Confessions and Convictions

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Confessions and Convictions

• How Varying Types of Confessional Evidence Affect
  Conviction Rates
• James Gentry and Jared Smith
• Hanover College

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Strength of Confessions

• Individuals on a jury are more likely to convict
  on the basis of a confession than any other piece
  of evidence (Wakefield Underwager, 1998).
• Confessions are considered extremely powerful in
  obtaining convictions
• Kassin, S. M. (1997).
• Kassin Neumann (1997).

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Impact of Confessions

• Much controversy has stemmed from a rise of false
  confessions gained through questionable
  interrogation tactics used by authorities in the
  solicitation of a confession (Kassin Sukel,
  1997).
• Harmless Error Rule
• Kassin Sukel (1997).

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Types of Confessions

• Voluntary confession
• Retracted confession
• Coerced compliant false confession
• Solicited via interrogation tactics
• Coerced internalized false confession
• Attained via victims internalization of crime

Kassin, S. M., Gudjonsson, G.H. (2004).
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Research Question

• This study was conducted to discern what type of
  confession evidence yields the highest rate of
  conviction when presented to a sample of
  potential jurors.

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Hypothesis

• It was hypothesized that of the four types of
  confession evidence, that the self confession
  will yield the highest conviction rate, whereas
  the false internalized confessions will yield the
  lowest rate of conviction.

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Methods Participants

• Participants recruited via the internet and
  completed study through Psychological Research on
  the Net (Krantz, 2008)
• N 252 (F-158, M-94)
• After 15 responses eliminated
• Median Age - 24
• Ages 18-62

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Similarity of IV Across Conditions

• Battery Crime
• Accused and victim remained constant across
  conditions
• Confession was same across conditions
• Approximate length of transcript

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Voluntary confession

• On the night of Dec. 15th 2006 Mr. Lemke was
  arrested at his residence for allegedly beating
  his wife Mr. Lemkes interrogation by the
  Jefferson County police lasted just under an hour
  before he broke down and voluntarily confessed to
  the crime. Mr. Lemke admitted in his voluntary
  statement
• I did it. I just wanted her to stop! Im so
  sorry. I never meant for this to happen...

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Retracted confession

• After having confessed to the crime however, Mr.
  Lemke decided to retract his guilty plea made
  on the 15th, to a plea of not guilty on the
  22nd of the same month. To explain his decision
  he stated he was in shock at the time of his
  arrest and that he was not in the right state of
  mind to make a plea of guilty. In retrospect he
  is certain that though he and his wife did argue
  that night, he did not beat her.

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Coerced compliant false confession

• Mr. Lemkes interrogation by the Jefferson County
  police lasted three hours before he finally
  confessed to the crime. During the interrogation
  process, police told Mr. Lemke that they had
  tangible DNA evidence that directly linked him to
  the crime. They told him that if he did not
  confess, he would receive a much harsher
  sentence. It should be noted however, that the
  police did not in fact have any such evidence.
  Soon after hearing about the evidence, Mr. Lemke
  admitted in his voluntary statement

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Coerced internalized false confession

• At first, Mr. Lemke was very adamant about his
  plea of not guilty. However, after being confined
  in the interrogation room for nearly 32 hours and
  being asked the same questions over and over, Mr.
  Lemke finally broke down and confessed to the
  crime. By this time Mr. Lemke truly believed that
  he had indeed committed the crime.

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Methods Procedure

• Consent form then instruction form
• Sample confession
• Conviction Stage
• Punishment Stage
• 0-1 year 2-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years
  16-20 years
• Demographic questionnaire
• Debriefing

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Conviction Rate Across Conditions
x²(3, N 252) 13.8, p lt .001
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Means of Punishment
F(3, 252) 1.454, n.s.
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Main Effect of Gender on Punishment
F(1, 252) 4.295, p .039
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Discussion

• The results of this study indicate the power of
  confession evidence in relation to conviction
  rates.
• Hypothesis was basically supported
• Females assigned harsher punishments than their
  male counterparts

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Limitations and Future Directions

• Manipulate variables within transcript
• Manipulate length of transcript
• Manipulate gender of crime

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Questions

• ?