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False Confessions Case Study

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Those ten years of Beverly’s life were ones that she would never get back, which rings true for all convicted based on false confessions.
Detective Riley, the detective in Beverly’s case, suggested different choices to Beverly on how she could have “blocked the memory” of killing Roger, but Beverly knew she didn’t kill him. After many relentless “meetings,” Detective Riley convinced Beverly to sign a statement declaring her guilt in the murder of Roger, but this was only obtained through using her own family against her. Detective Riley told Beverly that she would never see her family again if she didn’t plead guilty to the charges brought against her. In June 2003, an United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision to grant Monroe a habeas corpus petition. Prosecutors announced they would not retry the case, and Beverly was free to go home to her family after many years of agony.
Another case of false confession is the case of Derek Tice, who was a part of the Norfolk Four. Derek Tice, along with six other men, were charged with the rape and murder of Eighteen-year-old Michelle Bosko in the state of Virginia. Derek Tice was the fourth, and final, man of the Norfolk four arrested for the rape and murder of Bosko. …show more content…

Research by Larmour, Bergstrom, Gillen, and Forth (2014) claims, “In twenty-two percent of trials with a false confession present, individuals were sentenced to death” (94). This number is not a joke, twenty-two percent of cases with false confessions actually had people that were put to death before they could be found innocent. Many cases call for reforms, but many of them are too little too late. According to Alan Hirsh (2014), “Juries may convict the false confessor even if they see the interrogation and hear the expert testimony, and too late because, even if the jury acquits, great harm will already have occurred”

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