False confession to robbery: the roles of suggestibility, anxiety, memory disturbance and withdrawal symptoms

This article describes a case of a post-office robbery in which two validat ed false confessions were made. A young man, Mr S, made a detailed confessi on to the actual robbery whereas his partner, Ms A, confessed to having bee n present when Mr S and his accomplice left to carry out the robbery as wel l as to hearing Mr S confess to the robbery. Both of these confessions late r turned out to be false. Mr S's confession had the hallmarks of a coerced- internalized false confession, compared with Ms As, which was more likely a coerced-compliant false confession. The individual and situational factors that probably contributed to these false confessions are described. Mr S h ad high suggestibility, low memory ability, and high anxiety. Ms A did not have these vulnerabilities. Both had been drinking alcohol and using drugs for an extended period of time, thus resulting in relative lack of memory f or the day of the robbery as well as withdrawal symptoms while incarcerated which may have contributed to the confessions. Aspects of Mr S's confessio n that pointed to its unreliability are also described.