For decades, a confession to a crime was one of the surest ways to send someone to prison. But false murder confessions happen, and according to defense attorneys, they happen often.
鈥淔alse confessions plague the system at a fairly high rate,鈥� writes defense attorney Sean O鈥橞rien from Kansas City.
A conviction based on a false confession can have devastating effects 鈥� consider Sandra Hemme, for a murder she did not commit.
That is more time in prison than any wrongly convicted woman in American history.
The Innocence Project, which helped free Hemme, says of all the people exonerated by DNA evidence between 1989 and 2020, almost a third confessed to a murder they did not commit.
But Hemme鈥檚 case 鈥� 鈥� should help others wrongly convicted of murder win their freedom. That's because the three-judge panel directly addressed the issue of false confessions in its 75-page opinion.
鈥淚t does, I think, put new teeth in some of those 1940s and 50s and 60s U.S. Supreme Court decisions that distrust confessions where there are vulnerable subjects and persistent police questioning,鈥� O鈥橞rien told KCUR.
That is exactly what happened to Hemme when she was arrested for killing a St. Joseph librarian in 1984.
Hemme was sedated when she confessed
Hemme was highly medicated when she was questioned repeatedly by St. Joseph Police detectives. O鈥橞rien said it reminded him of when police used to sweat confessions out of people.
鈥淭hat's effectively what they did to Sandy. She was interrogated a dozen times over a ten-day period, and finally, she gives them a confession they think they can use,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here are times when the interrogators describe her as breaking down into tears when she gets confronted with parts of her statement that could not possibly be true.鈥�
The court鈥檚 opinion has some legal analysis, but it also sets out additional guidance about false confessions.
鈥淭hey acknowledge that there were things out in the real world that were totally inconsistent with Sandy's confession," O'Brien said.
O鈥橞rien said several factors 鈥渃ontaminated鈥� Hemme鈥檚 confession 鈥� namely, the amount of media coverage surrounding the murder.
In her confession, Hemme described the flowered bedspread on the victim鈥檚 bed, despite having never been to her home. O鈥橞rien says it鈥檚 likely that Hemme knew about the bedspread from a picture on the front page of the newspaper.
The police misconduct was so egregious that even the appeals court called it out. The St. Joseph police, the judges said in their unanimous ruling, 鈥渋gnored and buried evidence coming into its possession.鈥�
Hemme鈥檚 case reminds O鈥橞rien of another notorious wrongful conviction out of St. Joseph: that of Melvin Lee Reynolds. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1979 for killing and sexually assaulting a four-year-old boy.
Reynolds was interrogated nine times and was even given 鈥渢ruth serum,鈥� a drug from people. Before finally confessing, Reynolds was questioned for 13 hours and was promised he could go home if he confessed.
He served four years before the real killer came forward.
Some of those same officers worked on the Hemme investigation, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.
A false confession in Clay County
False confessions are still common today, but some juries are beginning to consider the conditions of a confession.
In April, a false confession came into play during a murder trial in Clay County. Lori Ackerman of Smithville, Missouri, was charged with killing her fianc茅.
She was interrogated for seven hours by police before confessing.
鈥淚 was like, 'I鈥檓 done fighting with this,'鈥� she told KMBC.
Her lawyer said other evidence from the crime scene didn鈥檛 match what police said during Ackerman鈥檚 interrogation.
It took the jury just two hours to acquit.
Hemme and living with family in mid-Missouri.
鈥淪he's happy to be home and she loves her sister and her brother-in-law where she's living,鈥� said O鈥橞rien. 鈥淎nd they love her very much. And that is really a wonderful relationship.鈥�
O鈥橞rien has worked on many high-profile exoneration cases including and He says Hemme is doing better than most people who are released from prison after so many years.
鈥淏ecause she has family. She's doing better because she has a stable roof over her head.鈥�
