Why Is Eyewitness Testimony Reliable

However, eyewitness testimony is not always accurate – whether that be from erroneously reported witness testimony or malicious intent, there is always the possibility that something is wrong with the identification or testimony of the eyewitness(s) of a crime. In fact, as a report written in 2007 claims, “Eyewitness misidentification is widely recognized as the leading cause of wrongful conviction in the U.S., accounting for more wrongful conviction than all other causes combined.” (The Justice Project, 2007) One reason for an eyewitness being an unreliable source of concrete evidence is the memory of the witness – in that it is like the memory of every one else. Memory is not infallible. As any human goes about their lives, they form memories every waking and
Another reason for eyewitness testimony to not be considered credible is that there are those people out thee who simply wish to gain from giving testimony, whether that means giving testimony while not being certain in what they witnessed, or outright lying for media attention, profit, or some other type of gain. An example of this being the Leo Frank case in 1913 where a janitor struck a deal with the courts and lied about simply being a lookout for the man who killed Mary Phagan, only to later discover Frank had killed her. Frank was then said to have forced the janitor Jim Conley to help his dispose of the body. Frank was hung for his crimes and Conley only spent one year in jail even though he was an equal perpetrator of the crime. The courts however, had a vested interest in Frank and were willing to overlook Conley lying as an eyewitness to convict Frank. (Frank v. Mangum) Eyewitness’ will lie by their own volition, through coercion, and through error – all examples demonstrating that eyewitness testimony is very often an unreliable source of evidence and is therefore one of the main contributors to wrongful