Academic Study Shows Innocent Plead Guilty at High Rate

This article from the Wall Street Journal illustrates one of the issues in Rule 410 as applied to students like yourselves.

By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER And GARY FIELDS

Sept. 23, 2012 10:32 p.m. ET

Two university professors last year did an experiment to explore one of the more controversial questions of criminal law: How often do innocent defendants plead guilty to crimes to avoid the risk of greater punishment if they fight and lose?

Lucian Dervan, a Southern Illinois University assistant law professor, and Vanessa Edkins, an assistant psychology professor at Florida Institute of Technology, recruited 82 college students for what they pretended was a study of problem-solving skills.

The rules barred students from collaborating during part of the study, expected to be published next year in Northwestern University law school's Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. With the help of two student confederates, supposedly participating in the study, the researchers induced nearly half the students to violate the collaboration ban. They then accused all participants of violating the rule and offered each of them two options.

Students could fight the accusation before an academic review board. Those who lost would be reported to the faculty adviser and have to take an ethics course that could last up to a semester.

Or, they could admit violating the rules and simply be dropped from the study without credit.

The project aimed, as much as possible, to replicate conditions faced by real criminal defendants, Prof. Dervan said. The students were told the academic review board usually had 10 to 12 members, similar to the dozen on a criminal court jury. Students could present evidence in their defense.

They were told that the board handed down "guilty" verdicts 80% to 90% of the time—similar to conviction rates for defendants at trial.

Nearly 90% of the students who violated the rules pleaded "guilty." So did over 55% of those who were innocent.

Similar academic research has found false confession rates ranging from under 10% to over half, the Dervan/Edkins paper said.

No study can completely recreate the pressures criminal defendants face, including the prospect of years in prison, Prof. Dervan said. But, he added, students in his and Dr. Edkins' study showed "a strong compulsion to have the matter resolved even if it meant confessing to something that they really didn't do."

Write to John R. Emshwiller at john.emshwiller@wsj.com and Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com

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