We may see child abuse: Participants in the study on rape and respectability sentenced the defendant to a longer term of imprisonment for raping a married woman than raping a divorcee. And the experimenters reasoned that this was because the social harm was seen as worse in the case of the rape of a married woman (e.g., her husband was harmed as well). Jones and Aronson, “Attribution of Fault to a Rape Victim,” 418–19.
To do that, we may: Jones and Aronson, “Attribution of Fault to a Rape Victim,” 418–19. This blame dynamic may help explain the seemingly unexplainable: the severe punishment of those who have been raped, including children and other innocents, in certain cultures around the world. In Somalia in 2008, for example, a thirteen-year-old girl was stoned to death in front of a thousand spectators after her father reported that she had been gang raped. Chris McGreal, “Somalian Rape Victim, 13, Stoned to Death,” Guardian, November 2, 2008, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/03/somalia-rape-amnesty. In Sudan in 2013, an eighteen-year-old pregnant woman who was raped by seven men was then charged with adultery, prostitution, and committing indecent acts, which carried the death penalty. “Sudan: Gang Rape Victim Found Guilty of ‘Indecent Acts,’ ” Sudan Tribune, February 21, 2014, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article50031.
Why, then, do most: Being able to rewrite our existing labels would certainly be beneficial, given that amending, reassessing, and sometimes rejecting our initial hypotheses in light of emerging facts is critical to reaching accurate conclusions. Dan Simon, In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice System (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 22.
Research suggests that once we have: Simon, In Doubt, 23.
But really our minds are bending: Simon, In Doubt, 37–38.
Say you learn that: Claudia E. Cohen, “Person Categories and Social Perception; Testing Some Boundaries of the Processing Effects of Prior Knowledge,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40, no. 3 (1981): 446.
Without any conscious effort: Cohen, “Person Categories and Social Perception,” 447.
And if you know: Nick D. Lange et al., “Contextual Biases in the Interpretation of Auditory Evidence,” Law and Human Behavior 35 (2011): 180, 182–83.
In an experiment along these lines: Nick D. Lange et al., “Contextual Biases,” 182–83.
In a great demonstration: Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Nilanjana Dasgupta, and Tracy L. Banaszynski, “Believing Is Seeing: The Effects of Racial Labels and Implicit Beliefs on Face Perception,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29 (2003): 363–66; Adam Alter, “Why It’s Dangerous to Label People,” Psychology Today, May 17, 2010, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alternative-truths/201005/why-its-dangerous-label-people.
What is incredible is that: Eberhardt, Dasgupta, and Banaszynski, “Believing Is Seeing,” 367–68.
Medical research suggests: Simon, In Doubt, 23.
Unfortunately, the impact: Initial expectations can bias eyewitnesses and jurors, as well as interrogators, judges, and forensic scientists. Saul M. Kassin, Itiel E. Dror, and Jeff Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias: Problems, Perspectives, and Proposed Solutions,” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 2 (2013): 45.
“Tunnel vision” is an endemic: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 45–47. In about half of the post-conviction DNA exoneration cases that we know about, flawed forensic science was an important contributor to the wrongful conviction. Innocence Project, “DNA Exonerations Nationwide,” accessed February 15, 2014, http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php; Innocence Project, “51% of 300 DNA Exonerations Involved Use of Improper/Unvalidated Forensic Science: Breakdown by Discipline,” accessed February 15, 2014, http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/FSBreakdownDiscipline.pdf.
Faces image: Eberhardt, Dasgupta, and Banaszynski, “Believing Is Seeing,” 368.
In fact, DNA testing: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 47.
You’ve got a feeling: “What is CODIS?,” National Institute of Justice, July 16, 2010, http://nij.gov/journals/266/Pages/backlogs-codis.aspx; Joseph Goldstein, “F.B.I. Audit of Database That Indexes DNA Finds Errors in Profiles,” New York Times, January 24, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/nyregion/fbi-audit-of-database-that-indexes-dna-finds-errors-in-profiles.html?hp&_r=1.
