Could You Confess to a Crime You Didn't Commit?

A good article about false confessions from CBS News' Crimesider:

Marty Tankleff in 2004. As a 17-year-old boy Tankleff pondered, during a police interogatation, whether he killed his own parents. He spent the next 17 years in jail fighting his own words.

Could someone make you confess to a crime that you didn’t commit? C'mon. No way. People usually lie to avoid penalties. Why would someone accept responsibility and punishment for something they didn’t do?

To most of us, it is inconceivable that even the most skillful police interrogator can get innocent people to, not only confess to a terrible crime, but actually believe that they committed it. Yet, we know it happens.

One quarter of those exonerated by DNA test results actually confessed to the crime of which they were convicted. Regular viewers of 48 Hours Mystery know about the case of Marty Tankleff.

He is the son of a wealthy New York couple who was convicted of killing his parents in 1990 after he wondered aloud to detectives if he was responsible. Tankleff was released from prison last year after new evidence surfaced pointing to a disgruntled partner of Tankleff’s father and hired killers.

So what makes people admit things that are not true? Until recently, I was confident that only a certain kind of individual could be coerced.

Read More: Could Someone Make You Confess a Crime You Didn't Commit?

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