Examples Of Eyewitness Identification

Eyewitness Identification

What You See Is Not Always What You Remember

Terri L. Dittenber

Ferris State University

Abstract

In this paper, I will look at what can go wrong in eyewitness identification. We will discuss if eyewitness identification can be considered valid evidence for convicting individuals of a crime. And what precautions can be put into place to protect individuals from wrongful conviction and help make the process more trustworthy.

Eyewitness Identification

What You See Is Not Always What You Remember What Went Wrong

Eyewitness identification has been used to convict criminals for many years. With the new use of DNA we are finding that many individuals convicted using eyewitness identification are in fact victims themselves.

Time is one of these factors, evidence shows that when eyewitnesses were interviewed shortly after the act had taken place the more accurate the description was, while the longer an eyewitness goes before being questioned about identification the more likely it is there will be a false identification. Another factor that can play into this is other eyewitnesses to the act. In a study in which students were exposed to a criminal act after the act was committed the professor put false information as to the hair color of the

Yet, even after all the effort she placed into ensuring her assailant was convicted, and picking the same individual out of both a photo and physical line up, she still was unable to identify the correct person. When Jennifer participated in the photo lineup she was given several photos to choose from, it took some careful study and narrowing down for Jennifer to decide that her assailant was Ronald Cotton. Even when the Ricky Cotton was found to be innocent of the crime against Jennifer it took her a while to accept this due to what her mind and memory had come to believe. Professor of psychology Gary Wells tells us that when a person takes more than ten to fifteen seconds to make an identification they will most likely identify the wrong person. Professor Wells also stated if a person is given more than one photo at a time to view, they tend to compare the photos to one another and try to narrow down a suspect assuming that they must be in the lineup. Also noted in several of the studies was, when an individual received positive reinforcement after making an ID in a lineup it alters that person’s memory. While police may be trying to assure the person that they are doing a good thing what they are doing is changing the way the person remembers the