Rafael Ruiz Case

In 1984, Rafael Ruiz was convicted of rape and sentenced to 25 years in prison based on victim identification and blood analysis. The night of the incident, the victim told police she believed the man who attacked her was Ronnie, a black man she met previously with her boyfriend. While searching for Ronnie, the police canvassed the apartment building where the crime had taken place. The police talked to many of the residents and met the Ruiz family. Despite the fact Mr. Ruiz was Hispanic and the victim described her attacker as black, the police brought him to the police station for further questioning. While he was being questioned, the officers showed the victim a photo of Mr. Ruiz, “the victim identified Mr. Ruiz in a photo array of suspects

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. My analysis will exemplify the unreliability of human memory due to impairment by intense emotions, misinformation, and the natural biases people have. In court, when a witness testifies, they will explain the details and setting of the crime and often don’t realize that this information has been impaired due to their emotions when witnessing the event. Memories are formed and stored in the hippocampus, located in the temporal lobe deep within the human brain. Memory development and recollection is a complex process and can be impaired during times of intense