Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1989, Page 11
logically possible, it is difficult to postulate motivational circumstances likely to produce
this behavior.
4. The cases reported on in this paper are treated as cases involving innocent parties
confessing to serious crimes. The determination that the person was innocent was made
by a jury in the Abney case. A jury initially decided that Reilly had killed his mother.
New evidence resulted in the overturning of the verdict. In one case (Sawyer) the
interrogation was suppressed by a judge because it was coerced and Sawyer‟s Miranda
rights had been violated. The coerced confession was the only evidence against Sawyer.
In the Weaver case there was no evidence that a crime had been committed. Weaver
sued over the emotional damages he suffered due to the interrogation and over
wrongful termination. The jury found in his favor and awarded over $400,000.
5. Additional evidence was alleged to link the suspect to the crime in each case. The
additional evidence, was, however, invariably revealed to be erroneous or trivial or both.
6. The charges against Mr. Sawyer have not been dismissed despite the collapse of the
state‟s case. One can only speculate as to why the state is unwilling to dismiss charges
against an individual held in jail for 14 months on the strength of a faulty police report
about what was said during a 14-hour-long interrogation that produced not one single
piece of new information about the crime.
7. The personalities and vulnerabilities of the victims were not extreme. Although these
individuals were evaluated as more than ordinarily suggestible, suggestibility alone does
not explain their responses. Their vulnerabilities probably contributed most significantly
to the speed with which the process of thought reform could be carried out.
8. See Ofshe and Singer (1986) for a review of the literature on the subject of thought
reform.
References
Bedau, H, &Radelet, M. (1987). Miscarriages of justice in potentially capital cases, Stanford
Law Review, 40, 21-179.
Connery, D. (1977). Guilty until proven innocent. New York: Putnam.
Inbau, F., Reid, J., &Buckley, J. (1986). Criminal interrogation and confessions. Baltimore:
Williams and Wilkins.
Ofshe, R., &Singer, M. (1986). Attacks on peripheral versus central elements of self and
the impact of thought reforming techniques. Cultic Studies Journal, 3, 3-24.
Zimbardo, P. (June, 1968). The psychology of police confessions. Psychology Today, 448-
454.
Zimbardo, P. (1971). Coercion and compliance: The psychology of police confessions. In
C. Perruci &M. Pilisuk (Eds.), The triple revolution emerging (pp. 492-508). Boston:
Little Brown.
**********
Richard Ofshe, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, has
studied thought reform for many years. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Synanon,
described in The Light on Synanon, Seaview Books, 1980.
This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1989, Volume 6,
Number 1, pages 1-15. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the
bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.
logically possible, it is difficult to postulate motivational circumstances likely to produce
this behavior.
4. The cases reported on in this paper are treated as cases involving innocent parties
confessing to serious crimes. The determination that the person was innocent was made
by a jury in the Abney case. A jury initially decided that Reilly had killed his mother.
New evidence resulted in the overturning of the verdict. In one case (Sawyer) the
interrogation was suppressed by a judge because it was coerced and Sawyer‟s Miranda
rights had been violated. The coerced confession was the only evidence against Sawyer.
In the Weaver case there was no evidence that a crime had been committed. Weaver
sued over the emotional damages he suffered due to the interrogation and over
wrongful termination. The jury found in his favor and awarded over $400,000.
5. Additional evidence was alleged to link the suspect to the crime in each case. The
additional evidence, was, however, invariably revealed to be erroneous or trivial or both.
6. The charges against Mr. Sawyer have not been dismissed despite the collapse of the
state‟s case. One can only speculate as to why the state is unwilling to dismiss charges
against an individual held in jail for 14 months on the strength of a faulty police report
about what was said during a 14-hour-long interrogation that produced not one single
piece of new information about the crime.
7. The personalities and vulnerabilities of the victims were not extreme. Although these
individuals were evaluated as more than ordinarily suggestible, suggestibility alone does
not explain their responses. Their vulnerabilities probably contributed most significantly
to the speed with which the process of thought reform could be carried out.
8. See Ofshe and Singer (1986) for a review of the literature on the subject of thought
reform.
References
Bedau, H, &Radelet, M. (1987). Miscarriages of justice in potentially capital cases, Stanford
Law Review, 40, 21-179.
Connery, D. (1977). Guilty until proven innocent. New York: Putnam.
Inbau, F., Reid, J., &Buckley, J. (1986). Criminal interrogation and confessions. Baltimore:
Williams and Wilkins.
Ofshe, R., &Singer, M. (1986). Attacks on peripheral versus central elements of self and
the impact of thought reforming techniques. Cultic Studies Journal, 3, 3-24.
Zimbardo, P. (June, 1968). The psychology of police confessions. Psychology Today, 448-
454.
Zimbardo, P. (1971). Coercion and compliance: The psychology of police confessions. In
C. Perruci &M. Pilisuk (Eds.), The triple revolution emerging (pp. 492-508). Boston:
Little Brown.
**********
Richard Ofshe, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, has
studied thought reform for many years. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Synanon,
described in The Light on Synanon, Seaview Books, 1980.
This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1989, Volume 6,
Number 1, pages 1-15. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the
bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.
