Criminal Procedure
- Submitted by: Eman70570
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- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 07/10/2015 07:03 AM
- Pages: 2
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False Confessions
Grantham University
False Confessions
After watching this video on false confessions, I learned that it is not always guilt when a suspect confesses to a crime. In Sterling’s case he had been interrogated for hours, without a break, and they relayed crucial facts about the crime to him before he confessed to the crime. The facts that they told him was not public knowledge, so in the eyes of the jury, it made him look very guilty. These detectives were not trying to find the truth, they found somebody they could pin the crime on, and they went from there. They had no physical evidence on Mr. Sterling, all they had was a partial video of him relaying facts that they told him in the first place.
The thing that troubled me was the fact that they never showed the entire video interrogation, just a small bit of what were hours and hours of interrogation. That leads me to believe that the police were trying to cover up something. This let me further know that this man was being framed for a crime that he didn’t commit. Mr. Sterling after hours and hours of interrogation, was probably tired, and they probably told him that if he confessed, that he would be able to go back home. I think that false confessions are a major problem, because it leads to the arrest of the wrong person, and leaves the real criminal free.
In conclusion I agree with the Innocence Project about their proposed solutions to this ongoing problem. I think that all interrogations should be videoed from start to finish, so that the jury can see how this suspect came to their confessions, especially since police officers are allowed to lie to suspects, to get them to confess about a crime. I also believe that this evidence should be seen by a judge before letting it in court just to make sure everything was legal.
Grantham University
False Confessions
After watching this video on false confessions, I learned that it is not always guilt when a suspect confesses to a crime. In Sterling’s case he had been interrogated for hours, without a break, and they relayed crucial facts about the crime to him before he confessed to the crime. The facts that they told him was not public knowledge, so in the eyes of the jury, it made him look very guilty. These detectives were not trying to find the truth, they found somebody they could pin the crime on, and they went from there. They had no physical evidence on Mr. Sterling, all they had was a partial video of him relaying facts that they told him in the first place.
The thing that troubled me was the fact that they never showed the entire video interrogation, just a small bit of what were hours and hours of interrogation. That leads me to believe that the police were trying to cover up something. This let me further know that this man was being framed for a crime that he didn’t commit. Mr. Sterling after hours and hours of interrogation, was probably tired, and they probably told him that if he confessed, that he would be able to go back home. I think that false confessions are a major problem, because it leads to the arrest of the wrong person, and leaves the real criminal free.
In conclusion I agree with the Innocence Project about their proposed solutions to this ongoing problem. I think that all interrogations should be videoed from start to finish, so that the jury can see how this suspect came to their confessions, especially since police officers are allowed to lie to suspects, to get them to confess about a crime. I also believe that this evidence should be seen by a judge before letting it in court just to make sure everything was legal.