Would you ever confess to a crime you did not commit?

Nope

Sitting in my comfy chair, right this moment, it is easy for me to say no too.
But things are not so straight forward I am afraid, when it comes to the subject of confessing or not, to a crime that one didn’t commit.
It is known that some people, under certain circumstances (pressured by interrogators (threatening to never see your family again, other then imprisoned), length of interragation (which tires you both physsicaly and mentally), mental (in)stability, etc.) for the sake of lets just finish this ordeal, I can’t handle it anymore fess up.
In the past ten years or so, in the Netherlands, there have been multiple cases where persons who initially confessed to a crime, were found totally innocent years later (when the court re-opened their cases).

@rebbel
Did you ever read The Stranger by Camu. The character was an Existentialist. He believed we must accept our fate.
My whole life has taught me that all things worth having require us to work hard. I never allow anyone to control me. I never give up on what matters to me. I am very persistent.
People have attempted to victimize my family and I fought like Hell. I won and made them into fools.
My autistic son was throw out of a school because the incompetent Psychologist decided we were not donating enough. I found a better school.
I pray I and my family will never be unjustly accused of a crime.
I think confessing is bad for society because it allows the real criminal to go free.

If there was no physical torture then no.
If there was, all bets are off. I’m not sure because I have never been tested. I think I am more non conformist than the next person and in general that is a good thing. I always remember my Psych 101 class and the lesson about internal vs. external “locus of control”. Those with an internal locus of control are harder to condition. I would think they would also be harder to coerce into an untrue “confession”.
http://wilderdom.com/personality/LocusOfControl.html

Yes. If I thought that confessing to a crime I didn’t commit would be better for me than not confessing then I would confess. I just think that would be obvious.

Camus, not Camu.

Sure. Everyone does eventually; it’s why torture is such a poor way to get accurate info and genuine confessions out of someone.

Torture aside, how about the clichéd situation of movie and TV dramas in which someone confesses to a crime in order to protect someone else?

@Jeruba Clichéd because it’s awesome! Or when they don’t necessarily know the law, and don’t have a good lawyer, and they think it looks like they’ll be convicted either way, and if they confess, at least the sentence won’t be as long or harsh.

@Earthgirl
I see your point.
Psychology was one of my favorite subjects.
I am trained in ABA.

Any decent defense attorney would advise against doing that.

No… never.

Nope, that’s kind of stupid.

@Pustic2
On this we agree and I think you know we agree on many things.

@philosopher Yes we do.

@Pustic2
LOL.

@philosopher
:-)