First, another DNA profileone belonging to John Ruelas, who was just a four-year-old preschooler at the time of the murderwas found on a blood spot taken from the victims left hand. Two police officers thought the sketch resembled Miller, a man they had questioned a few days earlier. But eyewitnesses allege she was severely beaten and died as a result of police brutality. I am currently involved in another case in which the failings of witness identification are starkly evident. At the time of his release, Jerry Miller had served over 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Recently, post-conviction DNA exonerations of innocent persons have dramatically highlighted the problems with eyewitness identifications. Advertise to our national and international criminal justice audience at The Crime Report and support our mission. The court tried to deter false identification with a stepped process. Jurors trust a confident eyewitness and believe they are telling the truth and that their testimony is accurate [1]. 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. And third, the confidence expressed by the eyewitness following an identification of someone from the lineup must be recorded. Abcarian: Mask mandates? 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. In about 70% of these cases, misidentification by one or more eyewitnesses contributed significantly as evidence for conviction.3, Eyewitness Testimony: General Social Science Findings, Throughout history, eyewitness testimony was held up as the golden nugget of evidence. The parole board initially approved him for release. Like eyewitness memory, DNA evidence can be contaminated with the trace of an innocent person. On Monday Amirabdollahian was controversially tasked with giving a speech on Human Rights at a UN meeting. or debate this issue live on our message boards. He was 19 at the time of that attack. Dan tries to find out more about Mustafa . He claimed police did not have the power to use firearms in the riots. Any evidence can potentially be contaminated, including what is considered to be the gold standard of forensic evidence: DNA. Assessing confidence is critical because it provides direct information about the trustworthiness of the uncontaminated ID. Prosecutors, though, have no murder weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses, leaving them to build their case about Murdaugh's murky timeline of his whereabouts when the crime happened in 2021 . 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). 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. 28 Brandon L. Garrett, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong 6368 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). 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. You have, Witnesses are Often Wrong: The Case Against Eyewitness ID, Florida City Creates Youth Curfew to Deter Juvenile Crime, Legislator Introduces Laws to Protect Law Enforcement After Temple University Cop is Killed in the Line of Duty, Oversight Report Shows Issues with DOJ Collection of Deaths in Policy Custody Data, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, New York-Based Chinese Gang Steals 3,000 Texas IDs in Cyber Fraud Case, Murdaugh Murder Trial Jurors to Visit Crime Scene, Heartbreakingly Evil: DOJ Strengthens Fight Against Elder Fraud, Sex Abuse of Athletes: Dont Tell is No Longer an Option, Criminal Justice Journalism Wins Pulitzer Prizes, View from the Trauma Center: Why Gun Violence Persists. Judges should include within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony during their deliberations. Well ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. Do not sell or share my personal information. 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. Therefore, it is important that the individuals allowed to testify are accurate in their recollections. In 1932, Yale University law professor Edwin M. Borchard documented nearly seventy cases of miscarriage of justice caused by eyewitness errors in his book, Convicting the Innocent. 2 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. Such behaviors are often inadvertent; neither lineup administrators nor eyewitnesses may be consciously aware that theyre happening. A "double-blind" lineup or photo-array is when the person interviewing the potential eyewitness does not which of the persons in a photo array or lineup is the actual suspect. Eyewitness testimony done right L.A. Times Archives Sept. 8, 2011 12 AM PT To many Americans including many jurors eyewitness testimony is the gold standard when it comes to evidence. 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. As an experimental psychologist who conducts research on eyewitness identification, Ive seen hundreds of examples of highly confident yet mistaken eyewitnesses both in the laboratory and in actual court cases. 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. A meta-analytic review of the effects of high stress on eyewitness memory, Law and Human Behavior 28.6 (2004), 687-706. The NRC found that police officers and detectives are frequently uninformed of what the best practices concerning gathering eyewitness testimony are. 'In Iran we had an incident. Miller was convicted and sentenced to 52 years in prison. Expert evidence may be important in determining the right outcome. Alex Murdaugh's defense attorneys will deliver their closing arguments in his murder trial on Thursday as they seek to raise reasonable doubt about whether he killed his wife and son in 2021. (Joshua Boucher/The State/AP) More and more research has come out in the last few decades indicating that there are many dangers to relying on eyewitnesses, from the uncertainty of relying on a persons memory all the way to how they are questioned at the police station. It does make sure that photos in a lineup resemble one another.) In the sad case of the 1960 Starved Rock murders, there were EIGHT confessions by Chester Weger made to different people at different times, including a re-enactment of the crime at the scene covered by more than a dozen reporters/photographers. Police said they believed Weger was a suspect in a rape that had occurred a few years earlier. Instead of concluding that DNA evidence is inherently unreliable because of the contamination that apparently occurred in this case, a more reasonable conclusion would be that for DNA testing to be reliable, proper protocols must be followed. Read through our advertising and sponsorship rates and contact us. 