MASON CITY, IA - Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh is the final witness for the defense in the trial of Edgar Concepcion Jr.The 15 year old is accused of murder and sexual abuse in the case of three-year-old Krystel Banes.
Dr. Kavanaugh is telling the jury 46% of proven false confessions involve teens.
"The person confessed, was convicted, and then DNA evidence showed they didn't do it."
She says these numbers show just how impressionable youths can be in the interrogation room.
"Juveniles are the most vulnerable to false confessions. They are over represented in that group of people who falsely confess."
She describes to the jury different factors separating juveniles from other age groups. Their frontal lobe, she says, is not fully developed, meaning they don't have the same ability as adults to tell “right” from “wrong.”
Also many youth are intimidated by authority and will sometimes just go along with a suggested scenario.
"They're more suggestible to what is said and will endorse and take on as their own what information has been provided."
She also says an interrogation technique called "minimizing" can cause false confessions. DCI agents say they used this technique on Edgar. They make the crime seem less terrible than it is in order to get a confession. But sometimes this technique backfires.
"It's more powerful and more likely to cause a false confession or confession where the person really didn't do it."
There are also more aggressive techniques she says. Where interviewers continuously hammer the suspect with questions telling them they know they did it.
"These types of techniques were done to make the person feel hopeless as if they don't have any choice but to confess to what's occurred."
