Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures PDF Author: Brian L. Cutler
Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN: 9781433812835
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
In recent decades, nearly 300 U.S. citizens convicted of major felonies have been found innocent and exonerated. Along the way, forensic psychologists have played a key role in efforts to uncover and publicise the systemic issues that contribute to erroneous convictions. In his previous book, Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons From Psychological Research, Brian Cutler surveyed a wide range of psychological factors contributing to erroneous convictions. Now, in Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures, he narrows his focus to the most important single factor underlying many innocent convictions: mistaken eyewitness identifications. Top researchers in the field of eyewitness research present full reviews of the literature on key issues such as the nature and composition of police lineups the relative effectiveness of sequential vs. simultaneous lineups the importance of double-blind lineup administrations the effectiveness of lineups vs. showups the slippery nature of eyewitness memory In each chapter, authors turn research into practice by providing clear and practical recommendations for effective police and legal reform. This book is an important milestone in ongoing efforts to make mistaken convictions a thing of the past.

Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures PDF Author: Brian L. Cutler
Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN: 9781433812835
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book

Book Description
In recent decades, nearly 300 U.S. citizens convicted of major felonies have been found innocent and exonerated. Along the way, forensic psychologists have played a key role in efforts to uncover and publicise the systemic issues that contribute to erroneous convictions. In his previous book, Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons From Psychological Research, Brian Cutler surveyed a wide range of psychological factors contributing to erroneous convictions. Now, in Reform of Eyewitness Identification Procedures, he narrows his focus to the most important single factor underlying many innocent convictions: mistaken eyewitness identifications. Top researchers in the field of eyewitness research present full reviews of the literature on key issues such as the nature and composition of police lineups the relative effectiveness of sequential vs. simultaneous lineups the importance of double-blind lineup administrations the effectiveness of lineups vs. showups the slippery nature of eyewitness memory In each chapter, authors turn research into practice by providing clear and practical recommendations for effective police and legal reform. This book is an important milestone in ongoing efforts to make mistaken convictions a thing of the past.

Identifying the Culprit

Identifying the Culprit PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309310628
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Eyewitnesses play an important role in criminal cases when they can identify culprits. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands of eyewitnesses make identifications in criminal investigations each year. Research on factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness identification procedures has given us an increasingly clear picture of how identifications are made, and more importantly, an improved understanding of the principled limits on vision and memory that can lead to failure of identification. Factors such as viewing conditions, duress, elevated emotions, and biases influence the visual perception experience. Perceptual experiences are stored by a system of memory that is highly malleable and continuously evolving, neither retaining nor divulging content in an informational vacuum. As such, the fidelity of our memories to actual events may be compromised by many factors at all stages of processing, from encoding to storage and retrieval. Unknown to the individual, memories are forgotten, reconstructed, updated, and distorted. Complicating the process further, policies governing law enforcement procedures for conducting and recording identifications are not standard, and policies and practices to address the issue of misidentification vary widely. These limitations can produce mistaken identifications with significant consequences. What can we do to make certain that eyewitness identification convicts the guilty and exonerates the innocent? Identifying the Culprit makes the case that better data collection and research on eyewitness identification, new law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering line-ups, and improvements in the handling of eyewitness identification in court can increase the chances that accurate identifications are made. This report explains the science that has emerged during the past 30 years on eyewitness identifications and identifies best practices in eyewitness procedures for the law enforcement community and in the presentation of eyewitness evidence in the courtroom. In order to continue the advancement of eyewitness identification research, the report recommends a focused research agenda. Identifying the Culprit will be an essential resource to assist the law enforcement and legal communities as they seek to understand the value and the limitations of eyewitness identification and make improvements to procedures.

