Second, the police lineup has to be fair (that is, the suspect should not stand out). So are The Conversations authors and editors. John Worboyss victims alleged that he assaulted them after offering them champagne which he had spiked with drugs. 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. Chester denied having anything to do with these other crimes but was identified by the victims based on these suggestive procedures. 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. I must also add that Chester Weger also CONFESSED to the 1959 Matthiessen State Park rape/robbery but was never brought to trial (he already had received a life sentence for murder) to avoid putting the TEENAGED female victim on the witness stand. (2017). This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 4, 2020. Assessing confidence is critical because it provides direct information about the trustworthiness of the uncontaminated ID. The transcript from Lydell Grants trial revealed that the homicide detective in charge of investigating the case administered the lineup to the eyewitnesses. Consider the important, and often overlooked, distinction between malleability and reliability. 'You're supposed to interview me but you're actually having a confrontation with me,' he told Amanpour. Does Irans Foreign Minister accept women can peacefully protest for change in Iran? 2 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. Sally Challens appeal demonstrated the importance of expert evidence in establishing the correct outcome for a mentally disordered offender. 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. One estimate based on a 1989 survey of prosecutors suggests that at least 80,000 eyewitnesses make identifications of suspects in criminal investigations each year.25 Expert evidence may be important in determining the right outcome. The court tried to deter false identification with a stepped process. It should be revived and approved. Ruling in the case of a man convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault, the court noted that several variables can produce mistaken eyewitness testimony. Following criticism of the decision, the high court ordered the parole board to re-examine Worboys case. But eyewitnesses allege she was severely beaten and died as a result of police brutality. Scientific best practices for conducting eyewitness lineups require that the person administering the lineup not know who the police suspect. When proper procedures are not followed, the potential for error exists. Judges should strive to make sure the jury is informed of all of the identifications an eyewitness has made prior to the trial. Often, it can be the strongest evidence in a criminal case even though it can also be the most unreliable. But in 57 percent of those cases, it was possible to determine what happened on the initial (uncontaminated) memory test. 8 Clifford & Hollin, Effects Of the Type of Incident and the Number of Perpetrators on Eyewitness Memory, Journal of Applied Psychology 66.3 (1981). 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. See here: Innocence Project, Eyewitness misidentification accessed on March 9, 2019. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. This opinion differed from the opinions formed by the other professionals, who concluded that John Worboys should remain in prison. 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. 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. Similarly, a witness may mistakenly perceive the circumstances of a crime or event, such as a car accident. Later two slideshows were shown, one with a stop sign and the other with a yield sign and they asked the subjects which was the one they had previously seen. These courts generally accept detailed descriptions of relevant scientific research findings to either attack or support eyewitness testimony.19 Other courts, meanwhile, leave the jury to determine the credibility of eyewitness testimony and insist that findings from scientific research in this area cannot help the jury to do so.20 32 National Research Council, Identifying The Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification 38, 4-8 (2014). First, the judge must determine whether the procedure used by law enforcement officials in obtaining the proffered eyewitness identification (e.g., photographic array or lineup) was unnecessarily suggestive.11 The judge must then weigh this determination against the following five factors to assess the reliability of the identification: In practice, therefore, the test is flexible. Renowned Expert witnesses include doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other professionals who are instructed to give expert opinions in legal proceedings. 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. But if the six eyewitnesses chose Lydell Grant from the lineup only because they were cued to do so by the case detective, why were they so confident in their identifications? Psychologists have learned a. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation that, among other things, would have set up a task force to examine eyewitness testimony and establish voluntary guidelines to ensure that it was accurate. Police officers should avoid leading questioning while interviewing potential eyewitnesses, since eyewitnesses might be eager to say what they think will help the investigation, rather than the unblemished version of their memory. But when the witnesses had received a simple reinforcing comment following their identification (Good job, you got the guy), the mock jurors could no longer tell the difference between accurate and mistaken eyewitnesses. As a result, witnesses who have received confirmatory feedback provide testimony that is highly persuasive to jurors. In this case, 120 eyewitnesses from as far north as Grants Pass, Ore., to as far south as. Warmer storms could cause problems, Column: Supreme Court conservatives may want to block student loan forgiveness. John Worboys worked as a cab driver and was charged with sexually assaulting several of his female passengers. She was sentenced to life in prison. In much the same way, an eyewitness can be led to falsely remember someone committing a crime that was actually committed by someone else. Thirty Years of DNA Forensics: How DNA Has Revolutionized Criminal Investigations. CEN RSS, Chemical and Engineering News, 18 Sept. 2017. Witness misidentifications can affect both plaintiffs and defendants. Unfortunately for Lydell Grant, these reforms came a year too late. But a comparison of the pairs mugshots reveals that they bear little physical resemblance to one another beyond both being Black men. 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 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. It does make sure that photos in a lineup resemble one another.) The parking lot attendants provided a description of the driver to a police sketch artist and the sketch was published in a daily police bulletin. It gathered more than 100 signatures from prominent lawmakers, human rights campaigners and celebrities. He was 19 at the time of that attack. 109, 10910 (2006). The same is true of eyewitness memory: memory can be contaminated with the trace of an innocent person, but under proper testing conditions, eyewitness evidence is highly reliable. According to the prosecution on the day of the murder, at around 7 am, Flowers walked from his home on the West side of town all the way to a sewing factory parking lot on the East side of town, crossing Highway 51, one of the towns largest streets, while doing so. In one study, people playing the role of jurors were able to reliably distinguish between accurate and mistaken eyewitnesses when the witnesses had not received any confirmatory feedback. 