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Wrongly confess: you'll be released today, albeit with a criminal conviction and a fine. Maintain innocence: spend the next 3-18 months in jail, then have a tr

Wrongly confess: you'll be released today, albeit with a criminal conviction and a fine. Maintain innocence: spend the next 3-18 months in jail, then have a trial without effective counsel, probably lose, be sentenced to time served and a fine. You'll have lost your job, your kids will be in foster care, and your family will have been evicted. It's not complicated. (For more serious crimes, the police still generally promise "you'll be released today", they just don't deliver on that promise. "Just tell us what happened and we can put all this behind us, we just have a few questions." So even though the accused is facing serious punishment for wrongly confessing, the decision still appears similar to the above.)

abofh 7y ago
It also helps to remember, the police are not there to find the truth or find your innocence. Their job is to gather evidence sufficient for the DA to charge you and convict you. Once you've been arrested or detained, you're not talking your way out of it, you're just giving them information to pass on to the DA.
- jopsen 7y ago
  In other countries the police is tasked with doing an impartial investigation. They not allowed to lie, or even interrupt an explanation to attempt to tweak the wording. Using American tactics in other countries could get a police officer fired or worse.