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Confession (legal)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A confession is where a suspect in a crime admits their guilt to the crime. This specific form of testimony, involving oneself, is used as a form of proof in judicial matters, this since at least the Inquisition. The value of confessions, however, are discussed, and law generally request cross-checking them with objective facts and others forms of evidence (exhibits, testimonies from witnesses, etc.) in order to evaluate their truth value. Confessions were first developed in the Roman Catholic Church under the Sacrament of Penance, where the confession of a sin is considered to be enough to absolve oneself. This aspect concerning moral guilt has been carried on in various legislative codes, in which a criminal is considered worse if he does not confess to his crimes.
On one hand, confessions obtained under torture have often been considered as not objective enough, since the use of such means may lead to the suspect in confessing anything. On the other hand, even without torture, various cases of avered false confessions demonstrate that, in itself, one man's confession is not a sufficient proof. False memory (including memory biases, etc.) or privileges granted under plea bargaining might lead to such false confessions.
In the 1936 case Brown v. Mississippi, the United States Supreme Court ruled that convictions, which are based solely upon confessions coerced by violence, violate the Due Process Clause.
Confessions have been used extensively in Italy since the creation of the pentito status. Adriano Sofri, for example, has been given a life-sentence exclusively on the words of one pentito.
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