In one recent study, researchers gave: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 47.
They needed to confirm: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 47.
As expected, the experts found: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 47.
Only one of the seventeen: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 47.
Once David was labeled a drunk: This is what psychologists commonly refer to as a “positive test strategy” by which people search for evidence that confirms what is already believed to be true, rather than looking for evidence that contradicts it. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 81. When that supporting information is inevitably found, the existing hypothesis appears to be established.
Interestingly, the first people: Wilber and Wilgoren, “Medical Condition Suspected.”
Well, perhaps because they weren’t looking: Wilber and Wilgoren, “Medical Condition Suspected.”
As one of the firefighters recounted: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 26.
According to the U.S. Department: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies, “Appendix B: Tables of Model-Based Estimates (50 States and the District of Columbia),” accessed February 15, 2014, http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k8state/AppB.htm#TabB-9.
After dinner on a Friday night: Brief for Appellant, Jordan, 18 A.3d 703 (No. 07-CF-340), 2010 WL 7359337, at *2.
But the problem wasn’t just that: Simon, In Doubt, 38.
For example, one of the firefighters: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 23.
The lack of a bracelet: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 23.
Likewise, the Pritchetts: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 18.
According to Commander Robert Contee: Wilber and Wilgoren, “Medical Condition Suspected.”
With a different starting frame: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 56.
As it was, the first person: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 56.
There was actually plenty: Willoughby, Summary of Special Report, 8, 28, 47.
The failure to appreciate counterevidence: Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 84.
The lack of independent assessment: Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 85.
This is why when, say, six people: Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 84.
They decided to offer: Milk and Ryan, “Washingtonians of the Year”; Elissa Silverman, “Don’t Split Department, Task Force Tells Fenty,” Washington Post, September 21, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092000900.html.
A number of these reforms: District of Columbia Task Force on Emergency Medical Services, Report and Recommendations (Washington, DC: January 27, 2007), 27–33. Unfortunately, there is some evidence that the D.C. government may already be backsliding on certain advances. Andrea Noble, “D.C. Fire Chief’s Changes Ignore Earlier EMS Task Force Recommendation,” JEMS, August, 28, 2013, http://www.jems.com/article/news/dc-fire-chief-s-changes-ignore-earlier-e; Tisha Thompson and Rick Yarborough, “I-Team: Seeing Through the Smoke,” NBC Washington, August 27, 2013, http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/I-Team-Seeing-Through-the-Smoke-220734681.html.
We could start by: Our disgust reactions to certain groups can be amplified by those with an interest in doing so, as genocides throughout history make clear. Harris and Fiske, “Dehumanizing the Lowest of the Low,” 852. One of the reasons that the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Final Solution was because of a powerful propaganda cam
paign aimed at depicting Jews as disgusting: diseased and akin to vermin. Sandra Kiume, “Disgust and Social Tolerance,” Psych Central, accessed February 15, 2014, http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/01/04/disgust-and-social-tolerance/. Thankfully, education can also serve to reduce the disgust we may feel toward outgroups.
Perhaps most important: Kassin, Dror, and Kukucka, “The Forensic Confirmation Bias,” 49.
He used a shortcut: Amanda Schaffer, “The Moral Dilemmas of Doctors During Disaster,” New Yorker, September 13, 2013, http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/the-moral-dilemmas-of-doctors-during-disaster.html.
In that panicked moment: Schaffer, “The Moral Dilemmas of Doctors.”
It did not help doctors: Schaffer, “The Moral Dilemmas of Doctors.”
A DNR simply informs: “Do Not Resuscitate Orders,” MedlinePlus, last modified February 3, 2014, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000473.htm.
Moreover, a person may choose: “Do Not Resuscitate Orders,” MedlinePlus, last modified February 3, 2014, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000473.htm.
