Eye witness
Misidentification

About 70% of all wrongful convictions are because of a wrongful eye witness

Police often ask eyewitnesses to identify a suspect from a lineup or an array of photos. A lineup/photo array involves placing a suspect or a photo of a suspect among people who are not suspected of committing the crime and asking the eyewitness to identify the perpetrator.

SEQUENTIAL LINEUPS

• A person is showed a person or picture one at a time and asked to pick out the bad person

SIMULTANEOUS LINUPS

• The person is shown all the people or pictures at once and asked to pick out the bad person

PROS

• Generally reliable
• Can be used as evidence
• Sway a jury
• Shed light on the sequence of events

CONS

• Not always accurate
• Relys on people's memory
• Made up parts because the witness is nervous
• People can lie

OTHER VARIABLES

• The person could fill in what they don't remember with lies
• Person could have had their glasses off then they saw the suspect

Marvin Anderson
Because the rapist told the female he had "a white girl" everyone assumed Marvin was the rapist because he had a white girlfriend, even though he had an alibi. DNA later proved he was innocent.

Troy Davis was sentenced to death after the only evidence was an eye witness. He was in jail for 2 decades before DNA tests proved Troy was innocent.

WORK CITED

• http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction/eyewitness-misid...
• http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/09/troy-davis-case-shows-need-for-eyewi...
• http://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/investigations/eyewitness-identif...