The possibility of a false confession is something every citizen in the USA should understand, because everyone has to do jury duty. This series is really a public service announcement and lesson in civics that all of us should receive.
While others say that this series shows a failure of the US justice system, it really shows the failures of human psychology, because all of these people received a guilty verdict from a jury--12 regular citizens. So many jurors think, "Why would they confess if they didn't do it? They must be guilty!" without wanting to realize the complexities of human psychology--especially under pressure and intimidation.
In all of the cases presented, the lawyers of the defendant gave strong cases, and if the jurors were willing to read in-between the lines and see the tell-tale signs of a false confession, then perhaps the fates of these poor individuals would have been much different. The grounds for an innocent verdict were there and were not suppressed.
This series is extremely well done, and the cases that they chose to present were airtight in their logic and defense of an innocent verdict. We see the humanity of the accused innocent--as well as of the lawyers and jurors that accused them. We see the arrogance and irresponsibility of police investigators and judges.
The only thing I see missing from this series is a follow up as to what happened at the appeals. It shocked me that, in many of these cases, the accused had exhausted their appeals, and I am left wondering, why?!?! How can an injustice like this be committed over and over again?!?! But there are no details given as to why their appeals failed.
The lesson I see from this series is that the failure of justice cannot be chalked up to an obscure authority of "The US justice system" but rather a failure of citizens (jurors, media reporters/journalists, police, lawyers, judges) to think abstractly and critically--and HUMANELY. When an injustice is committed, it is a known fault of human psychology to try to pin blame somewhere, anywhere--but an innocent person's life may be ruined, and in many cases these people's lives were ruined before ever even being convicted.
I hope future seasons of The Confession Tapes will give a glimpse into what happens in the appeals process, but other than that, this series gives a voice to the voiceless and is truly a work of art and philanthropy.
