Imagine spending years behind bars — or even facing the death penalty — for a crime you didn’t commit. Now go one step further and imagine that the evidence that put you there is your own words.
False confessions are more common than most might imagine. Whether through psychological persuasion, prolonged isolation, or even outright lying, threats or promises, coercive interrogation techniques have played a decisive role in sending innocent people — including minors and intellectually-impaired persons — to prison.
On October 5, 2020, Season Two of the podcast Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions launches, examining this true crime phenomenon through the eyes of two of the globe’s leading experts on interrogations. Hosts Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin — renowned attorneys, co-directors of Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, and recognized figures from the hit Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer — have dedicated their lives to understanding and solving the problem of false confessions.