Topic: Confessions
Ideally a confession should always be recorded on video so the demeanour of the alleged can be observed by a Jury or judge
Many law jurisdictions do not allow verbal accounts of confessions even from police officers even if signed by the suspect as being freely given and Juries are warned by Judges to place very little credibility on them. For cellmate informer confessions then the standard is that the confession must contain a verifiable fact previously unknown to police. The Watson type of informer confessions would now never make it outside the jail door, specially the one where payment was received. Even in 1998/9 The Sophnow and other inquiries results should have been a warning to the Judge and Crown of the unreliability of cellmate informers, the information even then was not new althought it has become much more widely known now. The fact that Juries believe cellmate informer confessions as readily as they believe confessions to police officers is not recent knowledge either but was not so well research as it is now. Peer reviewed scientific studies over the last 10-12 years have shown negligible difference in the juries belief of convicts and police officers in relation to confessions. I guess juries feel nobody confesses for nothing as they also believe false confessions from the confessor. Police here and overseas have a surprising large number of "serial" confessors who surface for every major crime and confess.
