False Confessions: Michael Crowe as a Murderer

There are many cases in history where people falsely confess to crimes they did not commit and an example of such is Michael Crowe's confession of murdering his sister. This case took place in 1998 when Michael Crowe's younger sister, Stephanie Crowe, was found dead in her family's house. Michael Crowe was 14 at the time of the murder and police profiled him as a suspect because of his aloof behavior when officers came to the scene and his interest in violent video games.

How and why did Michael Crowe (displayed on the left) confess to murdering his sister?

1) while he was being questioned he waived his miranda rights and his right to have an attorney and his right to have his parents present

2) the detectives made Crowe take a lie detector test and lied about the results (detectives are allowed to lie in interrogations)

3) the detectives lied about finding the murder weapon in Crowe's possession
4) the detectives told Crowe that they found his hair in his sister's hand
5) the detectives made Crowe write a letter to his sister as if he killed her (an apology letter)
6) Crowe was asked questions such as: "have you ever blacked out before"implying that he had blacked out while killing his sister
7) the detectives lied again to Crowe by telling him that his parents no longer loved him
8) the interrogation lasted 10 hours and Crowe definitely suffered psychologically

Crowe's memory was twisted, turned, and distorted until he finally believed that he murdered his sister. However, I think that Crowe was coerced compliant instead of coerced internalized. Which means that Crowe did not actually believe he killed his sister but rather he confessed to doing so in order to stop the confusion and gain people (the detectives) that he could trust since his parents had supposedly stopped loving him. Also, in case people were wondering, Crowe's parents were unaware that the interrogation was occurring until after Crowe's confession.

Video of parts of Crowe's interrogation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkLHXKHb1Vc (If you are at all interested in the case I definitely recommend watching this)

Sources:
- http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/may/22/michael-crowe-found-factually-innocent-sisters-mur/
- my psychology and law professor Ellsworth Fersch