Truth or Consequences

[msmith537]

@Paranoid Randroid

I would confess to just about anything to get out of jail. Child molestation would give me pause, because of the lifelong stigma and difficulties arising from such a crime – but yeah, I’d confess to it.

Yeah, well I’d rather be shunned at the mall than embraced in the prison shower.

[Boyo_Jim]

@msmith537

Yeah, well I’d rather be shunned at the mall than embraced in the prison shower.

Bingo. It could well be an urban legend, but I’ve heard that child molesters are particulary disliked in prisons. In reality, I doubt prisoners dislike them any more than suburban parents, but I wouldn’t have to use a communal shower with my suburban parent neighbors.

[fervour]

Admit to the crime, especially if it’s my first time up for parole and I’m led to believe that the parole is pretty much guaranteed upon admition and contrition. I’ve toured several prisons and if the majority are anything like the ones I’ve been in I’d do just about anything to stay out including suicide. I might be less likely to admit guilt if somehow I’d managed to serve most of my term already before the offer of parole came up ----No, it’d never be an issue, definitely take the suicide option here.

[MandaJo]

For me, it would really depend on if parole was certain. Because I would sure as hell be fighting to prove my innocence while incarcerated (and I think my friends and family would help me), and once you “admit” to the crime, that avenue is dead. So if I made this big fake admission and then they sent me back to my cell until next year . . . that would be the most horrific feeling.

[Monkey_Chews]

@Whack-a-Mole

I wish I were a philosopher to better explain my unease with this. Perhaps I am making something of nothing but I cannot shake the feeling there is something fundamentally wrong with admitting to a crime you did not commit.

I think we all the get the ethical queasiness of this. But I imagine this air of queasiness pales into deep insignificance compared to life in prison. I’d say, sign me up for the register and get me the hell out of this nightmare.

[Dead_Cat]

I would never make a false confession to a crime I didn’t commit and I’m amazed at the weight of opinion in this thread towards the opposite view. But then I’m young and have faith in the criminal justice system. I find it very difficult to imagine a scenario in which I was innocent and got convicted in the first place.

[TheLoadedDog]

I have pleaded guilty to a (minor) crime I believed I did not commit. I’m not asking you to believe me or otherwise here, but for what it’s worth -

I evaluated the cost, angst, and likely outcomes of a “guilty” plea versus a “not guilty” plea, and I pleaded guilty. Three years later, and I’m still very angry that I had to, but I don’t for a moment regret doing so. I would do the same again in the same situation.

[Nars_Glinley]

Yes, I did kidnap the Lindbergh baby. I’d confess to anything in order to get out of prison. I have enough nightmares about it. I don’t need to experience the real thing.

I asked a friend who spent 3 years in prison (for indecent exposure) if prison was as bad as they say. His reply: “It’s worse.” Nuff said.

[Mtgman]

@Whack-a-Mole

Perhaps this would deserve a thread of its own because I am kind of shocked at the nearly unanimous decisions shown in this thread.

Is self interest the sole arbiter of what you should or should not do? Am I the only person here who gets a distinctly queasy feeling contemplating having to cop to a crime you did not commit? It may well be that society and the legal system view me as guilty no matter what I say about it. But if I know I am innocent I find it nearly an impossibly bitter pill to swallow to go ahead and say I did whatever merely to achieve an early release.

I wish I were a philosopher to better explain my unease with this. Perhaps I am making something of nothing but I cannot shake the feeling there is something fundamentally wrong with admitting to a crime you did not commit.

Am I making any sense?

Consider the case of Chris Ochoa. Please note the summary I am about to quote is not from the page I just linked to(there was no concise summary there) but from another page on the InnocenceProject.org site.

In 1988, a woman was raped and murdered at an Austin, Texas Pizza Hut restaurant where she worked. Based on a hunch that the crime was committed by a Pizza Hut employee with a master key, police began questioning employees of the chain restaurant. Chris Ochoa and his roommate, Richard Danziger, worked at a different Austin area Pizza Hut, but became the main suspects when they were observed drinking beer and appearing to toast the victim. Mr. Ochoa and Mr. Danziger were subsequently convicted of the crime. Both convictions grew out of a false confession by Mr. Ochoa. It was later discovered that his confession was coerced and that interrogators had threatened him with the death penalty. Years after their convictions, letters detailing the crime were sent to the police, to then-Governor George W. Bush’s office, and the District Attorney’s Office. The author of the letters, Achim Marino, had apparently undergone a religious conversion while in prison on three other convictions, and felt obligated to confess to the Pizza Hut rape/murder. The DNA evidence from the original crime scene was retested. It exculpated both Mr. Ochoa and Mr. Danziger, while implicating Mr. Marino. Had Mr. Ochoa’s initial “confession” been taped, jurors, at the subsequent trial, would have had an opportunity to assess the circumstances under which his confession was made.

In Mr Ochoa’s interview by the Innocence Project he states that his breaking point was while in jail awaiting trial and police called his mother to tell her he was going to be sentenced to death and he needed to confess to get life in prison instead. Mr Ochoa believes the stroke his mother suffered around that time was due to the stress of the situation and the aggressive confession-seeking of the Austin police. He confessed shortly after her stroke.

I don’t know what I’d do in this kind of situation. I hope I never have the opportunity and I support most of the proposals of the Innocence Project to prevent situations like Mr. Ochoa’s from re-occurring.

Enjoy,
Steven

[Lust4Life]

You could always escape and then still carry on asserting your innocence without compromising your personal ethics.

[Boyo_Jim]

@Lust4Life

You could always escape and then still carry on asserting your innocence without compromising your personal ethics.

Great idea! Any clue how many lies you’ll have to tell to stay free while you try to establish a life as a wanted criminal? You will have to deny your entire existance.

Or, you could be honest and simply shoot all the cops who come to arrest you.

[Lust4Life]

@Boyo Jim

Great idea! Any clue how many lies you’ll have to tell to stay free while you try to establish a life as a wanted criminal? You will have to deny your entire existance.

Or, you could be honest and simply shoot all the cops who come to arrest you.

Yessssssss!!!my second woosh after god knows how many posts.

Another thousand or so and I may just achieve another one.

[fisha]

If the crime was a heinous one, such as child molestation, or killing a child, especially my own, no fucking way would I say I was guilty, ever. There are worse things in this life than prison.

Something more minor? Stealing a car, robbing a bank, forging a check, dealing drugs? I’ll cop to it to get out earlier. Your reputation and prospects are already damaged, protesting your innocence is too little, too late.

[Contrapuntal]

@Czarcasm

Further clarification.
The crime is child molestation.

No, I wouldn’t allocute.