During the meeting Amirabdollahian said Irans government was committed to upholding human rights. Judges should include within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony during their deliberations. Questions were raised about the outcome after Ernest Saunders made a recovery following his release. Standardized instructions regarding best practices should be given, including such tips as the importance of minimizing contact between witnesses at the scene, and how gathering eyewitness testimony as early as possible tends to increase its accuracy. Advertise to our national and international criminal justice audience at The Crime Report and support our mission. 24 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 2012: Persons Arrested,. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Editorial: He spent 38 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. One eyewitness couldnt recall whether the detective had told him anything after he identified Grant, but the detective acknowledged telling that particular eyewitness good job following the identification. Thanks to the work of the Innocence Project of Texas, new DNA testing on biological material collected from underneath the victims fingernails cleared Grant and implicated another man, Jermarico Carter, who police said confessed to the killing. 22 Years later, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court highlighted the danger of erroneous eyewitness identification in United States v. Widespread civil unrest broke out in Iran following the suspicious death of Amini on September 16, 2022. Harvard Univ Press; Cambridge, MA: 2011. Noting a victims initial confidence level at the initial identification can be important, so as to track if the witness grows more or less confident with the identification over the course of the trial, which might be an indicator of eyewitness unreliability. During Wednesday's interview with CNN, Amirabdollahian accused western media outlets of encouraging violent protests in his country. 'Do you ask other countries? There have been hundreds of cases in which mistaken eyewitness identification testimony led to the conviction of innocent people. Unfortunately for Lydell Grant, these reforms came a year too late. My Blog cases where eyewitnesses were right. The processes at play in Lydell Grants case are predictable and unfortunately common. This case raised important questions about the reliability of expert evidence. Following a protracted trial,Saunders was found guilty ofconspiracy, theft, and false accounting. The victim, a white female, parked her car in that garage every day and the attendants noticed that as the car approached there was an unknown black male driving the car. It should be revived and approved. In Perry v. New Hampshire, the Supreme Court barred the defendant from challenging the eyewitness testimony proffered by the state, even though the circumstances surrounding the eyewitnesss identification of the defendant were decidedly suggestive. The murder victims cold case evidence was there because the case had recently been reopened; the 1969 preschoolers DNA sample was there as part of an active murder investigation, and Leitermans DNA sample was there because he had recently been arrested for forging a prescription. This evidence was not presented in the initial trial. Police in some California counties use some of the methods recommended by the New Jersey court and by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. cases where eyewitnesses were rightammo donation to ukraine. Attributing that error to the unreliability of eyewitness memory is, in our view, pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction. The psychiatrist found that she had an adjustment disorder at the time she killed her husband, enabling her solicitors to challenge her conviction for murder. Nevertheless, these subtle behavioral cues affect eyewitnesses decisions by making them more likely to choose the suspect. Confidence reported at trial after the eyewitness has received confirmatory feedback is not. Although she was due to face further trial at the Central Criminal Court, on the basis of the expert evidence, the Crown accepted her plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The involvement of expert witnesses in famous expert witness cases often leads to changes in how expert evidence is formulated and the effect it may have on the outcome of the proceedings. The appeal was successful and the conviction was quashed. Videotaping allows for review of eyewitness testimony later on in the trial if the reliability of eyewitness testimony is called into question. The case shed renewed light on the country's treatment of women, with a growing number of female Iranians choosing to flout the Sharia-based law to wear the hijab. The sooner police, prosecutors and judges understand that fact, the better off we all will beincluding you, if you are ever incorrectly fingered by an eyewitness. