The innocent prisoner's dilemma, or parole deal, is a
detrimental effect of a legal system in which admission of guilt can
result in reduced sentences or early parole. When an innocent person is
wrongly convicted of a crime, legal systems which need the individual to
admit guilt, for example as a prerequisite step leading to parole,
punish an innocent person for their integrity, and reward a person
lacking in integrity. There have been many cases where innocent
prisoners were given the choice between freedom, in exchange for
claiming guilt, and remaining imprisoned and telling the truth.
Individuals have died in prison rather than admit to crimes which they did not commit.
It has been demonstrated in Britain that prisoners who freely admit their guilt are more likely to re-offend than prisoners who maintain their innocence. Other research, however, has found no clear link between denial of guilt and recidivism.
United States law professor Daniel Medwed says convicts who go before a parole board maintaining their innocence are caught in a Catch-22 which he calls "the innocent prisoner’s dilemma". A false admission of guilt and remorse by an innocent person at a parole hearing may prevent a later investigation proving their innocence.
It has been demonstrated in Britain that prisoners who freely admit their guilt are more likely to re-offend than prisoners who maintain their innocence. Other research, however, has found no clear link between denial of guilt and recidivism.
United States law professor Daniel Medwed says convicts who go before a parole board maintaining their innocence are caught in a Catch-22 which he calls "the innocent prisoner’s dilemma". A false admission of guilt and remorse by an innocent person at a parole hearing may prevent a later investigation proving their innocence.
Detriment to individuals
In the United Kingdom
Michael Naughton, founder of the Innocence Network
UK (INUK), says work carried out by the INUK includes research and
public awareness on wrongful convictions, which can effect policy
reforms. Most important is the development of a system to assess
prisoners maintaining innocence, to distinguish potentially innocent
prisoners from the prisoners who claim innocence for other reasons like
"ignorance, misunderstanding or disagreement with criminal law; to
protect another person or group from criminal conviction; or on 'abuse
of process' or technical grounds in the hope of achieving an appeal."
The system, he says, is being adopted by the prison parole board and
prison service, for prisoners serving "indeterminate sentences (where
the prisoner has no release date and does not get out until a parole
board decides he or she is no longer a risk to the public). Previously,
such prisoners were treated as 'deniers' with no account taken of the
various reasons for maintaining innocence, nor the fact that some may
actually be innocent." Those prisoners are unable to achieve parole
unless they undertake offence-behaviour courses that require the
admission of guilt as a prerequisite. This was represented in the Porridge episode Pardon Me.
However, in recent years, this has diminished in significance; at the
time Simon Hall ended his denials to murder in 2012, the Ministry of
Justice denied that this would have any impact on his tariff, and his
last online posting had concerned being released from prison in spite of
his denials.
The murder of Linda Cook was committed in Portsmouth on 9 December 1986. The subsequent trial led to a miscarriage of justice when Michael Shirley, an 18-year-old Royal Navy sailor, was wrongly convicted of the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. After serving the minimum 15 years, Shirley would have been released from prison had he confessed the killing to the parole board,
but he refused to do so and said: "I would have died in prison rather
than admit something I didn't do. I was prepared to stay in forever if
necessary to prove my innocence." (Shirley's conviction was eventually quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2003, on the basis of exculpatory DNA evidence.)
The Stephen Downing case
involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old
council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32-year-old legal
secretary, Wendy Sewell. His conviction was overturned in 2002, after
Downing had served 27 years in prison. The case is thought to be the
longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, and attracted worldwide media attention. The case was featured in the 2004 BBC drama In Denial of Murder
Downing claimed that had he falsely confessed he would have been
released over a decade earlier. Because he did not admit to the crime he
was classified as "IDOM" (In Denial of Murder) and ineligible for
parole under English Law.
In the United States
In the United States the reality of a person being innocent, called "actual innocence", is not sufficient reason for the justice system to release a prisoner.
Once a verdict has been made, it is rare for a court to reconsider
evidence of innocence which could have been presented at the time of the
original trial.
Decisions by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles regarding its
treatment of prisoners who may be actually innocent have been criticized
by the international community.
