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Hello, this is Jillian, and welcome to today's court junkie brief on false confessions.

So often I hear people say that a defendant must be guilty because they can fast. But is that always true?

I can tell you right now that it's not. That false confessions really are a thing, and that even though you think it could never happen to you, and hopefully you're right, you might just be wrong.

Many of you have listened to my episodes about Melissa Kellewsinski, the former daycare worker who is convicted of murder after confessing to throwing a small child down on the ground.

And if you've been listening, you'll know that Melissa's defense team firmly believes that Melissa was pressured into confessing to something that she didn't actually do.

I've had a few people contact me after listening to those episodes, and they asked why in the world Melissa would say that she did something when she really didn't, especially given the fact that her life was essentially on the line.

And the answer might not be so black and white. I want to start this brief out with a conversation I had with my father who happens to be a former law enforcement officer.

He's a pretty tough guy, and when I brought up the topic of false confessions, I was half expecting him to tell me that it was just a bunch of BS, and that false confessions didn't really happen in real life.

But I was surprised. He actually backed up the notion that they do happen. He told me that one day while he was working as a detective, a robbery suspect was brought into the police station.

He interviewed the man who, after about 20 minutes or so, confessed to the robbery. But they later discovered that the man actually had nothing to do with it.

And when my dad asked him why he would confess to something he didn't do, the man said that he thought they would go easier on him if he just said that he did it.

So it turns out false confessions aren't exactly uncommon.

Of the Innocence Projects 341 DNA Exanerations, more than 25% gave full false confessions or incriminating statements.

I spoke with Alan Hirsch, a professor and chair of the Justice and Law Studies Program at Williams College in Williams Town, Massachusetts.

Alan also runs the website truthaboutfalseconfessions.com.

My first question to him was, how did he get so involved in false confessions?

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