Elizabeth Loftus, the highest ranking female practitioner listed by the American Psychological Association, has debunked the myth of near-pristine inviolability that surrounds eyewitness testimony.
The largest number of wrongful convictions stem from eye-witness misidentification. Because the human memory process is associative as opposed to linear, a human being assembles the memory of traumatic events from bits and pieces of his or her recollections. Unfortunately, in combative and violent encounters, the emotional triggers which are impressed on the recall of a victim can incur greater harm to the total integrity of their recollection of the event. News media, pressure from investigators, family, and the public can also have an corrupting influence on an eyewitness' accuracy in testimony. Worse yet, the negative influence of outside media, trauma, and occurrence can so compromise an eyeswitmess' recollection, that they will swear with all integrity under oath to the persons and events which they have witnessed, despite later evidence to the contrary.
In order to prevent miscarriages of justice, police instituted line-ups, both in person and with photographs. Yet even these precautions are not sufficient to the degree that they do not limit the contamination which may effect a victim's memory beforehand. Still, every effort by law enforcement to seek justice without harming the innocent is commendable.
When police are investigating a crime, they must present a photo or live lineup with suspects who resemble one another as closely as possible. Police must be careful not to inadvertently induce the victim to identify one suspect at the expense of the others.
If possible, blind photo line-ups are a more effective option. In these scenarios, a detective unfamiliar with the case, and unaware of a particular suspect, passively assists the victim. A blind photo line-up prevents the agent conducting the investigation from pressuring the victim to choose the suspect whom the police have focused in on.
As DNA evidence produces more efficient verdicts and immediate exonerations, there is hope that more states will comply with implementing simple procedures to reduce eyewitness misidentification, a costly mistake which slows the wheels of justice and causes irreparable financial and moral harm to the state and the innocents who are unjustly incarcerated and convicted.
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