when:
Countless movies and "Law & Order"-style shows depict confessions as satisfying moments for the audience -- we knew the suspect was guilty, it was just a matter of getting him to admit it. But reality isn't always so neat and tidy. Sometimes confessions come when:
- The suspect is grilled just 24 hours after being the one to find his own father's body.
- The suspect is not read his rights.
- The suspect is not offered the chance to speak to an attorney.
- The suspect is eight years old.
We have no idea yet whether the young boy in the Arizona case is guilty or innocent. But it's sobering that authorities are ready to charge an eight-year-old as an adult, presumably with the possibility of the death penalty, on the basis of a coerced confession.
"Just because this 8-year-old said he shot the father and the other man gives us no great confidence that he really did," one leading expert in child confessions tells the New York Times. "We can take most 8-year-olds off the street and get them to eventually admit they did this as well."
We like to think that we only consider the death penalty for people who are definitely guilty. But since 1973, 130 people sentenced to death -- who we thought were definitely guilty -- have later been exonerated. That's a rate of nearly four per year and it includes one case right here in Virginia of a brain-damaged man who falsely confessed and came within nine days of execution.