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Examples Of False Eyewitness Testimony

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In the Criminal Justice system, the criminal procedure process sometimes has issues in which can confuse and alter the way certain convictions play out. One major issue is false eyewitness testimony. This has a big impact on our legal system because its inaccuracy can cause innocent people to be convicted of serious crimes. People such as Ronald Cotton are wrongfully convicted all the time due to information that can sometimes be unreliable. Some issues regarding identity include lineups, photo arrays, eyewitness identification, and jury bias. When these different ways of identification are used incorrectly it brings forth questions on just how reliable our legal system is.

To start off, lineups can be inaccurate. For example in the 60 seconds video an expertstates that a person may think they are picking out the right person when in all reality they’re just choosing the person who sometimes most looks like the suspect. Another issue with the lineups is that there are multiple …show more content…

Ronald Cotton became the victim to wrongful convictions when put in prison for a crime he did not commit. When put in a line up or even photo array the officer and victim should take into consideration that even though it might look convincing the perpetrator may not be in that specified lineup. To add on, individual photos compared to all st once should be taken more heavily into consideration as well. This gives the victim a less likely chance on choosing one based on comparison of photos but just recollection of memory. In CPL the rule of identification should also enforced to help defendant in situations such as this. Eyewitness identification is highly important in criminal trials without it it lets the defendant off a little easier, despite this different steps should be taken in order to avoid legal issues such as false eyewitness

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637 Words | 3 Pages

During the trial, the defense said that it is likely the only reason the witnesses could identify him was that they had seen a photo, and the person from the picture was in the line-up (Graham, 2005). In the case of Gary Graham, William Taylor was a witness and he was terrorized by law enforcement officers, after

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702 Words | 3 Pages

This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

In 2015, Smalarz found that a misidentification testimony by very confident eyewitnesses has happened in about seventy-two percent of cases where innocent people have been accused and were later found innocent by DNA testing. Someone can tell you a story with details, confidence, and passion yet it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is true. In correspondence with Smalarz, in 1977, Randall Adams was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in Dallas, Texas. An alleged eyewitness, who in fact was the actual killer, framed Mr. Adams; he received immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony. Mr. Adams was in fact not involved in the crime.

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878 Words | 4 Pages

He says that when a suspect is not in a line up, witnesses will tend to pick the most similar to the criminal. The two key properties of eyewitness testimony is that it is often unreliable and highly persuasive. Recognition memory is rapid so if someone takes longer than 10-15 secs then they are not using reliable recognition memory. Showing a photo one by one is more effective and accurate as it allows the victim to compare each photo to their memory rather than each other. A study person was undertaking whereby 300 participants viewed deliberately shaky footage of a man putting a bomb down an airshaft.

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout his sentence Ruiz continued to assert his innocence, interesting the Innocence Project. After taking on his case, the Innocence Project used the DNA originally found at the crime to clear him of his convictions. In court cases, such as Mr. Ruiz’s eyewitness testimonies, tend to be seen as the most credible and therefore persuasive form of evidence. However, human memory is fallible and recollection is often inaccurate. Due to the unreliability of human memory, many innocent people like Mr.Ruiz are convicted every year and sentenced to prison for crimes they did not commit.

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The case highlights the problems associated with flawed eyewitness identification, prosecutorial misconduct, and inadequate legal representation. By addressing these issues through comprehensive reforms, such as improving eyewitness identification procedures, increasing accountability for prosecutors, and providing adequate resources for public defenders, we can work towards a more just and equitable system. The case of Lamar Johnson not only underscores the importance of rectifying individual wrongful convictions but also emphasizes the broader implications for our society and the urgent need for criminal justice

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808 Words | 4 Pages

It is hard to believe that over seventy percent of convictions overturned through DNA testing were based on false eye witness testimonies. Due to conflict and hesitation in eye witness’s long term memory, testimonies from them are frequently inaccurate and give distorted information on the crime. The demanding process of encoding, storing, and later retrieving memory all takes place during a rather rapid and stressful period of events, making the procedure all the more tedious for the witness. For this reason, eye witness testimonies are now seen as unreliable for giving flawed results and have been slowly replaced with more modern means of finding evidence such as DNA testing.

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1428 Words | 6 Pages

Effects of post identification feedback on eyewitness identification and nonidentification confidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 334–346. Lindsay, R., & Wells, G. (1985). Improving eyewitness identification from lineups: Simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 556–564.

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However, we as a country have made incredible failures of eyewitness testimonies, including misidentification, that led to innocent people having to live out their lives in solitude behind bars. Recently though, with the rise of science and technology, eyewitness testimonies have become less and less reliable. As of now, almost 350 people, have been released because their DNA was discovered to be incompatible with the evidence collected from the crime scene

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297 Words | 2 Pages

In the article “Lineup Procedure in Criminal Cases,” Paul Bergman is informing us on the ins and outs of criminal lineups. He states that lineups are not a more accurate way of an identification than showups or photo identification. Studies show witnesses are not more likely to accurately identify a suspect in a lineup than any other pretrial identification procedure. During a lineup, a prosecutor is usually present along with police officers. Attorneys can also be there representing the suspect that was charged with a crime.

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1. Investigators Will Only Use One Type of Identification Procedure Investigators may not show a lineup to a witness if that witness has already participated in any other identification procedure involving the same suspect. Exception: Investigators may use additional identification procedures if directed by a prosecutor. 2. Investigators Will Select Fillers for Lineups When choosing fillers, investigators will consider what level of description of the suspect has been provided by the witness(es) and select fillers who generally fit that description.

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1447 Words | 6 Pages

Part One is very informational and contains the bulk of the book’s research. The information was presented in a thesis format; Loftus stated a claim and then supported her ideas with research and quotations from experts in the field of law and memory. Part One is helpful for psychologists, attorneys, and interested law people. The major principles concerning the errors in eyewitness testimony are supported by research and are accepted by psychologists (Kassin, Ellsworth, & Smith, 1989). Part One will contribute to the future of psychology by showcasing how the memory works and the different ways it is manipulated and changed: this will allow jurors and lawyers to become more wary when dealing with a traumatized

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698 Words | 3 Pages

"Invictus" is a well known poem that basically explains the vision and interpretations of the author. With this poem being written by William Ernest Henley in 1875, the reader can already infer that this poem is going to be very deep and meaningful. William Ernest Henley did not have it easy as he was growing up. For one, his father was a struggling book seller that passed away during his early teen years. To add on to that, William, at age 12, was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis causing him to have his legs amputated just below the knee.

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1228 Words | 5 Pages

Each line-up procedure affects the decisions of eyewitnesses. The show-up method is the least effective at correctly identifying suspects. They present suspects to witnesses, whilst in police custody. In addition, the time taken can drastically increase the rate of misidentifications. Therefore, they are not how eyewitness testimonies should be conducted.

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1225 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, there can be several factors at play when a wrongful conviction occurs and each case is unique. Three of the more common and detrimental factors that will be explored in this essay are eyewitness error, the use of jailhouse informants and professional and institutional misconduct. Firstly, eyewitness testimony can be a major contributor to a conviction and is an important factor in wrongful conviction (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p. 227). Witness recall and, frankly, the human emory are not as reliable as previously thought. In fact there has been much research showing the problems with eyewitness testimony such as suggestive police interviewing, unconscious transference, and malleability of confidence (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p.227).

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