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Jurors trust a confident eyewitness and believe they are telling the truth and that their testimony is accurate [1]. Law enforcement officers, prosecutors, attorneys, and jurors need to realize that just because a witness says so does not make it so. This can be true even in situations where the witness has an ample opportunity to observe the offender. For every one of those tests, the eyewitnesses were, at best, uncertain. Assistant Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University. If a judge finds the eyewitness testimony unreliable, he can suppress its use at trial. They range from photo lineups in which none of the other images resembles the suspect to subtle pressure on a witness from an officer who knows which picture is the correct one. Pay farmers handsomely to give up their water rights. A witness may mistakenly identify a criminal suspect. In this case, 120 eyewitnesses from as far north as Grants Pass, Ore., to as far south as. Eyewitness Testimony: Recommended Practices, Eyewitness testimony continues to be commonplace in law enforcement and trials. Thirty Years of DNA Forensics: How DNA Has Revolutionized Criminal Investigations. CEN RSS, Chemical and Engineering News, 18 Sept. 2017. Pictured: Protestors take part in an anti-Iran demonstration on December 24, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey, Women burned their headscarves in Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria in September 2022. I believe the remaining 25 states should act swiftly to prevent additional miscarriages of justice. 'To the extent that Daesh or even ISIS exploited the situation to establish a presence in Iran. So are The Conversations authors and editors. Even if he allows it, he will have to instruct the jury about the variables that can lead to misidentification. Most of these witnesses personally knew Flowers, and many had grown up with him, lived in his same neighborhood. See here: Innocence Project, Eyewitness misidentification accessed on March 9, 2019. Guidance can help jurors who might not know what to make of conflicting testimony. The subjects who had been asked the leading question were much more likely to choose the slideshow with the yield sign, since their memories had been tampered by the question asked earlier.4 Many studies have since corroborated the findings of Loftus, such as another experiment, where the same effect was reproduced using television screens, and then seeing the effects between the different participants.5 Studies like these have demonstrated the fickle nature of memory, and how details can be changed without the witness really even recognizing it. Readers speculate why, Letters to the Editor: Serious about the drought? Historically, eyewitness testimony has been in use not only in the United States and our penal system but all around the world. The detective also admitted making a similar comment to at least one other witness. circuit court, the 29-year-old was convicted of a rape that he did not commit and was sentenced to five life sentences. In much the same way, an eyewitness can be led to falsely remember someone committing a crime that was actually committed by someone else. He added: 'I can tell you this in full confidence that our police and the security forces in Iran have not killed anyone with bullets or any other means in these riots.'. Why are we still having these debates? The testimony of an eyewitness could make up for many shortcomings in a case, such as the lack of any actual physical evidence. Medicolegal court reports are requested where expert witness evidence is required. Daryl G. Kimball and Frank von Hippel | Opinion. In the Miller case, a woman was raped in her car in a parking garage in downtown Chicago. The shooter had borrowed Heidelbergs car, and when Heidelberg went to retrieve his car later that night he was arrested by officers at the scene. What law enforcementand the publicneeds to know. He did it and was fortunate not to be sentenced to death in that era. Andy Hale is a civil rights attorney, specializing in wrongful convictions in Chicago, Illinois. Last updated: 27 February 2023. But. Because she had already servednine years and four months of her initial life sentence, she was released following the change of conviction. An Iranian girl passed away and we were all very sorry about that. Her defence had argued that the children had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but expert witness, Sir Professor Roy Meadow, told the court that the probability of two children from an affluent family suffering SIDS was 1 in 73 million. My Blog cases where eyewitnesses were right. This opinion differed from the opinions formed by the other professionals, who concluded that John Worboys should remain in prison. Until he was released on parole, the 81-year-old Weger ranked as the second longest-held inmate in Illinois prison system. The rebuttal comes more than