false confessions

In 2002, Banks was a 16 year old living in sunny California and looking forward to a promising career as a football player. He also had an interest in a fellow student. Wanetta Gibson was a year younger, and in his words the two were “making out”, in reality, canoodling when, for some unfathomable reason, Gibson accused him of rape. Banks was arrested.

There have been countless cases of people confessing to crimes they didn’t commit, including under torture or simply intense psychological pressure. Sometimes the psychological pressure isn’t that intense. History offers many examples. The witchcraft trials of the 1600s saw people, mostly women, confessing to crimes they had not only not committed but were clearly imaginary.