Eyewitness Testimony: A Big Part in Criminal Court Cases
Eyewitness testimony
Eyewitness testimony can play a big part in criminal court cases. Whether or not a person is convicted of a crime can come down to the reliability of an eyewitness and how confidently he or she conveys testimony to a jury. The problem is these eyewitness accounts aren't always accurate. The Innocence Project is a non-profit team of attorneys and law students that re-examines questionable murder convictions with the hope of using DNA evidence to overturn the sentences of defendents who've been wrongfully imprisoned. In the first 130 cases the Innocence Project overturned, eyewitness testimony played a part in 78 percent of those wrongful convictions.
Other tests have proven that eyewitnesses aren't as reliable as they claim to be, especially when those witnesses are older than age 60. In one study at the University of Virginia, participants between the ages of 60 and 80 performed far worse than college-aged students, which is not that surprising given aging eyesight. But the study revealed another startling find: The older eyewitnesses were also more adamant and confident in their wrong answers. So jurors not only hear unreliable testimony from an older witness, but they're likely more convinced of that testimony because of the eyewitness's confidence.
An eyewitness may not be reliable for several reasons –
Anxiety / Stress
Reconstructive Memory
Weapon Focus
Leading Questions (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)
and they don't all have to do with poor vision, although that's one of the leading reasons. In fact, tests performed on people with good eyesight have shown that at just 10 feet away, a witness may not be able to see a person's eyelashes. At 200 feet, the eyes themselves are a blur. At 500 feet, it's likely that no facial features can be distinguished. This seems logical, but murder cases have been decided in part based on the testimony of eyewitnesses who were more than 450 feet away from the perpetrator.
Aside from eyesight,
Eyewitness testimony can play a big part in criminal court cases. Whether or not a person is convicted of a crime can come down to the reliability of an eyewitness and how confidently he or she conveys testimony to a jury. The problem is these eyewitness accounts aren't always accurate. The Innocence Project is a non-profit team of attorneys and law students that re-examines questionable murder convictions with the hope of using DNA evidence to overturn the sentences of defendents who've been wrongfully imprisoned. In the first 130 cases the Innocence Project overturned, eyewitness testimony played a part in 78 percent of those wrongful convictions.
Other tests have proven that eyewitnesses aren't as reliable as they claim to be, especially when those witnesses are older than age 60. In one study at the University of Virginia, participants between the ages of 60 and 80 performed far worse than college-aged students, which is not that surprising given aging eyesight. But the study revealed another startling find: The older eyewitnesses were also more adamant and confident in their wrong answers. So jurors not only hear unreliable testimony from an older witness, but they're likely more convinced of that testimony because of the eyewitness's confidence.
An eyewitness may not be reliable for several reasons –
Anxiety / Stress
Reconstructive Memory
Weapon Focus
Leading Questions (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)
and they don't all have to do with poor vision, although that's one of the leading reasons. In fact, tests performed on people with good eyesight have shown that at just 10 feet away, a witness may not be able to see a person's eyelashes. At 200 feet, the eyes themselves are a blur. At 500 feet, it's likely that no facial features can be distinguished. This seems logical, but murder cases have been decided in part based on the testimony of eyewitnesses who were more than 450 feet away from the perpetrator.
Aside from eyesight,