ABSTRACT
LACKING ANY SUBSTANTIVE evidence, the Boorn case relied on the false confession of Stephen Boorn. But we do not have to go back to the early 1800s for cases of false confession. Fully 25 percent of DNAproven wrongful convictions revealed since the late 1980s involved false confessions or admissions,1 far more than we would have guessed. It is so counterintuitive that anyone would confess to a crime he or she did not commit that most in the justice system-including lawyers, judges, and jurorsoften believe that this is the one true indicator of guilt. So convincing is a confession, that some states will not provide access to post-conviction DNA testing to anyone who confessed (a policy that should be changed now that we understand the frequency of false convictions).
