True Confessions Day

True Confessions. Two simple measures could go a long way toward ensuring that findings of criminal guilt are genuine. Trial jurors, like others in the criminal justice system who precede them, can be overly influenced by confessions. Archival analyses of actual cases containing confessions later proved false tell a disturbing tale. In these cases, the jury conviction rates ranged from 73 percent (as found by Richard Ofshe of the University of California at Berkeley and Leo in 1998) to 81 percent (as found by Drizin and Leo in 2004)--about the same as cases in which the defendants had made true confessions.

True Confessions Day aims to change the way we view confession and turn it into a tool that people can use to bring about a clearer conscience, healthier relationships and a better sense of well-being overall.