Eyewitness Testimony In Court Cases

Abstract More and more we are seeing cases in the news that people are being exonerated after being falsely accused of a crime. Unfortunately, most of the cases involve DNA or other evidence finally being reviewed years after a conviction. There are now hundreds of inmates on death row who claim DNA tests or review of evidence would show they were not guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted. Logic suggests that untold numbers of additional innocent people have been punished for crimes they did not commit. In virtually every recent case in which individuals have been exonerated, DNA matter from the crime scene was available for testing, and these tests have proved that the convicted person is innocent.

Eyewitness Testimony The bedrock of the American judicial process is the honesty of witnesses in trial. Eyewitness testimony can make a deep impression on a jury, which is often exclusively assigned the role of sorting out credibility issues and making judgments about the truth of witness statements. In the U.S., there is the possibility of over 5,000 wrongful convictions each year because of
Jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities employ clinical psychologists to assess and treat adults and juveniles who are either awaiting trial, or who have been adjudicated and are serving a sentence of some type. Treatment in these settings is focused both on mental disorders and providing these persons with skills and behaviors that will decrease the likelihood that they will re-offend in the future. Clinical-forensic psychologists employed in mental health centers or in private practice may also treat persons involved in the legal system, providing either general or specialized treatment (e.g., treatment of sex offenders, treatment of violent or abusive persons, and treatment of abuse