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New scholarship: a dirty little secret and confessions

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Ok, the header is slightly misleading. A few weeks ago Brandon Garrett placed online at SSRN an article entitled The Substance of Falsw Confessions.  Prof. Garrett asked that it not be circulated or cited without approval.  I’ve held off mentioning the article out of deference for his wishes. Bad news for Prof. Garrett, the article is circulating like mad on crimdef lists so I figured whats the harm. The article is a must read for criminal trial grunts, as well as appellate & habeas types, who have ever had a case concerning a confession (and who hasn’t).  The article is both accessible and scholarly.  More importantly it lends itself readily to be adopted for use in litigation. From that article: A puzzle is raised by cases of false confessions: How could an innocent person convincingly confess to a crime? Post-conviction DNA testing has now exonerated 221 convicts, 34 of whom falsely confessed to rapes and murders...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).