CONFESSIONS

Apr 30, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Seven years ago, concerns were raised about the excessive reliance on confession statements in criminal cases. The suggestion was that more cases needed to be solved by investigation. The implication, while not admitted, was that some of the confessions may have been obtained under duress.
This issue has resurfaced under a different nomenclature. This time the argument is that of recent, the police have been solving a great many crimes including cases which were presumed to be ‘cold’ cases. Interestingly, most of the recent cases have led to suspects confessing to crimes, something that was not the norm in recent times.
People are happy about the fact that the police are, in their opinion, ‘solving’ cases. They believe that this is improved work by the police. They believe that this improved work is because of the more effective policing. The more effective policing they believe, is as a result of the change of government.
The argument goes as follows. There has been a change in government. Since the change of government, there has been an increase in the number of crimes that are being solved. This increase, therefore, is because of the change of government.
This is not a valid argument because the increase in the number of persons charged could be because of other reasons other than the change of government. It could well even be a case whereby, because of the increase in crime; there are more cases to solve.
If the argument is that the change of government brought about an improvement in crime solving, then why did it not also bring about a reduction in crime? The political argument therefore does not hold.
And therefore people should not shy away from the other concern which has been raised about the fact that persons are confessing to crimes. This raises the age old question. Why is there such an increase in the number of confessions? What are the implications for these confession statements when the matters go to trial?
There is a legal process known as a voir dire or a trial within a trial. There are different types of trials within a trial, one of which is to determine whether a statement given by an accused was free and voluntary or whether it was extracted by force.
This is why well-meaning persons in the past questioned the heavy reliance on confession statements. The entire credibility of the criminal enforcement can be undermine if a trend emerges in which there are successful challenges to confession statements.
Of course, detailed police investigations can lead persons to confess in the face of incontrovertible evidence of their complicity in crime. So it could be possible that the bundle of confession statements that police investigators have been able to obtain recently may have just well be a case of good investigative work and have presented suspects with the evidence, they had no alternative but to confession.
But if this were the case, how does one explain that most of those who have been charged after allegedly giving confession statements are pleading not guilty. Why are they not confessing all the way to the hangman’s noose?
The police should take steps to convince the public that legitimate police methods are being used to extract these confession statements and that detailed investigations were also done.
One lawyer a few years back has suggested that the police should video tape interrogations so as to disprove that force was used in the extraction of confessions. The new government should move in this direction.

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CONFESSIONS

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