'In Iran we had an incident. 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. 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. Another stated that the killers face was burned into [her] memory immediately.. 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. 28 Brandon L. Garrett, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong 6368 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). 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. During the tense interview, Amirabdollahian claimed Mahsa Amini - the 22-year-old who died after being arrested by morality police for failing to wear the hijab - was turned into a 'symbol' by protesters. 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. 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. 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. A full and fair examination of all the circumstances of the subject crime, and all the evidence involved, is necessary. Miller was placed in a lineup and one of the parking lot attendants positively identified Miller; the other parking lot attendant tentatively identified him. The reliability of these alleged identifications was suspect, since the officers would have had only a fraction of a second to observe the driver whizz by them at a high rate of speed at night. Publication Date: December 20, 2021 Eyewitness testimony in court is shown to highly sway the opinion of jurors. Working closely with our specialist human resource colleagues, we offer a holistic advisory and support service for employers encompassing both the legal and people risks of workforce management. Having served 10 years in prison, the psychologist recommended his release from prison. It comes just two days after diplomats walked out of a speech given by the Iranian minister to the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva. She questioned the statistical basis of Professor Meadows evidence, which had led to Sally Clark being sentenced to life in prison. Eyewitness testimony can hold a lot of weight with jurors. Renowned Expert witnesses include doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other professionals who are instructed to give expert opinions in legal proceedings. Judges should include within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony during their deliberations. According to the trial transcript, most of the eyewitnesses testified to having been positive when they picked Grant out of the lineup. 6 Wells, Memon, Penrod, Eyewitness Evidence: Improving Its Probative Value, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, (2006). Readers speculate why, Letters to the Editor: Serious about the drought? Document Witness Confidence and Videotape Witness Identifications. Ultimately, eyewitness testimony is a powerful tool that has the potential to make or break a case. 21 Commonwealth v. Walker, 625 Pa. 450, 47678 (2014). By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Carter has now been indicted for the murder by a grand jury, and Lydell Grant was released from prison. Confidence collected at the time of an identification during a double-blind lineup procedure is informative regarding the eyewitnesss accuracy. What would that mean for the reliability of the blood or fingerprint evidence, for example, collected at that scene? Improper lineup procedures can also lead to witness misidentifications. 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. Two police officers thought the sketch resembled Miller, a man they had questioned a few days earlier. John Worboys was given an indeterminate prison sentence. Its a fact that eyewitnesses make mistakes. The way to avoid these problems with eyewitness testimony is for police to adopt best practices based on the psychological research. Once this fact is appreciated, then proper testing protocols can be put in place to minimize the likelihood that the original memory trace is contaminated. The FBI estimates that 521,196 of these arrests were for violent crimes.24 Accurate data on the number of crimes observed by eyewitnesses are not available. For every one of those tests, the eyewitnesses were, at best, uncertain. 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 His offences led to him being named the black cab rapist by the UK press. 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. Most of these witnesses personally knew Flowers, and many had grown up with him, lived in his same neighborhood. 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. 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. But. Ernest Saunders, along with three other men, were part of the Guinness Four who were accused of being involved in ascheme to fraudulently increasethe price of Guinness shares. Wegers attorneys, Celeste Stack and I, continue to seek to prove Chesters innocence and are seeking to review and analyze the physical evidence and are working to be able to conduct forensic testing on some of that evidence. Family weapons were used to kill the victims in the Murdaugh case, prosecutor says Prosecutor Creighton Waters speaks during closing arguments on Wednesday, March 1. The modern test for the admissibility of eyewitness testimony at a criminal trial under the Due Process Clause was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Manson v. Brathwaite in 1977. Even if he allows it, he will have to instruct the jury about the variables that can lead to misidentification. The witnesses trial testimony reveals a simple explanation for these high-confidence errors: All of the eyewitnesses received confirmatory feedback following their identification of Grant. Therefore, it is important that the individuals allowed to testify are accurate in their recollections. This section will focus on the courts current treatment of eyewitness testimony. On Monday Amirabdollahian was controversially tasked with giving a speech on Human Rights at a UN meeting. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. 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. Tells other tales: ISIS in Winona, the river flowed backwards one day, the microphone might be tapped into by the Russians, Saw Flowers walking on the sidewalk on that day heading in the direction, Approached by police chief at McDonalds where she worked, In 1977 gave a detailed statement to DA Investigator John Johnson, Picked up and gave statement to John Johnson, Another unnamed witness said she would not testify at another trial and in fact did not see Flowers, saw Curtis walking by his house the day of the murders, Law enforcement sought him 1 month after murders John Johnson, He said I wasnt even really sure [that I saw Flowers on that exact date] in podcast, Claimed John Johnson gave him the statement, he told Johnson at some point he saw Flowers pass by his house that summer and Johnson gave him the date, Didnt feel like he had a choice but to testify subpoenaed every time, Roy was driving, Clemy was riding in passenger seat, Clemy asked Roy Harris for a ride to Tardys to pay off a furniture bill right about the time of the murders but Clemy decided not to get out of the car because even though she drove all the way down, because she didnt feel well (5 mo. 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