Response to "Confessor and Confessant" in "Troubling Confessions" by Peter Brooks

Brooks is interested in the nature of interrogations, specifically the relationship between interrogators and suspects and how a suspect is moved to confess through interrogations.  It is argued that interrogations establish a “context of dependency, where confessing is made to appear the only way out, the only escape from interrogation itself” (Brooks 38). Through various interrogation techniques, the interrogator is able to elicit a confession, whether it be a true one or not. The principal way of doing this is by going through the interrogation with implied guilt on the suspect: the interrogation is not presented as a means of figuring out whether or not the crime was committed, rather it presented to find out why the crime was committed. Brooks suggests that because of this, suspects feel as if the only way to cease the interrogation is to confess. The confession itself highlights the true dependent relationship the confessor has with the confessant: it is only the interrogator that can make the interrogation stop, and the interrogation will only stop if the suspect utters a confession. Brooks further argues that interrogation creates “a situation in which the individual surrenders his free will and makes statements contrary to his interest, perhaps even contrary to the truth” (41). Interrogators are allowed to lie in order to elicit statements from the suspect, such as informing them that crucial evidence linking them to the crime has been discovered when it really has not. In Frazier v. Cupp, the court ruled that a confession as a result of interrogator lies is allowed to be used to condemn the suspect. If this is so, is confession really a tool of truth? I personally find it hard to believe that confession can truly lead to truth if the entire purpose of interrogation is to produce a confession. When pressure is placed upon a suspect to provide a confession in order to allow them to make the interrogation cease and therefore allow them to regain some power, it is clear that many false confessions would be produced.