In Illusory Causation in the Courtroom, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, G. Daniel Lassiter explores illusory causation in terms of the role it plays in courtrooms. This is the possibility of the effect that camera perspective has on jurors’ judgements on the suspect’s guilt, whether it was a voluntary confession and sentence recommendations. The Death Penalty Information Center had documented cases in which death row inmates were released due to new evidence and in many cases, the cause of wrongful convictions can be traced back to the interrogation phase in which false confessions are extracted. Many experts believe that the solution to suspects being coerced into wrongful confessions are videotaping confessions.
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This way, there is no chance for the suspect to be manipulated and the jurors are able to witness that there is no wrongdoing. Additionally, the jury members are able to get a clear understanding of the suspect’s confession. Research suggests that having the camera or recording solely focused on the suspect can affect the jury’s judgement of whether the confession was voluntary and whether the suspect is guilty. By dismissing the videotaped recording and having the suspect relay his confession in front of jurors. Doing so would allow the jury to be in the presence of the defendant and be in a court environment which would further grant the defendant an unbiased judgement, as opposed to focusing solely on the recording which could be detrimental to the jurors’ judgements and thinking …show more content…
Thus, the defendant should be given a second chance to confess without the added pressures of interrogators and eliminating bias that would affect the jurors’ judgements on whether the confession was voluntary and whether they are guilty or not. This should be done by dismissing the original recording, allowing the suspect to recant his confession on the stand and the original recording should be used as supplemental evidence and not the main basis for the
This way, there is no chance for the suspect to be manipulated and the jurors are able to witness that there is no wrongdoing. Additionally, the jury members are able to get a clear understanding of the suspect’s confession. Research suggests that having the camera or recording solely focused on the suspect can affect the jury’s judgement of whether the confession was voluntary and whether the suspect is guilty. By dismissing the videotaped recording and having the suspect relay his confession in front of jurors. Doing so would allow the jury to be in the presence of the defendant and be in a court environment which would further grant the defendant an unbiased judgement, as opposed to focusing solely on the recording which could be detrimental to the jurors’ judgements and thinking …show more content…
Thus, the defendant should be given a second chance to confess without the added pressures of interrogators and eliminating bias that would affect the jurors’ judgements on whether the confession was voluntary and whether they are guilty or not. This should be done by dismissing the original recording, allowing the suspect to recant his confession on the stand and the original recording should be used as supplemental evidence and not the main basis for the