Professor Saul Kassin & Professor Jules Epstein: False Confessions

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Confessions by criminal defendants are regarded as the most powerful evidence of guilt. So why would an innocent person confess to a crime they did not commit? That question and the troubling issue of false confessions is at the heart of the research of Professor Saul Kassin, the author of Duped: Why Innocent People Confess – and Why We Believe Their Confessions. Professor Kassin is the distinguished Professor of Psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Professor Emeritus at Williams College. He is regarded as the foremost expert on false confessions. He has served as an expert consultant in many high-profile cases and as a TV analyst. His work has been widely cited including by the United States Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada. We are also joined by Professor Jules Epstein from Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. Professor Epstein is a practicing criminal defense lawyer, and also an expert on scientific evidence. He is the co-author of Scientific Evidence Review: Admissibility and the Use of Expert Evidence in the Courtroom, Monograph No. 9