Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases


Reliability of confessions


Here there is a clear overlap with the issue of fitness to have been interviewed. It is clear that the presence of mental disorder or other mental abnormality does not equate to confessions or other admission being unreliable. Tere must be consideration of the impact of any disability on any responses given.


Tere has been some attempt to categorise false confessions:


• A voluntary false confession might be to protect the true perpetrator • A coerced-compliant confession occurs in the face of coercion or forceful questioning; it might also be made to avoid conflict or for fear of harm


• A coerced-internalised confession occurs when a suspect wrongly believes that their confession is true; it may be associated with police interviewing characterized by shouting, rudeness or


threatening behaviour, combined with asking effectively leading questions, including questions that feed information covertly to the individual, which he then comes to believe (see Chapter 5)


Mental disorder or abnormality can be relevant to one or all of these, by increasing the risk of the person being compliant, by exaggerating susceptibility to police techniques, or by creating a state of misunderstanding on the part of the defendant.


Further individual defendant factors might include:


• Higher susceptibility to distress, leading to confusion • High levels of false guilt from mental disorder, leading to a predisposition to confession • Mental disorder characterised by fantasy and a desire for notoriety or fame • Learning disability impairing the ability to understand the questions or consequences of answers


Te assessment of whether police interviews are oppressive is a specialist area and the definition of what is considered oppressive can vary in different jurisdictions. What might be oppressive for one person might not be so for another, and so there is a role for describing how an individual’s mental disorder, or abnormal mental state might lead to them perceiving an interview as unusually oppressive.


In addition to usual interview recommendations consider the following issues:


• Te transcripts of the interview • Any records of rest or sleep • Any evidence from transcripts or recordings of confusion or misunderstanding


• Any evidence from transcripts of changing of responses to questions in response to oppressive techniques


• Any evidence from transcripts of information being fed to the defendant and then ‘adopted’ by him (this may reflect either suggestibility or compliance)


Some defendants may remain silent or refuse to answer questions properly. If their mental abnormality is related to this then this should be stated, so that the court does not draw any adverse inference from their responses or lack of response.


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