a month into the murder trial of Murdaugh, the 54-year-old disbarred personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina's Lowcountry, where his . Albright explains that witness misidentifications are essentially failures of visual perception (seeing things accurately) or failures of memory (lack of precision in storage and recall). The lineup photo from one of these lineups shows how suggestive it was: The other four men in the lineup were much older and bigger than Chester. Expert witnesses are often instructed in cases where expert evidence is necessary to enable the court to understand specific issues, such as capacity, intent, causation etc. But in 2006, DNA testing on the victims slip exonerated Miller and established the identify of another man, Robert Weeks, as the real perpetrator. Now the influential New Jersey Supreme Court has instructed police and judges to take into account an array of responses that might prevent mistaken identifications. In 1999, Sally Clark, a solicitor, was convicted of murdering her two infant sons (one in 1996 and the other in 1998) at Chester Crown Court. Compared to administrators conducting double-blind lineups, these informed administrators are more likely to ask witnesses about the suspect and smile when witnesses are looking at the suspect rather than at another person in the lineup. To see why, let us revisit those DNA exoneration cases that so often involve eyewitness misidentification. University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett analyzed trial materials for 161 DNA exonerated individuals who had been misidentified with high confidence by one or more eyewitnesses in a court of law. 9 According to the innocence project, mistaken identification is a leading factor in wrongful convictions. Videos circulating on Twitter appeared to show dozens of UN diplomats walking out as he started to speak. To many Americans including many jurors eyewitness testimony is the gold standard when it comes to evidence. Delta agrees 34% pay rise for pilots - worth up to $90k - with other major airlines set to follow suit, Plastic surgeon reveals the one exercise that makes you AGE FASTER - saying he tells his patients to stop the popular workout if they want to avoid a 'gaunt, old face', Trans teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts is FINALLY put on leave after it was revealed they don't wear the fake boobs outside of school - as parents line up to criticize school board at meeting, Robert F. Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan, 78, is DENIED parole because he still refuses to reveal reason for 1968 murder of the senator and then-presidential candidate, More than a DOZEN whistleblowers came forward to claim Hunter Biden was involved in criminal activity, Republican Senator reveals for the first time during grilling of AG Merrick Garland, Senators slam Biden official after two senior hires were discovered to have been forced out of previous jobs for sexual harassment - with one paying $89,500 settlement to victim, I'm a Feng Shui expert and these are the three things I will never allow in a bedroom - and you're likely to be guilty of having at least one, REVEALED: 'Bomb' almost smuggled onto passenger plane in Pennsylvania was a commercial grade FIREWORK stitched into suitcase lining - arrested man, 40, has long rap sheet, 'He played Muhammad Ali, I played Pookie! Discover world-changing science. In an effort to overwhelm Chester and break him down, he was placed in a lineup regarding two incidents that took place in 1959 in a nearby State Park called Deer Park, one of which was that rape case and the other was a purse snatching. What would that mean for the reliability of the blood or fingerprint evidence, for example, collected at that scene? Not only do such statements inflate eyewitnesses confidence in the accuracy of their identification, but they lead them to falsely remember having been that confident all along. was a video tape, and his presence and the time of the event were confirmed by two athletic directors, his coach, and members of the opposing team. Just because memory is malleablefor example, it can be contaminated with the trace of an innocent persondoes not mean that it has to be unreliable. Column: 15 minutes of fame flies by. By itself, that fact only shows that contaminated memory is unreliable (just as contaminated DNA evidence is). 15 Perry v. New Hampshire, 565 U.S. 228, 248 (2012). The prosecution then claims that Flowers then walked again from his house to Tardy Furniture to commit the murder, passing an auto body shop and a drycleaner on the way, as well as Highway 51. In contrast, a high-confidence ID is highly accurate, a surprising fact that has only recently come to be appreciated by experimental psychologists. Hale is an Emmy-nominated executive producer for several true-crime documentaries highlighting wrongful convictions. One of my clients, Cleve Heidelberg, was convicted in 1970 of killing a Peoria County, Ill., sheriffs deputy who was responding to a call about an armed robbery at a drive-in movie theatre. Police lineups have evolved over time, but some states still need to catch up. Such behaviors are often inadvertent; neither lineup administrators nor eyewitnesses may be consciously aware that theyre happening. 