Eyewitness Essay

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Recommended: Validity of eyewitness testimony

Human memory is not static, and can be influenced by several different factors that can hinder the ability to retrieve a memory 100% authentically. Where the fallibility of memory can be inconvenient in several day-to-day interactions, it can prove to be detrimental in the case of eyewitness testimony. Convictions made solely by eyewitness testimony puts the fate of the defendant in the hands of the witness, and at the mercy of their memory. There are numerous factors that can taint the memory of the witness, which unfortunately has the power to wrongfully convict an innocent person. Upon review, a study found that more innocent citizens are wrongfully convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony than any other factor (Smith, Stinson, & Prosser, 2004). Since DNA evidence was brought into the picture in the early 1990s, more and more cases have been overturned and those convicted by faulty eyewitness testimonies have been released. Memory can be colored by experiences, biases, and can even be influenced without our knowledge or consent, thus making a conviction based on it arbitrary.
One of the many dangers of eyewitness testimony is that it is centered on memory, a construct that can be influenced by many different factors. A memory can be flawed even before it is fully formed due to the environment during which it developed. Although it might seem inheritably obvious that stress has negative effects on our body, many are not aware of the effects that stress has on our memory. Stress “activates specific molecules called corticotropin which releases hormones that disrupt the way in which the brain is able to collect and store memories” (Chen, Yuncai & Dube 2008). Even though the witness believes that they are recalling the memor...

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...o try and ensure accuracy of eyewitness testimony, there is no way to definitively declare eyewitness testimony to be infallible. The innocence project is a foundation that works to free prisoners who were improperly incarcerated, many on the account of eyewitness testimony. Memory can be influenced by so many factors and continues to be reconstructive that it is difficult to be certain of them in every case. The best way to try to reduce the number of wrongful incarcerations is to use a combination of evidence on the basis of conviction. DNA testing that arose in the 1990s has significantly helped reduce the number of false identifications. The danger with false eyewitness testimonies that lead to wrongful conviction is not simply that an innocent person is locked up unjustly, but the dangerous man or woman who committed the crime is still walking around in society

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