This panel
will cover some of the latest developments regarding false confessions and
false confession expert testimony. Debbie Davis will present an overview of the
current psychological literature regarding false confessions and how they
occur. Valena Beety will provide a litigator’s perspective on these cases, and
Richard Leo will present the results of a new empirical study (with Steve
Drizin) of 200 proven false confessions. Larry Rosenthal will offer a skeptical
counter-perspective on false confession experts, asking whether the science is
sufficiently reliable for Daubert purposes and whether the benefits of
reforming interrogation techniques are worth the costs. Finally, Ed Cheng will
offer evidence that the available case law does not accurately depict how
courts have received false confession expert testimony, and will offer a new
statistical method that detects and corrects for this publication bias.