Australia - serious doubts on wrongfull execution in 1967
Ronald Ryan was hanged in 1967 for the shooting death of a prison officer. There were no scientific ballistic forensics for evidence to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, mysterious missing pieces of vital evidence that could have cleared Ryan, serious ambiguities in the case, dire inconsistencies of all fourteen eyewitnesses' for the prosecution, testimony by another prison officer that he fired one single shot (heard by all witnesses, no person heard two shots fired) and ballistic expert testimony that the fatal shot was fired from a distance at an elevated position in a downward trajectory angle, Ronald Ryan was convicted based solely on unrecorded unproven and unsigned allegations of verbals/confessions, said to have been made by Ryan to police. Ryan only signed documents that he would not give any verbal or written statements and always denied ever making such verbals/confessions to any person, claiming he had been "verballed". They both pleaded not guilty.Ronald Ryan was hanged less than one year later and seven days before his unfunded (Victorian Government withdrew all legal aid funding) final appeal to The Privy Council had made a decision. http://www.ronaldryan.info

Confessions in itself, or another person’s interpretation of a one’s confession is not sufficient proof of guilt. Confessions are often the practice of forcing a person to behave in an involuntary manner whether through action or inaction by use of coercion, intimidation, trickery, creating feelings of guilt/obligation, or other forms of psychological pressure. Such actions are used as leverage to force a person to act in the desired way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coercion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coercive_persuasion