9 According to the innocence project, mistaken identification is a leading factor in wrongful convictions. When proper procedures are not followed, the potential for error exists. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran claimed she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. Once this fact is appreciated, then proper testing protocols can be put in place to minimize the likelihood that the original memory trace is contaminated. Iran's foreign minister could not stop smirking as he was grilled about his country's record on women's rights in a combative interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday. It gathered more than 100 signatures from prominent lawmakers, human rights campaigners and celebrities. Judges should include within jury instructions clear and concise instructions on how to evaluate and make use of eyewitness testimony during their deliberations. For example, in cases where a mental disorder is an issue, the evidence of a psychiatrist may influence the conduct of legal proceedings, it may help to adduce medical evidence relevant to trial and may be the deciding factor between imprisonment and mental health treatment. After she had spent several years in prison, an independent consultant psychiatrist was instructed as an expert witness. 22 Years later, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court highlighted the danger of erroneous eyewitness identification in United States v. After . "Double-Blind" Process for Lineups and Photo Arrays. Thanks for reading The Crime Report! An Iranian girl passed away and we were all very sorry about that. However, there has yet to be research showing what ideal instructions would look like, as each case involving eyewitness testimony varies from each other. His subsequent return to business raised further questions about the evidence that led to his early release. During the tense interview, Amirabdollahian claimed Mahsa Amini - the 22-year-old who died after being arrested by morality police for failing to wear the hijab - was turned into a 'symbol' by protesters. She unsuccessfully appealed against her conviction in 2000. She was sentenced to life in prison. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. bn. But. The prosecution then claims that Flowers then walked again from his house to Tardy Furniture to commit the murder, passing an auto body shop and a drycleaner on the way, as well as Highway 51. Taken together, each witnesses testimony fits within the cohesive whole, tied together into a description of the route Flowers had to have taken that morning. In 2009, he was charged with assaulting 12 women. 'The issue in Iran at the moment is not that of hijab.'. Sally Challen claimed she experienced years of emotional abuse before killing him with a hammer. Pictured: Protestors take part in an anti-Iran demonstration on December 24, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey, Women burned their headscarves in Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria in September 2022. Play it now! On the strength of six eyewitnesses lineup identifications, Lydell Grant was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the murder of a young Texas man, Aaron Scheerhoorn, who was stabbed to death outside a Houston nightclub in 2010. A "double-blind" lineup or photo-array is when the person interviewing the potential eyewitness does not which of the persons in a photo array or lineup is the actual suspect. But in 57 percent of those cases, it was possible to determine what happened on the initial (uncontaminated) memory test. Nevertheless, these subtle behavioral cues affect eyewitnesses decisions by making them more likely to choose the suspect. Prosecutors, though, have no murder weapon, bloody clothes or eyewitnesses, leaving them to build their case about Murdaugh's murky timeline of his whereabouts when the crime happened in 2021 . Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, Although the high accuracy of an initial ID made with high confidence is important to appreciate, the low accuracy of an ID made with low confidence may be even more important to appreciate. John Worboys worked as a cab driver and was charged with sexually assaulting several of his female passengers. 2 After his conviction at Croydon Crown Court, several more women made allegations of sexual assault against him. 6 Wells, Memon, Penrod, Eyewitness Evidence: Improving Its Probative Value, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, (2006). Improper lineup procedures can also lead to witness misidentifications. What would that mean for the reliability of the blood or fingerprint evidence, for example, collected at that scene? Imagine if police let unauthorized people have willy-nilly access to a crime scene that is under investigation. In Millers case, the two parking lot attendants were immediately suspicious when the victims car approached the ticket booth. But studies demonstrate that a variety of factors can lead to the misidentification of criminals. Not so with eyewitness memory. A cornerstone of the state's case is the video at or near the kennels filmed on Paul's phone starting at 8:44 p.m. in which Murdaugh's voice can be heard in the background. One might assume that Grant was the murderers unlucky doppelganger. The murder victims cold case evidence was there because the case had recently been reopened; the 1969 preschoolers DNA sample was there as part of an active murder investigation, and Leitermans DNA sample was there because he had recently been arrested for forging a prescription. Finally, a witness may have more difficulty making a correct identification when he and the suspect are of different races. 