The patients abandoned: Schaffer, “The Moral Dilemmas of Doctors.”
They carried an almost infinite array: Schaffer, “The Moral Dilemmas of Doctors.”
2. Dangerous Confessions ~ The Detective
The back door of the apartment: Brief for Defendant at 3, State v. Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d 53 (Ill. App. Ct. 2011) (No. 2-09-1060), http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legaldinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/documents/RIVERA_Brief.pdf.
Someone had washed: Brief for Defendant at 2, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060).
And if you walked right: Brief for Defendant at 2–3, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060).
Dawn Engelbrecht knew: Maurice Possley, “DNA Tests Give Hope to Convict in 1992 Murder,” Chicago Tribune, March 26, 2005, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-03-26/news/0503260252_1_dna-tests-test-results-crime-lab.
Holly Staker was supposed to be: Possley, “DNA Tests.”
A neighbor had noticed him: Possley, “DNA Tests.”
No one picked up: Possley, “DNA Tests”; Brief for Defendant at 3, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060). Details about the house and neighborhood were collected using Google Maps and Zillow.
It was locked: Andrew Martin, “Baby-sitter’s Murder Victimizes 2 Families,” Chicago Tribune, October 23, 1992, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-10-23/news/9204050831_1_apartment-victims-dreams.
But when she finally turned: Martin, “Baby-sitter’s Murder”; Phuong Le, “Testimony of Girl IDs Defendant in Slaying,” Chicago Tribune, September 18, 1998, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-09-18/news/9809180232_1_testimony-apartment-juan-rivera.
A single white tennis shoe: “Juan Rivera Exhibit 2,” Northwestern Law, 39, accessed May 5, 2014, http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/documents/RiveraPCExhibit2.pdf.
A chair in the dining room: Le, “Testimony”; “Juan Rivera Exhibit 2,” 39.
Taylor, the two-year-old: Le, “Testimony.”
It was not until the police arrived: Le, “Testimony.”
Eleven-year-old Holly: Le, “Testimony”; “Juan Rivera Exhibit 2,” 39.
She had been stabbed: Brief for Defendant at 3, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060).
A year later, twelve jurors: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 55, http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/documents/Outright-Reversal.pdf.
Juan—a petty criminal: Andrew Martin, “The Prosecution’s Case Against DNA,” New York Times, November 25, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/magazine/dna-evidence-lake-county.html?pagewanted=all; “Juan Rivera,” The National Registry of Exonerations, accessed May 8, 2014, https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3850.
Guilty: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 55.
And so it went at the second trial: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 55–56.
It had always been there: Andrew Martin, “Illinois: Inmate Cleared by DNA Is Freed,” New York Times, January 6, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/illinois-inmate-cleared-by-dna-is-freed.html; Martin, “Prosecution’s Case.”
A vaginal swab had been collected: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 60.
But after being labeled: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 56.
The semen in the sample: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 59.
It took four more years: Andrew Martin, “Court Reverses Conviction of Man Jailed for 19 Years in Rape and Murder,” New York Times, December 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/us/illinois-court-reverses-conviction-of-man-jailed-in-rape-murder.html.
With the lab test: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 62.
The prosecution didn’t back away: Martin, “Court Reverses Conviction.”
The problem for the prosecution: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 63.
Semen tends to drain into underwear: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 59.
That meant that the prosecution: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 63.
The account seemed implausible: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 63.
When they returned, they were met: Lisa Black and Ruth Fuller, “3rd Life Sentence for Girl’s Murder,” Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2009, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-090626juan-rivera,0,3431141.story.
Juan, on the threshold: Black and Fuller, “3rd life sentence.”
It was a verdict that: Black and Fuller, “3rd Life Sentence.”
It wasn’t just that none: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 59–60, 62; Brief for Defendant at 38, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060).
There were also phone records: Brief for Defendant at 22, 26, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060); Martin, “Prosecution’s Case.”
