Unreliable admissions to homicide. A case of misdiagnosis of amnesia and misuse of abreaction technique.
BACKGROUND
The past decade has witnessed a recognition that unsafe criminal convictions may be occasioned by unreliable confessions.


OBJECTIVE
To present a case which illustrates the dangers of using abreaction interview techniques in a legal context and demonstrate the relevance of the memory distrust syndrome to an unsafe confession to murder.


METHODS
We under took a detailed assessment of a person appealing against his original murder conviction, 'the appellant', and a careful scrutiny of all the relevant papers in the case.


RESULTS
The appellant served 25 years in prison before his conviction was quashed as 'unsafe' on the basis of fresh psychological and psychiatric evidence.


CONCLUSIONS
Amnesia for an offence had been misdiagnosed, and the use of repeated abreaction interviews had further confused both the appellant and the original court. At the Appeal Court, the advice was that the man had experienced a form of source amnesia which resulted in an unreliable confession.
Gudjonsson
G H
GH
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London.
Kopelman
M D
MD
MacKeith
J A
JA
D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D006708:Homicide / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016495:Police; D011330:Prisons; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D006113:United Kingdom