"I Did It, But Not Like That": Effects of Factually Incorrect Confessions on Juror Judgments

Individual attitudes toward coerced confessions change perception of confession evidence: why jurors may accept or reject poor-quality confessions

Wrongful conviction statistics indicate that jurors will accept confession evidence even when it was coerced or contains inconsistent information. While research has considered the role of both inconsistencies and coercion in juror decisions about retracted confessions, little attention has been given to whether juror attitudes toward coerced confessions contribute to perception of suspect guilt. Using an experimental design, we manipulated the presence of inconsistencies and coercion in a fictional confession transcript. When presented with a coerced confession, low support for coercive interrogation techniques predicted lower belief in the suspect's guilt, unlike those with higher support for coercion who did not alter their verdicts. This indicates that the effect of coercion on perceived suspect guilt differs depending on the juror's individual attitude towards coercion. Inconsistencies in the confession similarly influenced judgements of guilt dependent on whether the person believed that confessions could be coerced from an innocent person. Implications are discussed further.

How downplaying or exaggerating crime severity in a confession affects perceived guilt

This study investigates how judgments of guilt are influenced by factual errors in confessions that either amplify or downplay the severity of the crime. Participants read a confession statement and police report in which either the confession was consistent with the police report, the suspect admitted to a worse crime or the suspect admitted to a lesser crime. Mediation analyses showed that, compared to consistent confessions, both types of directional errors reduced judgments of guilt. Inconsistencies that made the suspect look better - but not those that made the suspect look worse -also increased judgments of guilt via a direct effect. Confessions that contain errors that appear to exaggerate the severity of the crime prompt no higher judgments of suspect guilt; however, errors in confessions that are perceived to downplay the severity of the crime can prompt an increased perception of suspect guilt compared to a consistent confession.