False Confessions and Miscarriages of Justice

1. False Confessions and Miscarriages of Justice Professor Gisli H. Gudjonsson Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience King’s College, London gisli.gudjonsson@kcl.ac.uk

2. The development of the science

3. False Confessions • Base rate in criminal cases unknown, but they are more common and more readily elicited than previously thought. • Most false confession involve people who do not have a mental disorder, but mental disorder and salient psychological vulnerabilities increase the risk. • Numerous anecdotal cases reported in UK and USA. • False confession is the main cause of wrongful conviction in 14%–25% of cases derived from four studies (Drizin & Leo, 2004). • Out of DNA 350 exonerations in the USA between 1989-2017 about 25% involved false admission/confessions. • Over 30% of false confession cases, predominantly murder cases, involve more than one false confessor (Drizin & Leo, 2004). • Published cases focus on most serious cases and neglect minor and less notorious cases where the motivational factors are often different (police-induced vs. taking on a case for a peer)

4. False Confessions – RATE – Gudjonsson et al. 2009 Survey of 24,627 youngsters – School Grades 8-10 (Mean age = 15.5, SD = 0.7)

5. Police interviewing Police interviewing is best conceptualised as a dynamic and interactive social process, the outcome of which is influenced by a number of factors: Contextual (e.g., seriousness of offence, strength of evidence – increases the likelihood of pressure in interview) Custodial (i.e., nature and length of the custodial confinement, type and duration of questioning) Individual differences (e.g., experience of suspect, intelligence, physical/mental health, suggestibility, compliance, history of trauma and bullying) Support (i.e., the presence of a lawyer, ‘appropriate adult’)

6. ENGLAND'S LEADING CASE ON COERCIVE INTERVIEWING: ‘THE CARDIFF THREE’ • Murder of a sex worker in 1988 (Cardiff, Wales). Stabbed more than 50 times at her home where entertained clients. • 10 months later 5 men arrested after two witnesses came forward (both pressured by police and gave false testimonies). • Stephen Miller interviewed on 19 occasions; 13 hours of taped-interrogation over a period of 90 hours. • Mr Nice and Mr Nasty technique, intimidation, manipulation of his self esteem. • Over 300 denials to the murder before confessed. • Mr Miller and two others were convicted at trial in 1990. • Conviction quashed in 1992 by the Court of appeal on the basis of oppressive interviewing. • In 2003 the real murderer, Jeffrey Gafoor, pleaded guilty to the murder and was jailed for life. All three men were given compensation for their wrongful conviction.

7. MR MILLER’S FALSE CONFESSION TO MURDER Vulnerability factors Suggestibility/ Compliance Low self-esteem Borderline IQ (75) Pressure Motivation Custody and interrogation Long interviews Give the police what they wanted Reid style interrogation Wanted interviews to stop Lawyer passive in interviews Became confused/distressed/ Could not cope False (internalized) confession

8. The Conclusion from the Psychological Report “In view of Mr Miller’s marked psychological vulnerabilities he would have been ill-prepared at the time of the interviews to cope psychologically with the pressure and demand characteristics of the situation. There is no doubt in my mind that bearing in mind the type, intensity and duration of the police pressure during the interviews and his psychological vulnerabilities, the reliability of the interviews must be considered to be unsafe and unsatisfactory.”

9. “The Reykjavik Confessions” 1

10. The Reykjavik confessions • GudmundurEinarsson disappeared on 27 January 1974, at the age of 18 years. He was last seen leaving a Dance Hall in ferocious weather. • GeirfinnurEinarsson disappeared on 19 November, 1974, at the age of 32 years. He went to meet one or more persons at the Keflavik Harbour Café and was never seen again. • The two cases are unrelated apart from four of six suspects being allegedly linked to both cases. • All six were convicted in December 1977 and served their prison sentences. The court based its outcome almost solely on the confessions of the six individuals concerned. There was no forensic or independent eyewitness evidence. The bodies of the two men were never found. • All six claimed to be innocent, having been coerced to confess. • Five of the suspects had developed a memory distrust syndrome and accepted that they had been involved.

11. My involvement in the cases • In the summer of 1976 while working as a detective in Reykjavík, I met four of the six suspects and they participated whilst in custody in an experiment I was conducting into lie detection for an MSc dissertation in clinical psychology. • In September 2011, an Icelandic journalistcontacted me and asked me to look at three diaries that TryggviLeifsson had written whilst in solitary confinement in Sídumúli Prison in 1976 and 1977. This opened my eyes to the possibility of wrongful convictions. • In November 2011 I was appointed as an expert to assist a ‘Working Group’ set up by the Minister of the Interior to investigate the reliability of the suspects’ confessions. It reported its findings in March 2013 and concluded that the confessions of all six convicted persons were wholly unreliable. • A Court Cases Review Commission (CCRC) was set up and concluded in February 2017 that there were strong grounds for appeal regarding the manslaughter convictions. • The appeals will soon be heard by the Supreme Court. The prosecutor supports the appeal.

12. Days in detention and proportion spent in solitary confinement

13. Events in solitary confinement

14. All six were heavily medicated while in custody While in solitary confinement, the Icelandic suspects were given various psychotropic drugs, sleeping medication, and tranquillizers. The type of drugs referred to include chlorpromazine, chloral hydrate, nitrazepam, and diazepam.

15. Extracts from the code of legal practice in criminal cases at the time of the Gudmundur and Geirfinnur investigation (74/1974) • Police officers shall always investigate cases with an open mind, focusing both on matters that support guilt and innocence (s. 39). • Policemen should ask questions that are “clear, short and unequivocal”. They may not in any way attempt to confuse a person with lies or in other ways such that he did not know what he was answering, or resulted in his giving wrong answers. They may not offer the “accused person promises, favours or perks if he confesses.....” (s. 40). • It is not permitted to question a person for more than 6 hours continuously and he shall be allowed sufficient sleep and rest (s. 40). • Each time a suspect is interviewed it shall be recorded when the questioning started and concluded (s. 40).

16. Supreme Court Outcome 27th September 2018 All found innocent in Guðmundur and Geirfinns case, 44 years after the supposed crimes were committed

18. What has been learned? A great deal has been learned about the psychology of false confessions over the past three decades, particularly with regard to salient risk factors. Gudjonsson (2018) lists 17 potential set of risk factors. False confessions are more common and more readily elicited than previously thought. The documented anecdotal cases are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. False confessions are usually elicited by a combination of situational and personal risk factors.

19. Markers of false confessions There are no definitive markers of false confession that can be applied across all cases. Each case needs to be considered on its own merit. The larger the number of situational and personal risk factors involved, and the greater their salience, the higher the risk of false confession.