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Analysis Of When Our Eyes Deceive US

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The article “When Our Eyes Deceive US” speaks about the wrong decisions that can lead to a wrongful conviction. This particular article decided to focus on cases of wrongful convictions of sexual assault. The first case mentioned was that of the wrongful conviction of Timothy Cole. His victim positively identified him three times (twice in police lineups and one in person at the trial), he was exonerated by DNA testing. To the utmost misfortune, the real rapist had been confessing to the crime for nine years. The study then cites Gary Wells and Deah Quinlivan in Law and Human behavior who published a study in the journal of the American Psychology-Law Society that revealed that in of the over 230 wrongfully convicted in the United States …show more content…

In previous court cases, such as Manson v. Braithwaite, the Supreme Court deemed that if identification can be determined to be “reliable”, such evidence could be used. The study continues further to document a specific case of mistaken identity. In 1984, Ronald Cotton was sentenced to prison for the rape of 22-year-old, Jennifer Thompson. While many were pleased that a rapist was off the street, the police has gotten the wrong man. In this case of mistaken identity, Cotton was proven innocent after 10 years due to DNA analysis. His exoneration implicated Bobby Poole, despite the victim claiming she was positive she had never seen Poole, and that when she thinks back on the attack, she sees Ronald Cotton. In their publication, Wells and Quinlivan suggest a list of factors that can sway a victim toward misidentification, such as “feedback” from police investigators to failed attempts to increase certainty in one’s foggy memories that become reinforced over time. These factors, which can be added to Thompson’s aching need to regain her control over her life and her need to justify her belief in the justice system, also certainly led to her difficulty to identify her rapist in a police lineup that did not even include a picture of her actual

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