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. (The Los Angeles Police Department does not conduct blind photo lineups, nor does it follow the commissions related recommendation that witnesses be shown photos one at a time. Finally, almost a year later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared Grant actually innocent on May 19, 2021. However, Solicitor, Marilyn Stowe, had concerns about the expert evidence of Professor Meadow. This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 4, 2020. There, the prosecution claims that Flowers stole Doyle Simpsons gun from the glove compartment of Doyles unlocked car and then walked back to his home on the West side of town. Three of the eyewitnesses reported that the detective told them that they had picked the same person other people had, though the detective himself denied having made such statements. So are The Conversations authors and editors. In assessing the reliability of eyewitness identification, federal and state courts are still divided on (1) whether expert testimony on eyewitness identification should be allowed under either Daubert or Frye and (2) the proper exercise of trial court discretion when deciding whether to admit such expert testimony.18 6 Wells, Memon, Penrod, Eyewitness Evidence: Improving Its Probative Value, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, (2006). It turns out, back in 1998, just days after the crime, the NYPD had a main suspect for the murder of Al Ward: a man named Mustafa. 3 Eyewitness Misidentification. Second, the police lineup has to be fair (that is, the suspect should not stand out). 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. This allows jurors to make more informed decisions while evaluating particular eyewitness testimony. 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. In much the same way, an eyewitness can be led to falsely remember someone committing a crime that was actually committed by someone else. The first is in the classic My Cousin Vinny situation, where eyewitnesses simply believe they see something, despite not actually being capable of truly witnessing the event accurately. Instructions given to eyewitnesses should be clear, simple and standardized across jurisdictions. 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. Assistant Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University. It is used to establish facts in a criminal investigation or prosecution. 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. Pregnant), Left and got about 1-2 blocks away and saw a man running west, away from downtown, it was her neighbor Flowers, Clemy pointed it out to Roy but Roy did not recognize him, Couldnt remember his clothes or shoes, did not describe seeing blood on him, Latarsha, Clemys cousin, remains convinced that Clemy made up the story because she felt pressured by law enforcement and because she might be able to get money Latarsha was also taken by the police at 19 to be asked questions and Johnson implied that she might get some of the reward money (30k) if she corroborated, Saw a man running across the street 1-2 blocks away that day of the murders, he was alone (not with Clemy) and it was earlier in the morning and when he was with Clemy later, they did not see anybody running, Law enforcement came and found Roy and he ended up giving a statement to John Johnson, Was shown Flowers picture (school picture) ONLY Flowers asked if that was the person Roy saw running Roy said no and John Johnson pushed Roy that it was Flowers and that Clemy was with him when it happened eventually Roy said he broke down and agreed to the story because he wanted to get out of there (he was afraid of Johnson), After that, Johnson recorded Clemy telling her story of seeing Flowers running away from downtown. 15 Perry v. New Hampshire, 565 U.S. 228, 248 (2012). But there is more to the story. After killing the officer, the shooter fled the scene and a high-speed car chase ensued. According to the trial transcript, most of the eyewitnesses testified to having been positive when they picked Grant out of the lineup. Because she had already servednine years and four months of her initial life sentence, she was released following the change of conviction. 27 The Innocence Project, Eyewitness Identification,. A full and fair examination of all the circumstances of the subject crime, and all the evidence involved, is necessary. Few would doubt that under such conditions, DNA evidence is highly reliable. Discover world-changing science. The perpetrator had a brief conversation with the parking lot attendants and then fled the scene. Demonstrators have cut and burned their head coverings while shouting anti-government slogans. With surprising ease, for example, participants in a memory experiment can be led to believe that they saw a stop sign when they actually saw a yield sign or that they became lost in a shopping mall as a child when no such experience actually occurred. What it means is that the malleability of memory can harm reliability. Readers speculate why, Letters to the Editor: Serious about the drought? Eyewitness testimony can hold a lot of weight with jurors. Iran's foreign minister could not stop smirking as he was grilled about his country's record on women's rights in a combative interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday. Improper lineup procedures can also lead to witness misidentifications. Laura Smalarz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Psychological experiments have shown that lineup administrators who know who the suspect is end up cuing witnesses toward that person. Law enforcement officers, prosecutors, attorneys, and jurors need to realize that just because a witness says so does not make it so. Get in touch with our team of experts today! Juries are particularly prone to being swayed by eyewitness testimony, as evidenced in the Curtis Flowers case. 24 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 2012: Persons Arrested,. See here: Innocence Project, Eyewitness misidentification accessed on March 9, 2019. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of the flaws in eyewitness testimony is the case of Jerry Miller, who was convicted of rape, robbery and kidnapping in 1982. They were then asked a leading question about how fast the car was going when it passed the yield sign. [Youre smart and curious about the world. It gathered more than 100 signatures from prominent lawmakers, human rights campaigners and celebrities. To many Americans including many jurors eyewitness testimony is the gold standard when it comes to evidence. Hale is an Emmy-nominated executive producer for several true-crime documentaries highlighting wrongful convictions. Psychological scientists, however, have challenged many of the assumptions of the legal system and the general public regarding the. Historically, eyewitness testimony has been in use not only in the United States and our penal system but all around the world. But a closer examination of those witnesses testimonies reveals a few disconcerting factors: the earliest testimony from a witness came a month after the murders, and other testimony came nine, twelve months later. 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 Perhaps one of the most striking examples of the flaws in eyewitness testimony is the case of Jerry Miller, who was convicted of rape, robbery and kidnapping in 1982. After his conviction at Croydon Crown Court, several more women made allegations of sexual assault against him. Officers of the law should be instructed by their superiors about the potential inaccuracies and dangers of witness testimony. We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. The puzzling question in this case, though, is why did six eyewitnesses independently identify Lydell Grant as the killer and then confidently testify in court? 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