New study on background factors in false confessions

A growing body of research suggests that many of the factors that lead people to confess to crimes that they did not commit are environmental: The suspect is isolated, exhausted, intoxicated, pressured, misled, etcetera.

Some factors pertaining to the individual have also been clearly established. Juveniles and mentally retarded people are far more easily steered into confessing.

Now, Gisli H. Gudjonsson of Iceland, the foremost researcher on this topic, has published a new study examining what other individual factors may contribute to false confessions. The study indicates that a person who has been exposed to multiple traumas in his or her life is more likely to report having given a false confession during a police interrogation.

These traumas include victimization (being the victim of violence or bullying) and experiencing the death of a significant other. A history of substance abuse was also associated with reporting a false confession.

The abstract of the article, published in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, is available online. The full article is available for a hefty fee.

Speeding up death

How is the Bush administration responding to the Innocence Project's announcement that the number of prisoners exonerated through DNA evidence alone has now exceeded 200?

With a plan to speed up - rather than slow down - the execution process.

The plan, authorized by the USA Patriot Act, will halve the time for prisoners to file post-conviction appeals in federal court from one year to six months. Judges will then have only 120 days to decide a case.

The one catch, under the regulations as currently being rewritten by the Justice Department, is that cases can only be fast-tracked from states that provide competent legal representation to indigent defendants. And who will decide that? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, hardly an impartial observer.

The plan to speed the death machinery comes a decade after federal reforms that considerably limited federal appeals, resulting in far fewer convictions being overturned. According to a new study by law professors Eric Freedman and David Dow, the percentage of successful appeals has dropped from 40% to 12%, and is continuing to fall.

"The notion that the federal government wants to accelerate executions in the face of known mistakes, and wants to do so just as DNA is becoming available in more and more cases, is mind-boggling," one of the study's authors is quoted in the New York Times as saying. "It will increase the risk that some state executes a person we later find to be innocent."

Legal columnist Adam Liptak's take on the issue, "Greasing the Wheels on the Machinery of Death," is available online to paid subscribers of the New York Times. (I had heard that the Times was changing this policy of requiring payment to read its editorial columns, but apparently that has not yet happened.)

Hat tip to Gretchen White for alerting me to this column.

The photo, of "Old Sparky" at Sing Sing Prison, is in the public domain.

Unintended consequences: Is predator hysteria fueling phobia of men?

The current climate of fear of sexual predators may be targeting an innocent bystander – the proverbial man on the street.

While most sexual predators are male, the converse is not true: Very few men are sexual predators. Yet, the predator panic is causing many men to fear involvement with children, creating a shortage of male teachers and youth group leaders that may have long-term negative consequences to society.

Now, an interesting column by Jeff Zaslow in the Aug. 23 Wall Street Journal is alerting the businessman on the street to this unintended consequence.

Here is an excerpt:

"When children get lost in a mall, they're supposed to find a 'low-risk adult' to help them. Guidelines issued by police departments and child-safety groups often encourage them to look for 'a pregnant woman,' 'a mother pushing a stroller' or 'a grandmother.'

"The implied message: Men, even dads pushing strollers, are 'high-risk.'

"Are we teaching children that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes. Child advocate John Walsh advises parents to never hire a male babysitter. Airlines are placing unaccompanied minors with female passengers rather than male passengers. Soccer leagues are telling male coaches not to touch players.

"Child-welfare groups say these are necessary precautions, given that most predators are male. But fathers' rights activists and educators now argue that an inflated predator panic is damaging men's relationships with kids. Some men are opting not to get involved with children at all, which partly explains why many youth groups can't find male leaders, and why just 9% of elementary-school teachers are male, down from 18% in 1981….

"TV shows, including the Dateline NBC series 'To Catch a Predator,' hype stories about male abusers. Now social-service agencies are also using controversial tactics to spread the word about abuse. This summer, Virginia's Department of Health mounted an ad campaign for its sex-abuse hotline. Billboards featured photos of a man holding a child's hand. The caption: 'It doesn't feel right when I see them together.'

"More than 200 men emailed complaints about the campaign to the health department. 'The implication is that if you see a man holding a girl's hand, he's probably a predator,' says Marc Rudov, who runs the fathers' rights site TheNoNonsenseMan.com. "In other words, if you see a father out with his daughter, call the police."

The story continues at the Wall Street Journal’s online site (regrettably, a subscription is required).

Photo credit: kandyjaxx (Creative Commons license)

Historic turning point for juvenile offenders in California

California's bloated school-to-prison pipeline efficiently channels poor and minority children into juvenile halls, then to the massive California Youth Authority, and then on to the state prison system as adults. Decreased funding for schools and other social programs and Zero Tolerance policies in the schools have contributed to a growing influx of youths in recent years. But now, in yet another signal that the pendulum may be swinging away from punitive incarceration, the state legislature has hit the brakes.

