Would you ever confess to a crime that you didn’t commit? It might be easy to say no but unfortunately for you, you just made a confession to these crimes. Why did you do this? This is what the film, False Confessions, is trying to answer for you.
Thankfully, the documentary is such an eye-opening experience. It’s an almost guarantee that you’ll leave angry when the credits start rolling.
False Confessions follows defense lawyer Jane Fisher-Byrialsen as she fights for the wrongfully convicted and fights against the manipulative methods that are used.
If you’ve ever watched Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” then you’re probably familiar with the idea of a false confession. If you’re not, it’s when law enforcement coerces you into making a confession when you didn’t do it.
A false confession can come from anyone. That’s the main premise of False Confessions. The documentary shows you plenty of evidence of people from all walks of life giving false confessions. So it doesn’t matter if you’re mentally slow or a Harvard graduate, somehow law enforcement will get you to admit to a crime that you didn’t commit.
It’s a crazy thing to see the kinds of methods law enforcement officials use in this. The film literally breaks down a lot of interrogation techniques that they use too. It’s a lot of trickery and a lot of lying. Yes, in the United States, cops are able to lie to you during an interrogation. Because of the effectiveness of these methods, you’ll find yourself against the ropes in no time.
Needless to say, False Confessions is incredibly frustrating to watch. Not because the film is bad but because everything you see is frustrating. It shows you the many flaws to our criminal justice system and in law enforcement. It’s also frustrating to see people serve life sentences for crimes that they didn’t commit. At the same time, there’s frustration coming from those who succumb to these kinds of methods. But the film makes it perfectly clear that anyone can succumb to this.
Thankfully, there are people out there who help those who have given false confessions. As False Confessions chronicles Jane’s various cases, the film plays out a like a true crime documentary. It shows you plenty of evidence as to why these people are innocent. Not to mention, those who have been falsely convicted shares their stories of what happened to them. It’s definitely an eye-opener.
It would’ve been nice to see more backstory of the victims that the film focuses on. Find out what their life is like before and after their incarceration. In that way, the film feels like a mess. The film jumps from one story to another without a coherent thread connecting it all together. It’s the type of film where it just spits out all of the information without properly piecing everything together.
Nevertheless, False Confessions is an eye-opening and incredibly frustrating documentary. The methods and techniques used to get innocent people to confess to crimes they didn’t commit are extremely shady. Thus, the conversation should be had about some sort of reform to the criminal justice system and in law enforcement interrogations. It might be an easy thing to say but at least False Confessions sheds light on a problem that must be solved.
Rating: 4/5 atoms
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