Dr. Scott Fraser Psychology

Dr. Scott Fraser is a forensic neurophysiologist, whose areas of expertise are in human night vision, eyewitness memory identification, and the effect of stress and other outlooks on the human mind. He advocates that even up close eyewitnesses can form memories that they could not have seen. He stated, "We know that eyewitness identifications are fallible.", because "the brain abhors a vacuum."

In 2011, Fraser was retained in the retrial of a 1992 murder case in which Francisco Carrillo was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Fraser and a group of appeal attorneys led by Ellen Eggers presented a remarkable recreation of the night the murder took place. Going by his calculations for the lunar data and the solar data, and then accompanying

the judge to the scene, he was able to show that there was no way the teenagers could have seen what they thought and testified that they had.

This then established that the testimonies were inaccurate. After 20 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, Carrillo was freed.

According to our text, there are three stages of memory; Encoding, storage and retrieval. Encoding is the acquirement of information. Many aspects of stimulus, such as complexity, stressfulness, and briefness can affect the encoding process. Contrary to belief, stressfulness does not necessarily increase or enhance the encoding of an event. The teenagers in the Carrillo case would have most definitely been under tremendous amount of stress. Estimator values such as extreme stress and the weapon focus effect limited the boys' ability to process all the stimuli taking place. Seeing the gun drew their attention away from other aspects of the event, and limited their attention to other pieces of information, such as physical characteristics of the perpetrator. The second step of memory or storage of stimulus can be affected as well. Our text

explains that memory fades as the retention interval, or the time between viewing and event and being questioned about it, increases. Post event information can also alter memory. Although it seems that the police were very efficient, the simple act of the teenagers talking with each other about the events that night could have altered their recollections. The third step is known as retrieval, or the process which a memory is returned to consciousness. The retrieval of a memory can be influenced by many factors. Our texts states that even the mere wording of questions can influence retrieval. In the teenagers' case, simply just seeing Carrillo at prehearings can increase the boys' susceptibility of suggestion and inflate confidence. Considering that Carrillo did not live that far away from the place where the shooting took place, unconscious transference may have occurred as well. Victims sometimes pick from a lineup people that they have seen before, but were not at the scene of the incident and also not the perpetrator.
In this case, there were many estimator variables present.

Meaning there were many variables beyond the control of the court, and their impact on the reliability on the eyewitnesses can only be estimated. The boys were under extreme stress, from witnessing the shooting its self, and the time of day that it had occurred. The post diction variable here was the speed as to which the boys identified Carrillo from the photo

lineup.
This video was a bit frightening to me. It was an eye opener as to how easily an innocent person, but in this case a boy could be sent to prison for over 20 years for a crime he had nothing to do with. I am not sure how the investigating officers could have stated that the lighting that evening was good at the crime scene. There would have had to be pictures taken of the shooting victim and crime scene, which I am assuming could have easily shown the boys account false. Yet, I was blown away at how Dr. Fraser went about his calculating the lunar data and the solar data in order to recreate photo evidence of the visibility. The investigating procedures are in need of reform it seems. Officers need to be taught the basic skills needed in order to be sensitive to all factors in the gathering of their evidence, and performing lineup procedures. I have to agree with Dr. Fraser, that there is a dire need for science in not only law schools and the courtroom but also in investigations as well.