Conviction of the Innocent

Conviction of the Innocent PDF Author: Brian L. Cutler
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN: 9781433810213
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Over the last several decades over 250 citizens convicted of major felonies were found innocent and were exonerated. Today, thanks to the work of psychologists and other criminal justice researchers, the psychological foundations that underlie conviction of the innocent are becoming clear. There is real hope that these findings can lead to positive reforms, reduce the risk of miscarriages of justice, and avoid the consequences of wrongful convictions to victims and society. In this book, Editor Brian Cutler presents a state-of-the-field review of current psychological research on conviction of the innocent. Chapter authors investigate how the roles played by suspects, investigators, eyewitnesses, and trial witnesses and how pervasive systemic issues contribute to conspire to increase the risk of conviction of the innocent. The chapters skillfully examine psychological perspectives on such topics as police interrogations, confessions, eyewitness identification, trial procedures, juries, and forensic science, as well as broader issues such as racism and tunnel vision within the justice system. This comprehensive volume represents an important milestone for research on miscarriages of justice. By bringing psychological theories and research to bear on this social problem, the authors derive compelling recommendations for future research and practical reform in police and legal procedures.

Pretrial Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Pretrial Eyewitness Identification Procedures PDF Author: Neil Brooks
Publisher: The Commission
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description


Mistaken Identification

Mistaken Identification PDF Author: Brian L. Cutler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521445726
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Examines traditional safeguards against mistaken eyewitness identification.

The Science and Rhetoric Surrounding Eyewitness Identification Reform

The Science and Rhetoric Surrounding Eyewitness Identification Reform PDF Author: William Collins (Writer on eyewitness identification)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781639055203
Category : Admissible evidence
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This book is divided into seven chapters. The first four concern the status quo with respect to eyewitness identification procedures and the laws response to them. Chapter 1 lays out the existing eyewitness identification practices used in most jurisdictions; Chapter 2 sets forth the law governing eyewitness identification admissibility, as embodied primarily by U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Manson, 432 U.S. 98; Chapter 3 examines how judges tend to instruct juries with respect to the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence, focusing on the D.C. Circuit's opinion United States v. Telfaire, 469 F.2d 552 (D.C. Cir. 1972) (per curiam); and Chapter 4 examines the circumstances under which experts are permitted to testify regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence"--

The Psychology of Eyewitness Identification

The Psychology of Eyewitness Identification PDF Author: James Michael Lampinen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1136247122
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This volume provides a tutorial review and evaluation of scientific research on the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness identification. The book starts with the perspective that there are a variety of conceptual and empirical problems with eyewitness identification as a form of forensic evidence, just as there are a variety of problems with other forms of forensic evidence. There is then an examination of the important results in the study of eyewitness memory and the implications of this research for psychological theory and for social and legal policy. The volume takes the perspective that research on eyewitness identification can be seen as the paradigmatic example of how psychological science can be successfully applied to real-world problems.

Eyewitness Evidence

Eyewitness Evidence PDF Author: National Institute of Justice (U.S.). Technical Working Group for Eyewitness Evidence
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal investigation
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description


Adapting to New Eyewitness Identification Procedures

Adapting to New Eyewitness Identification Procedures PDF Author: Nancy K. Steblay
Publisher: Aspatore Books
ISBN: 9780314262424
Category : Criminal investigation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Adapting to New Eyewitness Identification Procedures provides an authoritative, insiders perspective on recent breakthroughs in eyewitness interviewing and identification practices. Featuring experts in eyewitness identification procedures from across the country, including law enforcement officials, attorneys, and academics, these leaders guide the reader through the flaws of the current system and recent reforms, such as identifying suspects through sequential display methods as opposed to using simultaneous display, to prevent false identifications. Emphasizing the importance of staying on top of these developments, the authors describe the scientific research behind how witnesses recall information and how this information has driven changes in line-up procedures and witness questioning strategies. From training law enforcement officials to follow these new guidelines to advising attorneys on using this knowledge in the courtroom, these experts explain the changes to eyewitness identification interviews step by step and highlight the reasons behind each change. Additionally, the authors offer their predictions for the future of identification procedures and share advice on how utilizing them can impact a case. The different niches represented and the breadth of perspectives presented enable readers to get inside some of the great minds in eyewitness identification research today, as these experts offer up their thoughts around the keys to navigating this evolving legal issue.

Convicting the Innocent

Convicting the Innocent PDF Author: Brandon L. Garrett
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060989
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.