Abstract

In the past 20 years, many convicted prisoners are exonerated by DNA and non-DNA evidence, revealing that police-induced false confessions are a number one explanation for wrongful conviction of the innocent. In this Article, confessions and false confessions, causes that are responsible for the elicitation of false confessions—misclassification, coercion, and contamination, the three psychologically distinct types of false confession (voluntary, compliant, and persuaded) are discussed along side the results of introducing false-confession evidence within the criminal justice system. The article concludes with a quick discussion of the strategies and the way false confessions are addressed in India, for reducing the amount of false confessions and improving the accuracy of confession evidence that's introduced against a defendant at trial.

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