What did the condemned prisoner think when he retracted his confession?
The retraction of confessions by condemned prisoners is a rather complex and multidimensional issue. The psychological motivation of confession reversal usually involves multiple levels, which may include memory distortion, fluke psychology, denial motivation, and external pressure.
First of all, memory distortion may be a significant cause of retraction. Over time, memories may become blurry or distorted, causing the suspect or defendant's confession in court to be inconsistent with previous confessions. This memory distortion can be due to psychological stress, fear, or other external factors.
Second, luck and denial may also motivate death row inmates to retract their confessions. In the face of capital punishment, some people may take chances, believing that they can escape or reduce their sentence by retracting their confessions. A more typical example is Lao Rongzhi, who was sentenced to death some time ago, when he confessed why he took the victim to a rental house, he said that the victim wanted to buy him an air conditioner to please her, and after speaking, he made a supplementary supplement to prove the reasonableness of sending the air conditioner, this supplement is that the local summer is very hot, so it is also very reasonable to buy an air conditioner. This is undoubtedly a very lame lie, first of all, the victim is unwilling to buy her clothes, how can she buy more expensive air conditioners? Secondly, the local summer heat is notoriously hot, so why go out of your way to explain it? Obviously, the purpose of saying this fact that may not exist is to show that the victim herself wants to go to the rental house, not her instigation, and ultimately achieve the goal of mitigating the punishment.
Thirdly, the motive of denial can also lead them to refuse to admit their guilt in order to protect their dignity or avoid further punishment.
In addition, external pressure may also have an impact on the psychology of retracting confessions of condemned prisoners. This includes pressure from interrogators, family and society, etc. Interrogators may employ a variety of tactics to force a suspect or defendant to confess to the crime, and family and societal pressures may also motivate them to retract their confessions in order to protect their reputation or protect their families' safety.
It should be noted that the retraction of a confession does not necessarily mean that there must be a mistake or grievance, and its authenticity and credibility need to be comprehensively assessed according to the circumstances of the specific case.