Validity of Eyewitness Testimony Validity of Eyewitness Testimony In today’s court system one of the strongest pieces of evidence‚ or that most commonly accepted as fact by a jury‚ is eyewitness testimony. When correct‚ eyewitness accounts can aid in the conviction of many guilty people. However when it is incorrect‚ eyewitness testimony can do severe damage. Researchers have found that "more innocent citizens are wrongfully tried and convicted on the basis of eyewitness evidence in Great Britain
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Eyewitness testimony or the testimonies given by eyewitnesses are often times used as evidence in court. A person who has seen a crime occur‚ mentions their account of what happened during the time a crime was committed. Typically‚ when people think of eyewitnesses‚ they think of adults as playing that role‚ but children also play an important part and serve as eyewitnesses as well. The testimonies given by the adult eyewitnesses and children eyewitnesses for many reasons‚ are problematic at times
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confidence. The eyewitness identification proved to be sufficient enough to convince the jury of Cotton’s guilt and sentence him to life in prison. After 11 years of rotting in his cell Ron Cotton was exonerated with the help of DNA evidence. The numbers of exonerations are on the rise and this poses the question whether eyewitness testimony is truly reliable? Research in cognitive psychology exposes major flaws in retrieval of long-term memory and studies exhibit how easily malleable our memories become
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Validity of eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony are accounts given by an individual about the details of an event that may include‚ what the perpetrator was wearing or physical description of the person ‚ in what direction did the person run‚ details of a crime scene of a accident etc..‚ but can the eyes lie? Eyewitness testimony has been recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the U.S and because of this there are organizations in place such as the innocent project‚ which
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According to Lehman and Phelps (2005)‚ Using the eyewitness testimony law enforcement personnel can bring back anyone near the crime scene who they suspect is the perpetrator in hopes of detaining the correct suspect. Eyewitness’s testimony can be the key to recognizing‚ charging‚ and convicting a suspect in a criminal case. Moreover‚ in certain cases‚ eyewitness evidence could be the only evidence available to solve a crime. Yet in various cases eyewitness evidence can lead to the conviction of the wrong
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Psychology and law Misinformation effect and eyewitness memory “Eyewitness testimony” book explores in depth how eyewitnesses can in fact be highly unreliable and the psychology behind why. Expert on human memory. Loftus’ previous studies revolved around whether memories are necessarily accurate Inspired by a real case The study was conducted in 1974 “Aim of study; Test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter memory” (simplepsychology.org) Main focus; How the
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Looking Askance at Eyewitness Testimony The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately‚ people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal‚ but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness or victims memory of the person
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How reliable is our memory really? We depend on our memory for many aspects of life; however‚ sometimes we actually remember a misrepresentation of what’s really occurred. This is known as the misinformation effect‚ where misleading information distorts our memory of the true event. Important in a variety of aspects‚ these memory errors become especially crucial in terms of courtrooms and eyewitness testimony. Interestingly‚ 75% of false convictions are due to an eyewitness identifying the wrong
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witness testimony from the bus driver and child witnesses. The court heard from witnesses (classmates) that the boy had pushed Chafe once before the final and fatal shove sent him sliding down the bank onto the snowy‚ slush-covered street below‚ near the rear‚ before wheels of the bus rolled over Chafe’s head and crushed it. (Globe and Mail‚ 2015) Most of the testimonies came from students
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Implications of Memory Distortion As an eyewitness to a crime‚ there is a lot of pressure to remember the events that have taken place accurately. According to the article "How to Improve Your Memory" on helpguide.org‚ Exercise and sleep help people remember things. The person needs to exercise and get enough sleep before they go and identify the accused criminal. To remember specific details the witness needs to write the information out and try and visualize what they seen. Sometimes drawing
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