Herbert Murray, who was convicted of murder in 1979, said, "When
the judge asked me did I have anything to say, I couldn't say, because
tears were coming down and I couldn’t communicate. I couldn't turn
around and tell the family that they got the wrong man." The judge said
he believed the defense's alibi witnesses; however, the judge was
required by law to respect the jury's decision. After being locked up
for 19 years, his parole officer said "Nineteen years is a long time.
[....] But you’re no closer to the rehabilitative process than when you
first walked into prison. The first step in that process is the
internalization of guilt. You need to do some serious introspection, Mr.
Murray, and come to grips with your behavior." Murray agreed with the
parole officer, but maintained his innocence: "I agree! But again, I
just didn't do it."
In a news interview, Murray says he went before a parole board
four times, maintaining his innocence until the fifth: "I said what the
hell, let me tell these people what they want to hear." He admitted to
the parole board that he committed the crime and was taking
responsibility. "I felt like I sold my soul to the devil. Because
before, I had that strength, because I stood on the truth. [...] I
became so desperate to get out, I had to say something. I had to say
something because what I said before didn't work." His parole was
denied. After 29 years in prison, Medwed's Second Look clinic,
a group dedicated to the release of innocent prisoners, assisted
lawyers in his eighth parole board hearing which was successful,
releasing him onto indefinite parole. Overturning the original
conviction would be hampered by his admissions of guilt at his parole
hearings.
Timothy Brian Cole (1960–99) was an African American military veteran and a student wrongly convicted of raping
a fellow student in 1985. Cole was convicted by a jury of rape,
primarily based on the testimony of the victim, Michele Mallin. He was
sentenced to 25 years in prison. While incarcerated, Cole was offered parole if he would admit guilt, but he refused.
"His greatest wish was to be exonerated and completely vindicated", his
mother stated in a press interview. Cole died after serving 14 years in
prison.
Another man, Jerry Wayne Johnson, confessed to the rape in 1995.
Further, Mallin later admitted that she was mistaken as to the identity
of her attacker. She stated that investigators botched the gathering of
evidence and withheld information from her, causing her to believe that
Cole was the perpetrator. Mallin told police that the rapist smoked during the rape. However, Cole never smoked because of his severe asthma. DNA evidence later showed him to be innocent.
Cole died in prison on December 2, 1999; ten years later, a district
court judge announced "to a 100 percent moral, factual and legal
certainty" that Timothy Cole did not commit the rape. He was
posthumously pardoned.
The dilemma can occur even before conviction. Kalief Browder
was arrested in May 2010 for allegedly stealing a backpack. He spent
the next three years on Rikers Island awaiting trial, much of it in
solitary. During court appearances, prosecutors routinely asked for a
short delay which would turn into a much lengthier wait. At times,
Browder was offered plea bargains, and at one point, he was encouraged
to plead guilty to misdemeanors, for which he would be sentenced to time
already served and released. When he refused the plea deal, insisting
on his innocence, the judge noted "If you go to trial and lose, you
could get up to fifteen [years]." Eventually, in May 2013, the case was
dismissed because prosecutors had lost contact with the only witness
they had to the alleged crime.
Detriment to society
Gabe
Tan reported a British conference in 2011, "the dilemma of maintaining
innocence", concluded "Denial is not a valid measure of risk. In fact,
research has shown that prisoners who openly admit to their crimes have
the highest risk of re-offending."
In 2011, Michael Naughton suggested the focus on new evidence by the Criminal Cases Review Commission,
rather than an examination of serious problems with evidence at
original trials, meant in many cases “that the dangerous criminals who
committed these crimes remain at liberty with the potential to commit
further serious crimes.”
Robert A. Forde cited two studies at the conference. One, a
ten-year study of 180 sex offenders by Harkins, Beech and Goodwill found
prisoners who claimed to be innocent were the least likely to be
re-convicted, and that those who 'admitted everything', claiming to be
guilty, were most likely to re-offend. He also told the conference
research by Hanson et al. in 2002, the denial by the prisoner of their offences had no bearing on their likelihood of re-offending.
