“The Problem of False Confessions in a Post-DNA World,” a recent study published in the North Carolina Law Review, found that juvenile offenders were involved in 33% of the cases where the defendant confessed to a crime that he or she did not commit. Ninety-two percent of the cases involved false confessions from individuals under the age of 40, and more than half were under the age of 25. According to the study’s authors, law professors Richard Leo of the University of California at Irvine and Steve Drizin, of Northwestern University, this finding suggests that those under the age of 18 are “more vulnerable to police pressure during interrogation.” The study examined the largest group of proven false confessions involving serious felonies ever collected, many of which were recently confirmed and uncovered through the use of DNA technology. Researchers concluded that false confessions “occur with an alarming frequency,” including about a quarter of all wrongful convictions and in at least 9 cases that ended in a wrongful capital conviction. Leo and Drizin found that factors such as police pressure to solve serious crimes, age of the accused, and the length of the interrogation can play a role in producing a false confession. (See San Diego Union-Tribune, April 15, 2004; 82 North Carolina L. Rev. 891 (2004)). See Innocence. See Resources.
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