After being interrogated relentlessly for many hours, four U.S. Navy sailors separately confessed to committing a violent rape and murder despite the lack of any evidence linking them to the crime. Based on their confessions, and despite there being no DNA match at the crime scene, each of the men was sent to prison for the crimes.

In the video, Chapter 3 from The Confessions, students will consider why someone would give a false confession and examine the different types of evidence that can be used to identify perpetrators of a crime.

For this discussion:

• First, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/
• Watch the video and consider the issues regarding false confessions that are raised.
• Please note: If for any reason you have difficulty opening up the link, you can try cutting and pasting it into your browser and then it should open. You must have "Adobe Flash" on your device.
• https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/ (Copy and paste this into your browser, then begin watching the video. It is 1 hour, 24 minutes long ~ but very interesting!)

*After you have watched the video, please answer the following questions.

Why do you think these young men confessed to something they did not do, and how might the criminal justice system do things differently to help protect against false confessions, such as in this case?

*(Please demonstrate in your response that you did watch the video).

*Telling me the definition of a confession or using a source to tell me about false confessions will not suffice! I need enough details about the video you watched so that I know that you watched it.

**There will not be re-posts allowed this week (meaning you cannot post, read other student's postings, and then re-post).

*Please note that this video is 1 hour, 24 minutes if you watch the entire part (you only need to watch the 13-minute section of the confession, but it will be helpful if you watch the entire video) - so waiting until late Sunday evening will not help this week!