As outlined in episode 7 of the Bear Brook podcast, modern understandings of human psychology help to reveal why someone may confess falsely when subjected to extreme police tactics. For example, when using the Reid technique interrogators will likely tell suspects that they have evidence against them and cut suspects off then they try to plead their innocence. Additionally, they tell the suspect that they would have done the same thing if they were in their position, they had no choice, and it is not that bad. They additionally tell suspects that their outcome will be more favorable if they just confess and they will be going to jail either way. This forces suspects to believe they have no choice but to confess and that their situation will be improved if they confess. False confessions can be particularly prevalent among the impressionable young and mentally disabled.
Hugh Burton fell victim to false confessions. He falsely confessed in 1989 when he was 16 to killing his mom after he found her dead in her bed. She was stabbed in the neck. While he was being interrogated, Hugh was told the police had evidence against him. This was all because his teacher mistook Hugh for being late to school that day even though he was not. Police told Hugh he was guilty for hours and did not let him say he was innocent. They told him that if he confessed, he would go to family court where there were smaller repercussions. Hugh ended up confessing to killing his mother and was found guilty. Only after he was let out on parole was he exonerated.
During interrogation, police may leak facts about the case to suspects unintentionally through their line of questioning. This is what they did in Hugh’s case, allowing him to make up a whole story of how he committed the crime. This is called contamination in questioning. Because recorders are only turned on towards the end of an interrogation, the contamination is not captured, only the confession making this particularly damning to the jury. In order to avoid false confessions, interrogators should not lie about information they have and only present suspects with facts. Additionally, confessing should not be made to seem so enticing, although I do understand that this is important for making guilty people confess. (386)