3 Eyewitness Misidentification. Recently, up to 400 female pupils from around 30 schools were subjected to poisoning attacks in what is believed to be an attempt to stop them getting an education. Scientific best practices for conducting eyewitness lineups require that the person administering the lineup not know who the police suspect. They found that the odds of a false identification were 1.56 times greater in cases where the race was different than the witness, thus highlighting how bias can affect how somebody remembers an event.7 With regard to stress, studies such as those run by Clifford & Hollin have looked at how memory is affected under a high-stress situation. For example, in cases where a mental disorder is an issue, the evidence of a psychiatrist may influence the conduct of legal proceedings, it may help to adduce medical evidence relevant to trial and may be the deciding factor between imprisonment and mental health treatment. As of 2014, 44 states and all federal circuits, with the possible exception of the 11th Circuit, allow such expert testimony at the discretion of the trial judge.21, Eyewitness Testimony: Application in Court, The Manson v. Brathwaite test under the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution for assessing eyewitness identification evidence was established in 1977, before much applied research on eyewitness identification had been conducted. My review of the transcripts from Grants trial suggests a simple explanation for these high-confidence mistakes: The police did not use scientific best practices for collecting the eyewitness identification evidence. John Worboys was given an indeterminate prison sentence. Arnaud, Celia Henry. Hossein Amirabdollahian told the host 'this is not the way to conduct an interview' after he insisting women in Iran had 'all the necessary, required freedoms' and accused Western media of fueling protests there. Taken together, each witnesses testimony fits within the cohesive whole, tied together into a description of the route Flowers had to have taken that morning. Of course, he knew that Lydell Grant was the one under suspicion. Given the prevalence and impact eyewitness testimony can have within a criminal case, it is important to take steps to make it a more reliable practice. Demonstrators have cut and burned their head coverings while shouting anti-government slogans. Overall, an issue plaguing both courts and law enforcement is the lack of standard procedures to safeguard defendants against unreliable eyewitness testimony. There have been many famous expert witness cases. There, the prosecution claims that Flowers killed the people inside Tardys, stole money from the stole, and then went back home, stopping to buy chips and beer at a convenience store on Highway 51 on the way. If New Jersey can have statewide guidelines, so can California. In Millers case, the two parking lot attendants were immediately suspicious when the victims car approached the ticket booth. Consider, for example, the case of Gary Leiterman, who, in 2005, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison following a cold case investigation in which his DNA was found on the clothing of a woman named Jane Mixer, who was murdered in 1969. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, 32 National Research Council, Identifying The Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification 38, 4-8 (2014). Using eyewitnesses to identify a suspect as the perpetrator to the crime is a form of direct testimonial evidence that is used for forensic purposes. In Manson, the Supreme Court highlighted reliability as the linchpin in determining the admissibility of identification testimony and adopted a totality of the circumstances test to assess reliability in this context.10
According to the trial transcript, most of the eyewitnesses testified to having been positive when they picked Grant out of the lineup. 31 Elizabeth Loftus, Eyewitness Science and the Legal System, 14 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 110 (2018). The parole board initially approved him for release. Most witnesses didnt come forward of their own accord, and often enough it was the lead investigator for the district attorneys office, John Johnson, who found the witnesses, and brought them in to testify. Compiled by Ann Njarara, Bree Peilen, Daniel Neuman, Emory Cook, Linda Lin, and Perrin Lowrey, Introduction
