Opinion: Why does Mexicos president want to dismantle the democratic system that elected him? U. L. Rev. Thirty Years of DNA Forensics: How DNA Has Revolutionized Criminal Investigations., See here: Innocence Project, Eyewitness misidentification, Crime in the United States 2012: Persons Arrested,. 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. 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. 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 So are The Conversations authors and editors. Ernest Saunders only served 10 months of his sentence before being released. 'And that's why peaceful protests ended up becoming violent - because of the foreign intervention. 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. 28 Brandon L. Garrett, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong 6368 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). 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. Judges should include within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony during their deliberations. Mugshots of Lydell Grant (left, in 2010) and Jermarico Carter (right, in 2007) show the men dont look very similar. Similarly, a witness may mistakenly perceive the circumstances of a crime or event, such as a car accident. 21 Commonwealth v. Walker, 625 Pa. 450, 47678 (2014). 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. (2017). To do this, proper testing protocols that reduce chances of contamination need to be followed. Historically, eyewitness testimony has been in use not only in the United States and our penal system but all around the world. 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. Play it now! Juries are particularly prone to being swayed by eyewitness testimony, as evidenced in the Curtis Flowers case. Renowned Expert witnesses include doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other professionals who are instructed to give expert opinions in legal proceedings. Few would doubt that under such conditions, DNA evidence is highly reliable. A witness may mistakenly identify a criminal suspect. Another stated that the killers face was burned into [her] memory immediately.. The answer seems like a resounding yes if you consider some well-known and rather disconcerting information. Of course, he knew that Lydell Grant was the one under suspicion. Improper lineup procedures can also lead to witness misidentifications. 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. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. 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. (Sometimes there is an issue of racial bias connected with eyewitness misidentification, but this was not a factor as the parking lot attendants were also African American.). The Manson admissibility test consists of two steps. Ultimately, eyewitness testimony is a powerful tool that has the potential to make or break a case. 'Do you ask other countries? 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.22 Several police officers reported and later testified at Heidelbergs criminal trial that they observed him driving the subject vehicle as it sped past them at various points during the chase. The perpetrator had a brief conversation with the parking lot attendants and then fled the scene. 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 NRC found that police officers and detectives are frequently uninformed of what the best practices concerning gathering eyewitness testimony are. He did it and was fortunate not to be sentenced to death in that era. 31 Elizabeth Loftus, Eyewitness Science and the Legal System, 14 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 110 (2018). Advertise to our national and international criminal justice audience at The Crime Report and support our mission. Published: 00:56 EST, 2 March 2023 | Updated: 01:01 EST, 2 March 2023. They were then asked a leading question about how fast the car was going when it passed the yield sign. Speak to our experts today for advice. Retrieved March, 2019. But eyewitnesses allege she was severely beaten and died as a result of police brutality. At the time of his release, Jerry Miller had served over 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The attendants were also able to have a brief conversation with the driver before he fled on foot. To many Americans including many jurors eyewitness testimony is the gold standard when it comes to evidence. Widespread civil unrest broke out in Iran following the suspicious death of Amini on September 16, 2022. As with all indeterminate sentences, decisions around release are the sole responsibility of the Parole Board. Even if he allows it, he will have to instruct the jury about the variables that can lead to misidentification. 25 A. G. Goldstein, J. E. Chance, and G. R. Schneller, Frequency of Eyewitness Identification in Criminal Cases: A Survey of Prosecutors, 27(1) Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society: 71, 73 (January 1989). Psychological experiments have shown that lineup administrators who know who the suspect is end up cuing witnesses toward that person. 32 National Research Council, Identifying The Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification 38, 4-8 (2014). 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Mahsa Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after falling into a coma following her arrest, After the death of Mahsa Amini, Anti Iran protests have been held in many parts of the world. Here is a link to a general overview on eyewitness testimony from the National Science Foundation. A cornerstone of the state's case is the video at or near the kennels filmed on Paul's phone starting at 8:44 p.m. in which Murdaugh's voice can be heard in the background. Assessing confidence is critical because it provides direct information about the trustworthiness of the uncontaminated ID. This section will focus on the courts current treatment of eyewitness testimony. Following criticism of the decision, the high court ordered the parole board to re-examine Worboys case. [Youre smart and curious about the world. If the contaminated evidence is relied on to establish guilt versus innocence at a trial, the risk of a wrongful conviction is high. John Worboys worked as a cab driver and was charged with sexually assaulting several of his female passengers. Its a fact that eyewitnesses make mistakes. 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. Compiled by Ann Njarara, Bree Peilen, Daniel Neuman, Emory Cook, Linda Lin, and Perrin Lowrey, Introduction In addition to implementing double-blind lineup procedures, its essential that lineup administrators document eyewitnesses confidence immediately following an identification. (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. Thus, Chester was charged with three separate felonies as a way to overwhelm him and break him down. Hale is an Emmy-nominated executive producer for several true-crime documentaries highlighting wrongful convictions. Thanks for reading The Crime Report! 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. Episode 3: Eyewitnesses. In reviewing the case, it is more than apparent that the convicted man had motive, opportunity and means to commit this crime. 70 percent of the 349 wrongful convictions. 22 Edwin M. Borchard, Convicting the Innocent: Sixty-Five Actual Errors of Criminal Justice (New York: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., 1932). Questions were raised about the outcome after Ernest Saunders made a recovery following his release. Two other eyewitnesses, a couple, remembered discussing their selection with one another and confirming each others decisions. But studies demonstrate that a variety of factors can lead to the misidentification of criminals. Often, it can be the strongest evidence in a criminal case even though it can also be the most unreliable. 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. Years later, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court highlighted the danger of erroneous eyewitness identification in United States v. Wade, stating, The vagaries of eyewitness identification are well-known; the annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken identification.23 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates that U.S. law enforcement made 12,196,959 arrests in 2012. He served 47 years in prison before his conviction was vacated in 2018. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. During Wednesday's interview with CNN, Amirabdollahian accused western media outlets of encouraging violent protests in his country. Many eyewitnesses testified with high confidence despite earlier expressions of uncertainty.28. Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? 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. 'To the extent that Daesh or even ISIS exploited the situation to establish a presence in Iran. 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. Eyewitness misidentifications are known to have played a role in 70 percent of the 349 wrongful convictions that have been overturned based on DNA evidence (so far). His doctors maintained that he was suffering from pre-senile dementia, and he couldnt remember three numbers backwards or the name of the US president. A neurologist also claimed that Saunders brain was small for a man his age and showed evidence of shrinking. A letter by UN Watch - a Geneva-based organization monitoring activities of the UN - urged all 193 members to leave the meeting. 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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