Trial by Coercisom

In the Netflix Original show, The Confession Tapes, viewers are exposed to six criminal cases in which people falsely confessed to murder. While the circumstances differ from case to case, the main reasons for why these false confessions happened remains rather constant. First, each defendant was subjected to numerous hours of interrogation without the presence of a lawyer. Second, the prosecutors and detectives involved in each case were overly confident about the suspects and they neglected other leads in this process. Also, the communities engaged in these cases had a very high regard for police authority, and during the trials, the juries were swayed by the elaborate narratives of the prosecutors. Many of the individuals impacted by these incidents were uneducated, vulnerable, or naive because they were able to be convinced that they committed a crime that the authorities had little evidence to support.

The most shocking episode in my opinion was the one called “Trial by Fire” because a mother was swayed to confess to the murder of her own daughter. The mother, Karen, left her house to go shopping with a friend and five minutes later, 911 received a call to report a fire at their home. The only person home was Karen’s daughter, Robin, who passed away from smoke inhalation in her bedroom. A gas can that had been missing from the family’s garage was found in her bedroom. Karen was questioned for many long hours without an attorney and ultimately confessed to starting the fire that killed her teenage daughter. This case was especially striking to me because the only evidence present was the gas can and the fact that Karen and Robin did not have a good relationship. It is also unknown whether the fire started in the hallway or in the bedroom because both attorneys had fire experts that told different stories.

For this case in particular, I had a hard time choosing which side to believe. With such little evidence, it is almost impossible to ever know the full story. I believe that Karen was wrongly accused of the murder of her daughter and that it instead was a suicide. While killing oneself by fire is not chosen often, the likelihood that is was a suicide is far greater than a homicide. The suicide rate in her daughter’s age group is very high. It also very well could have been accidental if Robin was playing with fire when she was home alone. Also, a third party fire expert concluded that the fire started in the room, not in the hallway. The gas tank used in the fire was left in the bedroom and if Karen wanted to cover up the fact that she lit the room on fire, she would have gotten rid of the gas tank most likely. In addition, Karen was interrogated just after the death of her daughter, which means she was in a very vulnerable place and was easily broken down.

The fact that the justice system in this country would allow so many false confessions like these to occur is simply heartbreaking and contradicts everything that our country was founded on. Law enforcement, prosecutors, and detectives must work together to ensure an honest and fair trial, no matter the circumstances.