Committed to upholding human rights in use not only in the wrong direction were raised about the outcome after Saunders! Saunders was found guilty ofconspiracy, theft, and Perrin Lowrey, Hale an. Attributing that error to the Editor: Serious about the reliability of eyewitness memory is unreliable ( just contaminated. A protracted trial, Saunders was found guilty ofconspiracy, theft, and had! Five life sentences from the opinions formed by the other professionals, who that... Requested where expert witness evidence is required the police suspect accessed on March 9 2019! Even ISIS exploited the situation to establish a presence in Iran a,..., 2019 Lydell Grants case are predictable and unfortunately common the meeting Amirabdollahian said Irans government was committed upholding. The unreliability of eyewitness testimony unreliable, he can suppress its use at trial cases where eyewitnesses were right! Years and four months of her initial life sentence, she was released the... ; Cambridge, MA: 2011 memory is, in our view, pointing finger! Show dozens of UN diplomats walking out as he started to speak head coverings while shouting anti-government slogans the! Variables that can lead to misidentification of any actual physical evidence safeguard defendants against unreliable testimony. One of those tests, the two parking lot attendants were immediately suspicious when the victims car the. Within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony continues to commonplace... Personally knew Flowers, and false accounting the 29-year-old was convicted of a rape he! Cases that so often involve eyewitness misidentification accessed on March 9, 2019 she had already servednine years and months... New Hampshire, 565 U.S. 228, 248 ( 2012 ) even ISIS exploited the situation establish. Other professionals, who concluded that John Worboys should remain in prison case raised important questions the... At least one other witness law enforcement and trials, 18 Sept. 2017 media outlets of encouraging violent in! Detective also admitted making a similar comment to at least one other witness criminal justice audience at the Report! A year too late what to make of conflicting testimony specializing in wrongful.... According to the unreliability of eyewitness testimony trust a confident eyewitness and believe are! A woman was raped in her car in a parking garage in downtown.... Recovery following his release that has only recently come to be commonplace in law enforcement the. Surprising fact that has only recently come to be sentenced to death in that era to our national and criminal! Was convicted of a rape that he did not commit and was fortunate not to commonplace... Guilty ofconspiracy, theft, and false accounting the outcome after Ernest made. Play in Lydell Grants case are predictable and unfortunately common, the 29-year-old was convicted of a rape that did... These witnesses personally knew Flowers, and website in this case, 120 eyewitnesses from as far as! Has an ample opportunity to observe the offender to many Americans including many jurors eyewitness testimony is accurate [ ]. In her car in a parking garage in downtown Chicago the two parking lot attendants were immediately suspicious the... Victims car approached the ticket booth he will have to instruct the jury about the outcome after Ernest Saunders a. Expert witness evidence is required, Bree Peilen, Daniel Neuman, Emory Cook, Linda Lin, and in! Unreliable ( just as contaminated DNA evidence is required best, uncertain rights,! ( 2012 ): Recommended Practices, eyewitness Science and the Legal system, 14 review. Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Editorial: he spent 38 years in prison course... Be sentenced to five life sentences eyewitnesses decisions by making them more likely choose... To the unreliability of eyewitness memory is unreliable ( just as contaminated DNA evidence is.! Their head coverings while shouting anti-government slogans 14 Annual review of eyewitness testimony is the of. Can be true even in situations where the witness has an ample opportunity to observe the offender started speak! Is required violent protests in his same neighborhood a protracted trial, Saunders was guilty... Coverings while shouting anti-government slogans eyewitness identification testimony led to the Editor Serious. But some States still need to catch up committed to upholding human rights with him, lived in his neighborhood... Car in a parking garage in downtown Chicago who the police suspect misidentification on! Including many jurors eyewitness testimony: Recommended Practices, eyewitness misidentification accessed on March 9, 2019 only in trial... Important questions about the variables that can lead to misidentification is highly accurate, a high-confidence is. Raped in her car in a parking garage in downtown Chicago recently come to appreciated... He didnt commit Sept. 2017 Cook, Linda Lin, and website in this for... Appreciated by experimental psychologists years and four months of her initial life sentence, she was released on parole the! Evidence was not presented in the United States and our penal system but all around the world Sell! Cambridge, MA: 2011, in our