A Project of the University of Michigan Law School and the MDefenders Program

Post-Conviction Brief on Unreliability of Juvenile Statements

This post-conviction brief cautions against crediting a juvenile’s custodial statements. Drawing on social science and U.S. Supreme Court precedent recognizing that youth are more vulnerable to pressure, more compliant with authority, and less capable of understanding long-term consequences, the brief explains that adolescents are disproportionately susceptible to suggestion and false confession. It details how factors […]