Roman Ballantyne's Eyewitness Testimony

The police arrested Roman Ballantyne and charged him with second-degree murder in the death of a Fort St John man. At the trial, they presented eyewitness testimony as evidence of his guilt.

1. The problem

Eyewitness testimony plays an important role in any crime nowadays. It is also one of the most important types of evidence in court cases. However, many researchers have suggested that judges and investigators should know more about how reliable is eyewitness testimony. According to Read (2002) “It is important that we recognize the possibility of several stages or types of processing of event information because the greater the number of stages and cognitive activates involved, the greater the opportunities for error or low reliability”

However, in the case of the charge of murder against Roman Ballantyne, the eyewitness testimony was not reliable based on the following reasons. The first eyewitness S.L. claimed to have observed only two assailants, and she did not identify the third one. In addition, there were other people who also reported that they had seen three young men together around the bar before the beating and they did not tell a complete description. According to Read (2002)" The remembered must necessarily reconstruct as complete a description as possible based upon less than 100% of the information. (p.86). Compounding the problem of imperfect access to all of the event information is the fact that testimony of an eyewitness, as finally offered at trial, can ask whether trial testimony reflects memory for the event or memory for all of the prior accounts of the event (Read, 2002,

came and reported the police that she had seen the attack too. J.A. indicated that she had been drinking and had seen only part of the attack and a third attacker. However, alcohol has a significant effect on eyewitness identification abilities (Gazzaniga, 2007, p. 89). The amount of time a witness has to observe a perpetrator and the length of time between the witness's observation and the identification of a police suspect are two common factors to consider in crimes involving eyewitness testimony (Read, 2002, p.101). In addition, the police prompted two conditions to construct a second photo for her to look at. For example, the police inserted Roman Ballantye photograph among seven head and shoulders photos of different young meals. For the first time, and while under the influence of alcohol she chose two members and one of them was Roman Ballantye. Also, the police constructed a second photograph and J.A selected one person and it was not Romn Ballanty. In addition, understanding the effect of alcohol on memory is critical for police, investigators, and jurors to be able to judge the verity of statement and evidence (Read, 2002,