The Confession Tapes (Netflix Series Review)

Would you confess to a crime you did not commit?

None of us want to believe that we or any other human being would be so stupid. In the Netflix Original Series called "The Confession Tapes", this phenomenon is explored through six real cases. Viewers of this docuseries find out just how much our investigative officers can fail us and our justice system allows it to slide. We see story after story showing us how reasonable doubt would have likely freed people in all of these cases... if only they had not confessed.

Who would confess to something they didn't do? most people think.

A few reasons, as explored in the series, include:

• False promises of going home
• Long, drawn out interrogations without a lawyer present
• Police officers selectively taping interrogations to hide the lies they told and tactics they used early in the interrogation
• Setting up young and vulnerable teens to give a false confession to undercover agents
• Using hypnotic techniques during interrogation
• Devices such as a polygraph also played into people's minds, convincing them to confess because they "failed" the test
• Questioning parents who were still grieving the loss of their child(ren)

This series also explores the media's role in some of these cases and how that twisted the truth, sometimes even twisting it in the minds of the suspects. The media would also pit the local community against the suspects, seemingly sealing their fate.

It's definitely a disturbing thought -- that innocent people were coerced into a confession and ended up behind bars. America is said to have one of the best justice systems in the world. Unfortunately, though, if the investigators have pinned a certain person as the criminal, they can sometimes develop tunnel vision and work hard to take down that suspect, neglecting all other leads. They manipulate to get what they need. They may believe they are doing the right thing, but it has landed innocent people behind bars.

My number one take away from the series: if I am ever accused of anything and taken in for questioning, I will be asking for a lawyer and keeping my mouth shut until council arrives. Even if I am innocent, I cannot rely on the system and the evidence to clear me.