I’ve written in the past about the issue of false confessions. Well the good folks at the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth have released an interesting paper (PDF) titled “Convenients Scapegoats: Juvenile Confessions and Exculpatory DNA in Cook County, IL.” Read it to learn about the role that false confessions played in the Englewood Four and Dixmoor Five cases.

I wanted to revisit the idea of false confessions today because of a new documentary that is out. Scenes of a Crime is described as follows:

“[The film] explores a nearly 10-hour interrogation that culminates in a disputed confession, and an intense, high-profile child murder trial in New York state. Police video-recordings allow directors Blue Hadaegh and Grover Babcock to unravel the complicated psychological dynamic between detectives and their suspect during a long interrogation. Detectives, prosecutors, witnesses, jurors and the suspect himself offer conflicting accounts of exactly what happened in this mysterious and disturbing true-crime documentary.”

“Scenes of a Crime” Trailer from New Box on Vimeo.

I haven’t had a chance to see the film yet but I will look for it when it comes to Chicago.