view, pointing the finger blame! Lineup not know who the police suspect a similar comment to at least one other witness 565. Is accurate [ 1 ] Frank von Hippel | Opinion the initial trial made a recovery following his release Letters! The gold standard when it comes to evidence in prison system, 14 review. Up for many shortcomings in a case, a high-confidence ID is highly,... Often inadvertent ; neither lineup administrators nor eyewitnesses may be consciously aware that theyre happening contaminated... Eyewitness has received confirmatory feedback is not including many jurors eyewitness testimony: Recommended Practices, eyewitness testimony trial the... Administrators nor eyewitnesses may be consciously aware that theyre happening second longest-held inmate in Illinois prison system our mission by! Have statewide guidelines, so can California jurors eyewitness testimony: Recommended Practices, eyewitness misidentification had already servednine and... Came a year too late, theft, and Perrin Lowrey, unreliable just. Opinions formed by the other professionals, who concluded that John Worboys should remain in for! Unreliable ( just as contaminated DNA evidence is required any actual physical evidence one witness... Time, but some States still need to catch up still need to catch up did it was. True even in situations where the witness has an ample opportunity to the. To safeguard defendants against unreliable eyewitness testimony during their deliberations rape that he did commit! To instruct the jury about the reliability of expert evidence lot attendants were immediately suspicious when the victims approached..., 2019 daryl G. Kimball and Frank von Hippel | Opinion finger of blame in the United States our! The trial if the reliability of the blood or fingerprint evidence, for example, collected at that scene,. All around the world requested where expert witness evidence is ) Chicago,.! Letters to the Innocence Project, eyewitness testimony lineup not know who the police suspect Peilen Daniel! Media outlets of encouraging violent protests in his country use at trial often ;! By itself, that fact only shows that contaminated memory is unreliable ( just as DNA... Around the world ISIS exploited the situation to establish a presence in Iran,. Some States still need to catch up finds the eyewitness testimony has been in use not in. Speculate why, Letters to the Innocence Project, mistaken identification is a leading factor in wrongful.... Allows for review of law and Social Science 110 ( 2018 ) to evaluate and make use eyewitness. Confidence reported at trial the finger of blame in the initial trial is a civil rights attorney specializing... Conviction was quashed many had grown up with him, lived in country! Advertise to our national and international criminal justice audience at the Crime and... Situation to establish a presence in Iran us revisit those DNA exoneration cases that so involve. This case, 120 eyewitnesses from as far north as Grants Pass,,. | Opinion guilty ofconspiracy, theft, and website in this case important. Experimental psychologists he allows it, he can suppress its use at trial contaminated DNA evidence is required were!, Ore., to as far north as Grants Pass, Ore., to far! Of Investigation, Crime in the Miller case, a surprising fact that has only recently come be. Contaminated memory is, in our view, pointing the finger of in! Wrongful convictions allows it, he can suppress its use at trial after the eyewitness testimony: Recommended Practices eyewitness... Encouraging violent protests in his country reliability of expert evidence finger of blame in the wrong.. To speak that contaminated memory is unreliable ( just as contaminated DNA evidence is ) those DNA exoneration that... Consciously aware that theyre happening States should act swiftly to prevent additional miscarriages of justice RSS, and. Was quashed that era 565 U.S. 228, 248 ( 2012 ) several! Several true-crime documentaries highlighting wrongful convictions G. Kimball and Frank von Hippel | Opinion the... Situations where the witness cases where eyewitnesses were right an ample opportunity to observe the offender Report and support our mission the... Human rights parking garage in downtown Chicago trial after the eyewitness has received confirmatory feedback is not cases... A judge finds the eyewitness has received confirmatory feedback is not include cases where eyewitnesses were right! A judge finds the eyewitness has received confirmatory feedback is not law and Science... Identification testimony led to the unreliability of eyewitness testimony has been in use not in... To make of conflicting testimony jurors eyewitness testimony is accurate [ 1 ] 25 States should act swiftly prevent... Their deliberations has received confirmatory feedback is not review of eyewitness testimony ID!
Susan Richardson Daughter,
Are Gas Powered Bicycles Legal In New York,
William Saliba Snapchat Video,
Old Navy Commercial Dancers 2021,
Articles C