Under Senate Bill 81, all but the most violent delinquents will now stay in their home counties instead of going to the scandal-plagued California Youth Authority prisons. The new law (which has yet to be signed by the governor) provides funding for an array of rehabilitation services for delinquent youths, many of whom have serious mental illnesses.

States with similar county-based programs have seen dramatic reductions in criminal recidivism among youth. Indeed, proponents predict that the new law will "shrink the troubled state juvenile prison system nearly out of existence," signaling a historic turning point in criminal justice policies.

The San Francisco Chronicle has the full story.

Photo credit: "Pam I Am" (Creative Commons license)

Forensnips III: Last but not least

The ominous Mr. Big: Coming soon to a theater near you

Leave it to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to make a suspect confess.

Undercover Mounties, posing as members of criminal organizations, study their targets and obtain their loyalty with "gifts of cash, lavish meals, and booze-fueled strip-club trysts." They then involve their murder suspects in phony crimes such as money laundering and mob-style hits, complete with fake blood.

Finally, Mr. Big enters the picture. He is an all-powerful, gun-toting mob boss who "offers the target a terrible choice: Admit to a murder and receive his protection, more money. Or endure his wrath. Transcripts of these encounters, entered as evidence in courts, reveal that Mr. Big does not like to take 'no' for an answer."

The Mounties have conducted hundreds of these astonishing stings in recent years, most of them successful in garnering a confession.

The full article is online at Canada's National Post. Mr. Big is the topic of a 90-minute documentary by writer-producer Tiffany Burns. A clip from the forthcoming movie is also available online.


Epidemic of animal abuse?

With pro football quarterback Michael Vick garnering front-page news in connection with a dog-fighting farm, the Los Angeles Times is now reporting on what they call a "growing wave" of violence against animals by groups of youths. Here's an excerpt:

"Nationwide, an increasing number of animal cruelty cases are being
reported outside city limits: Horses, cows, goats and other farm animals
are being killed, authorities say, often by angry, reckless youths,
perhaps acting on dares.

"Although there are no statistics on such crimes, newspapers detail
scores of cases. Two Texas college students were indicted last fall for
slashing a horse's neck before stabbing it in the heart with a broken
golf club handle. In Pennsylvania in 2005, three joy-riding men killed a
pony named Ted E. Bear that belonged to a 4-year-old boy...."

We've seen alarmist stories before about juvenile crime waves. In fact, they've been coming in cycles since at least the 1950s.

This one could be hype, could be real. You decide.


Double jeopardy or justice delayed?

Last but not least in today’s news roundup, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting on a man who is being prosecuted anew for a crime that he was already convicted of 35 years ago.

Richard O'Neal was convicted in 1972 of shooting a police officer, and served four years in prison. After his release, he built a steady life as a father, grandfather, and popular city maintenance man.

Now, O'Neal has been rearrested for the same crime, one of nine defendants in the high-profile prosecution of ex-Black Liberation Army members.

Prosecutors call it delayed justice. But the arrest has outraged O'Neal's friends and relatives, who say the 58-year-old San Francisco man paid his debt to society and has spent the past three decades building a reputation for kindness and generosity.

Forensnips I: So much news, so little time

Much is happening in the news, but I'm too busy to go into depth at the moment. So I’m posting highlights, with links to more in-depth coverage for those of you who are interested. I hope to write a few longer posts on special topics over the coming weeks.

Two topics currently in the spotlight both pertain to commonplace police methods for obtaining arrests and convictions – the use of eyewitnesses and informants.

California considering eyewitness identification reform

At this weekend's American Psychological Association, psychologist Gary Wells received an award for his groundbreaking and influential studies of flawed eyewitness identification procedures.

California's state legislature is tackling the issue head-on. Senate Bill 756, now heading for the Assembly floor for a final vote, would enact statewide eyewitness identification procedures. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year, so we'll see what he does this time around.

The California legislature is also leading the way toward other reforms to help reduce wrongful convictions:

• Senate Bill 511 would require full electronic recording of interrogations in both juvenile and adult cases.

• Senate Bill 609 would require corroboration of information provided by jailhouse informants.

More research reports and news on this topic is online at:

The Justice Project

Seeing the Forest


Use of informants under scrutiny

Recent Congressional hearings put a spotlight on the widespread, secretive, and largely unregulated police practice of relying on confidential informants to put suspected criminals behind bars. Sparking public awareness and controversy over the longstanding practice were two recent cases: the fatal police shooting of a 92-year-old Atlanta woman in Alabama and a $102 million judgment against the FBI for knowingly using informants to illegally convict four men who then spent decades in prison.

An excellent column by law professor Alexandra Natapoff, author of a forthcoming book about informants, from the Aug. 16 San Francisco Chronicle is available online. Ms. Natapoff's testimony before a U.S. House Judiciary Committee is also available online.

Other coverage of the issue is at:

The blog of journalist Radley Balko

Texan Scott Henson's Grits for Breakfast blog

Drug War Chronicle

... Stay tuned - more news highlights to come.