Legal Issues Involved In The Norfolk Four Cases

PAPER 1: FALSE CONFESSION ASSIGNMENT Legal issues involved in the interrogation of criminal suspects are the leading cause for wrongful conviction of innocent individuals based off of false confessions. The primary motive for police officials is to close a case with a written and verbal confession from a possible suspect. Confessions override evidence if the confession is convincing enough to the jurors. Most people assume that people would not confess to a crime they didn’t commit, but due to the harsh interrogation circumstances, psychological coercion and situation factors, these can influence an innocent individual to confess to a crime they didn’t commit. Even though there are certain laws that protect individuals from false confessions

Next suspect involved in the Norfolk Four case was Joe Dick. Joe Dick growing up was socially awkward and a loner. Joe was psychologically coerced into providing a false confession during interrogation. During Joe’s interrogation he was told his DNA was found at the scene of the crime (even though his DNA didn’t match what was found on the victim), along with a visual image of the murdered victim. The visual proof mentally disturbed Joe, psychology coercing him to internalize the belief that he had committed this crime. Similar situation to Carol Richardson a young girl who was also convicted of being involved in the bombing of the Guilford Four, and was psychologically coerced into providing a false confession. During Robinsons appeal process a psychologist concluded that Robinson was, “vulnerable to interrogative pressure and that she was prone to avoid conflict and please others when faced with social pressure.”(pg.52, MOT) While Carole was going though withdrawals from her medication (barbiturate) after being detained for three days; she was having difficulty remembering and started to internally believe that she was involved in the bombing. Psychologists Gudjonsson and Mackeith diagnosed her as having “memory distrust syndrome”- which is when an individual comes to have faith in his or her memory for a crime and succumbs to police pressure by

The four suspects in each case had to serve sentences, but later released after the correct offenders were caught. The only difference was that the Norfolk Four individuals were still considered involved in the murder even though they arrested the correct suspect. The Norfolk four have to register as sex offenders, have a hard time maintaining livelihood and are still waiting to have their name cleared from the convictions. The Guilford four was eventually given monetary compensation, cleared names and a formal