Essay On Eyewitness

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Recommended: The credibility of eyewitness testimonies

Psychological research shows, a witness's memory of details during the commission of a crime, has a high probability of containing significant errors. In response to these findings, the question is should witness testimony still be permissible in a court of law? Obviously, the answer to this question is an important one and is debatable. Consequently, what we know is many innocent people go to jail due to eyewitness misidentification. Therefore, it is imperative that all defense attorneys thoroughly evaluate the validity of eyewitness recollection events. Any defense attorney who does anything less is ignoring the findings of the psychological community and its’ study of how the brain functions. As a result, an intense analysis of an …show more content…

Researchers found that retroactive interference, whereas, a witness may have read the newspaper, or, seen other media reports of the offense can alter memory. Another issue when evaluating eyewitness recollection is the role that the distraction of a weapon may play on recalling events. An attorney would want to know; was the witness paying attention to the crime, or, were their eyes preoccupied by the presence of a weapon. Author, R. Feldman discusses this matter in his book Understanding Psychology (2013), he writes: "When a criminal perpetrator displays a gun or knife, it acts like a perceptual magnet, attracting the eyes of the witnesses.” These are only a few of the problems that lawyers must …show more content…

Although testimony by witnesses is an invaluable tool in assisting judges and juries’ efforts to convict violent criminals, however, there are major issues with witness memory and recall of events. For this reason, officers of the court use the professional psychological research to deal with the likelihood of significant errors in eyewitness testimony. The fact is, human memory begins to fade within the first hour. In addition, memory continues to decrease for the next nine hours and beyond. Furthermore, recall of a crime can be affected by other factors. As a consequence of major mistakes in observer evidence many innocent victims spend years in prison before they are vindicated and

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