Yet, despite Juan’s alibi: Rivera, 962 N.E. 2d at 57, 61-62; Brief for Defendant at 17, Rivera (No. 2-09-1060).
As Holly’s sister later: Martin, “Prosecution’s Case.”
Indeed, the esteemed father: John Henry Wigmore, A Treatise on the Anglo-American System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1923), § 835.
The potency of this assumption: Experimental evidence shows that people place great weight on confessions. Saul M. Kassin and Gisli H. Gudjonsson, “The Psychology of Confessions: A Review of the Literature and Issues,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 5 (2004): 56–59; Saul M. Kassin, Christian A. Meissner, and Rebecca J. Norwick, “ ‘I’d Know a False Confession If I Saw One’: A Comparative Study of College Students and Police Investigators,” Law and Human Behavior 34 (2005): 211–227; Kassin et al., “Police-Induced Confessions: Risk Factors and Recommendations,” Law and Human Behavior 34 (2010): 24–25. For an overview of some of that research, see Dan Simon, In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice System (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 160–62. The power of the confession is not lost on members of the judiciary. According to Supreme Court Justice Byron White, “the defendant’s own confession is probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against him. Though itself an out-of-court statement, it is admitted as reliable evidence because it is an admission of guilt by the defendant and constitutes direct evidence of the facts to which it relates. Even the testimony of an eyewitness may be less reliable than the defendant’s own confession. An observer may not correctly perceive, understand, or remember the acts of another, but the admissions of a defendant come from the actor himself, the most knowledgeable and unimpeachable source of information about his past conduct. Certainly, confessions have profound impact on the jury, so much so that we may justifiably doubt its ability to put them out of mind even if told to do so.” Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 139–40 (1968) (White, J., dissenting).
We expect people to be consistent: Sam Sommers, Situations Matter (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011), 30.
In a famous study documenting: Edward Jones and Victor Harris, “The Attribution of Attitudes,” Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology 3 (1967): 1, 4.
Despite being told that: Jones and Harris, “Attribution of Attitudes,” 1, 4–6.
As Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black: Chambers v. Florida, 309 U.S. 227, 237–38 (1940).
Indeed, before the 1930s: Simon, In Doubt, 132; Kassin et al., “Police-Induced Confessions,” 6. For a review of the coercive police practices—from beating with a rubber hose and simulated suffocation to deprivation of sleep and food, see R. A. Leo, “The Third Degree and the Origins of Psychological Police Interrogation in the United States,” in Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment, ed. G. Daniel Lassiter (New York: Kluwer Academic, 2004), 37–84.
But that has been abandoned: Simon, In Doubt, 134–35. Of course, it is worth noting that, well prior to the 1930s, the Supreme Court made clear that an admissible confession had to be “free and voluntary” and “must not be extracted by any sort of threats or violence.” Bram v. United States, 168 U.S. 532, 542–43 (1897). It just took a few more decades for police practice to match the judicial rhetoric.
Juan Rivera, though, did falsely confess: Confessions, as a general matter, are fairly common, despite what we might imagine. It appears that there is a full confession or, at least, an incriminating statement made in about half of all interrogations. Simon, In Doubt, 120; Saul M. Kassin et al., “Police Interviewing and Interrogation: A Self-Report Survey of Police Practices and Beliefs,” Law and Human Behavior, 31 (2007): 395.
One of the first American episodes of false confession came during the Salem witch trials in 1692, when dozens of women admitted to practicing witchcraft. Kassin et al., “Police-Induced Confessions,” 4; Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998). However, false confessions are not an American phenomenon and have been documented in Germany, Canada, Ireland, China, Japan, and numerous other countries. Kassin et al., “Police-Induced Confessions,” 5.
False confessions and incriminating statements: Innocence Project, “DNA Exonerations Nationwide,” accessed May 6, 2014, http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php.
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