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Are false confessions 'coerced' or persuaded?

A segment titled "Could Someone Make You Confess to a Crime You Didn't Commit?" by reporter Erin Moriarty on CBS News' 48-Hours Mystery last night featured two prominent Austin cases among other examples of false confessions, noting that "One quarter of those exonerated by DNA test results actually confessed to the crime of which they were convicted." The piece ended promising additional, future coverage to answer a "question for all of us to consider anew: Are we much more vulnerable to coercion than any of us believe?"Considering this phrase "coercion," I was reminded of a recent post from Mind Hacks on "Hypnosis and criminal mind control in 1890s France" that said while research has proven hypnosis cannot coerce an unwilling person to commit a crime, a fervent belief in hypnosis is a not-uncommon claim among psychotics and "even today and your average inpatient psychiatric ward may well contain a patient or two who believe they are being 'controlled' or 'mesmerised' by hypnosis...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 29, 2009 (boomark / email).