False Evidence Can Lead to a False Confession

In the effort to acquire a confession, detectives in every state but Illinois are allowed, pursuant to criminal procedural law, to lie to the people they are interrogating. Specifically, they can allude to evidence they don't have, and quite often this nonexistent evidence is a crime scene fingerprint or incriminating crime scene DNA. The theory that permits this interrogation technique holds that an innocent person will not be swayed by the lie into making a false confession. But innocent people do confess, and when a person is so inclined realizes that the police are determined enough to fabricate evidence, that realization alone can push that person into confessing falsely.