr. James Duane is an idiot and totally dishonest. "I will never talk to a policeman, under any circumstances," he says.
Should be very interesting for him if his house gets robbed, for example. He did say he will never talk to a police officer under any circumstances. That would include those circumstances in which he's the victim of a crime.
And what will he do when the police ask him what was taken from his home? Communicate through interpretive dance? No, that would still be talking to the police.
Basically, he cherry picks those cases in which people have managed to make it worse for themselves by talking to the police. But people have talked themselves out of being arrested before. For him to claim otherwise is a naked lie. As an attorney, he has no excuse for not knowing that this has happened. George Zimmerman did it. By claiming self-defense, he was initially not arrested for the death of Trayvon Martin. And when he was arrested, he talked himself into being released without an attorney present, which was a reckless thing to do, but he did it.
Ever talk your way out of a speeding ticket? If so, then you have successfully helped yourself out of trouble by talking to the police.
His advice is for morons with no common sense. It would be equally bad to advise someone to always talk to the police. There are no absolutes in this game. I'm afraid you will just have to learn to think for yourself. No one is going to lay down any convenient rule for you so you can avoid it.
Patrick at August 27, 2016 5:09 AM
In the Zimmerman case and in OJ's, the public was allowed to interfere; their own personal opinion was more important than the legal process.
The public WANTS PEOPLE JAILED because they have been buying their own fear and tasting their own impotence for decades now.
You didn't think the Dukes of Hazzard were racist until CNN told you they were because a CAR had a FLAG on it. "Baaa."
Radwaste at August 27, 2016 6:29 AM
Oh, and by the way, if Dr. Duane ever is a victim of a crime, I hope he advises any witnesses who could have helped him to "never, under any circumstances, talk to a police officer."
I'm dying to see how that works for him.
Patrick at August 27, 2016 6:36 AM
Duane isn't an "idiot" -- he makes good points in that video, though I don't agree with him on the absolutism, vis a vis my research with these cops and Randazza.
Amy Alkon at August 27, 2016 8:11 AM
This was my main objection to the DARE program. It gave children the wrong impression abiut the police.
They are not your friends.
Patrick seems to be under the delusion that the police are there to solve crimes. He has been watching too much television.
The police are there to build a bureacracy and create a law enforecment empire. They do this through fear, and excessive fines for minor infractions. (You should be afraid, as an innocent party, of getting caught up in the system. It will ruin your life,)
The criminal investigation is mostly trying to pin something on whoever is convenient so they can close the case.
Isab at August 27, 2016 8:25 AM
No, Isab, your infinite pedanticness, I was never under the impression that the police were there to solve crimes. However, they do file reports about what was taken.
And if your stuff does happen to turn up when your house is robbed, good luck getting it back without ever having told the police what was stolen from you.
And Amy, he does speak in absolutes about something that doesn't exist in absolute terms. Ergo, he is a moron, and is doing his students a terrible disservice. Fortunately, I'm sure the astute law students in his class are probably keenly aware that the guy believes in better living through chemistry. Or did you think he just naturally talks like Mork from Ork?
Patrick at August 27, 2016 9:09 AM
Someone's kid vanished. My friend, who was a family friend, tried to help find the kid. Sure enough, became a suspect for months.
When the police pile on charges and say, if you plead guilty to the lesser charge you only get 2 years. A scared kid/not educated, naive person will take the deal even if innocent.
Craig Loehle at August 27, 2016 11:11 AM
"And if your stuff does happen to turn up when your house is robbed, good luck getting it back without ever having told the police what was stolen from you."
If you were aware if the infinitely small chance of ever getting your stuff back, you might want to view your police report, as nothing more than a hoop you have to jump through for your insurance company.
You know what percentage of murders where the perpetrator was a stranger to the victim are ever solved?
Nothing exists in absolute terms, but short of a complete lecture series on consitutional law, *never voluntarily talk to the police* is extremely good advice.
In my opinion people in the United States and Europe are being systematically brainwashed to turn over both their personal safety, and most of the constitutional rights to the state.
Im not in favor of murdering police officers, but I am also not in favor of spilling your guts to them, except in rather dire circumstances, when you have no other option.
Those cases are few and far between.
A guy in Wyoming endured months of grilling for the disappearance of his wife,when she was almost certainly the victim of a passing serial killer.
Isab at August 27, 2016 11:14 AM
" In my opinion, people in the U.S. and Europe are being systematically brainwashed to turn over both their personal safety, and most of their constitutional rights to the state. ".....Isab at 11:14
Best pro gun and pro 2nd Amendment argument I have read.
Nick at August 27, 2016 12:48 PM
I wonder if it would have been helpful to him to have a lawyer. Is there no recourse in the law that stop this relentless grilling? How many times and how many ways can you say, "No, I didn't kill my wife"?
Patrick at August 27, 2016 1:32 PM
He did. The lawyer told him he had already established his whereabouts and to shut up, and refuse futher interviews.
The poor guy was hounded for years. The press hung him out to dry.
What the police tried to do was reinterview him, again and again so they could find some little inconsistency in his story that they could use to impeach him.
When he refused, that was seen as evidence of guilt.
19 years after they are just now finally thinking that Dale Wayne Eaton probably killed her.
Isab at August 27, 2016 3:30 PM
Professor Duane is not 'an idiot'. He has distilled his message into a short, pithy punchline that is 99%-likely the best advice for most people, most of the time.
Talking about traffic tickets is both trivial - and misguided. Nobody talks their way out of a ticket - they only talk their way into a ticket. Officers have vast discretion when it comes to issuing citations for civil infractions. Almost always, they make their decision based upon your driving record and your behavior - but only in the sense that they can be persuaded to give you a ticket when they were minded not to. Never the other way about.
Officers also use the pretext of traffic stops to go on fishing expeditions for evidence of more-serious infractions and possible criminal cases. This is where Prof. Dane's advice really comes into play, because many traffic stops are simply a starting place for investigating YOU.
In virtually-all situations, talking to the police without the advice of a lawyer simply has no upside. The only situations in which I would talk to the police without a lawyer present is to give information which has no possible connection to me - the license plate of the car that peeled out of the bank parking lot, or the color of the c lothing of the man who dragged the little girl into his van. When talking to the police, remember the first rule of playing poker for money - if you can't identify clearly who is the 'mark' in the game - it's YOU. If they are asking you questions, you have no way to know the focus of their investigation. And they are allowed to lie to you, mislead you and threaten you with all sorts of dire consequences, with no repercussions. The only way not to lose at this game is not to play, and the first rule of not playing is not talking.
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llamas at August 28, 2016 6:47 AM
Well, some common sense is called for. I won't hesitate to talk to police if, say, I witness a traffic accident. But if I'm somehow in the extended circle of a crime, and I have the slightest inkling that the police might regard me as a suspect now or in the future, that's where I invoke my Miranda rights. (Having said that, I've never been in that situation; I live a very prosaic life. And yes, I'm aware that just because you invoke your Miranda rights, that doesn't mean they stop interrogating you, even thought they are supposed to.)
Cousin Dave at August 29, 2016 8:21 AM
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