70 percent of the 349 wrongful convictions. During Wednesday's interview with CNN, Amirabdollahian accused western media outlets of encouraging violent protests in his country. Historically, eyewitness testimony has been in use not only in the United States and our penal system but all around the world. Thanks to the work of the Innocence Project of Texas, new DNA testing on biological material collected from underneath the victims fingernails cleared Grant and implicated another man, Jermarico Carter, who police said confessed to the killing. to select the person they believe to be a prime suspect. Most of these witnesses personally knew Flowers, and many had grown up with him, lived in his same neighborhood. In this case, the defendant was charged with first degree murder and the only evidence against him was the testimony of two eyewitnesses. Using eyewitnesses to identify a suspect as the perpetrator to the crime is a form of direct testimonial evidence that is used for forensic purposes. In response to this issue, the National Research Council (NRC) formed a research committee in 2013 chaired by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York and cognitive scientist, Thomas Albright of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.31 The group released their findings in 2014 in a report titled Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification. In the Miller case, a. Gareth, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, is the series editor of Best American Infographics and can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter@garethideas. 23 United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 230, 288 (1967). By itself, that fact only shows that contaminated memory is unreliable (just as contaminated DNA evidence is). What law enforcementand the publicneeds to know. At the time of his release, Jerry Miller had served over 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In 2011, Sally Challen was convicted of murdering her husband before Guildford Crown Court. Nonetheless, the attendants mistakenly identified Miller in a subsequent police lineup. Document Witness Confidence and Videotape Witness Identifications. Ruling in the case of a man convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault, the court noted that several variables can produce mistaken eyewitness testimony. Published: 00:56 EST, 2 March 2023 | Updated: 01:01 EST, 2 March 2023. Here is a link to a general overview on eyewitness testimony from the National Science Foundation. Nationally, more than 75% of convictions that have been overturned because of DNA evidence involved erroneous eyewitness testimony. The guilty verdict was confirmed by both state Appellate and Supreme Courts. 109, 10910 (2006). These courts generally accept detailed descriptions of relevant scientific research findings to either attack or support eyewitness testimony.19 Other courts, meanwhile, leave the jury to determine the credibility of eyewitness testimony and insist that findings from scientific research in this area cannot help the jury to do so.20 Until he was released on parole, the 81-year-old Weger ranked as the second longest-held inmate in Illinois prison system. The modern test for the admissibility of eyewitness testimony at a criminal trial under the Due Process Clause was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Manson v. Brathwaite in 1977. Hale is an Emmy-nominated executive producer for several true-crime documentaries highlighting wrongful convictions. Miller was ultimately charged with rape, robbery and kidnapping. The nearly simultaneous analyses of evidence from these three cases in the same crime lab in 2002a reunion, of sorts, among Mixer, Ruelas and Leiterman, who were ostensibly last together on the night of the murder in 1969was either an incredible coincidence or the Mixer evidence was contaminated with DNA from both Leiterman and Ruelas. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. Mahsa Amini, 22, died on September 16, three days after falling into a coma following her arrest, After the death of Mahsa Amini, Anti Iran protests have been held in many parts of the world. Some elements include the following: First, and most important of all, because the test itself contaminates memory, only the initial memory test provides uncontaminated results. Attributing that error to the unreliability of eyewitness memory is, in our view, pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction. There, the prosecution claims that Flowers killed the people inside Tardys, stole money from the stole, and then went back home, stopping to buy chips and beer at a convenience store on Highway 51 on the way. In addition to implementing double-blind lineup procedures, its essential that lineup administrators document eyewitnesses confidence immediately following an identification. Police in some California counties use some of the methods recommended by the New Jersey court and by the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook. The NRCs recommendations for law enforcement and judges are below.32. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Thus, Chester was charged with three separate felonies as a way to overwhelm him and break him down. The witnesses trial testimony reveals a simple explanation for these high-confidence errors: All of the eyewitnesses received confirmatory feedback following their identification of Grant. He added: 'I can tell you this in full confidence that our police and the security forces in Iran have not killed anyone with bullets or any other means in these riots.'. But in 2006, DNA testing on the victims slip exonerated Miller and established the identify of another man, Robert Weeks, as the real perpetrator. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Juries are particularly prone to being swayed by eyewitness testimony, as evidenced in the Curtis Flowers case. She questioned the statistical basis of Professor Meadows evidence, which had led to Sally Clark being sentenced to life in prison. Its a fact that eyewitnesses make mistakes. But eyewitnesses aren't always right, and poor investigative practices can make matters worse. 18 National Research Council, Identifying The Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification 38 (2014). Psychological experiments have shown that lineup administrators who know who the suspect is end up cuing witnesses toward that person. But eyewitnesses allege she was severely beaten and died as a result of police brutality. The involvement of expert witnesses in famous expert witness cases often leads to changes in how expert evidence is formulated and the effect it may have on the outcome of the proceedings. In recent years, more and more jurisdictions have come to accept expert testimony on the reliability of eyewitness identification. A meta-analytic review of the effects of high stress on eyewitness memory, Law and Human Behavior 28.6 (2004), 687-706. Neighbors told arriving firefighters that they had heard a thunderous crash at about the same time as the blaze is believed to have begun. Just as double-blind clinical trials in medical studies are intended to prevent patients and doctors expectations from affecting outcomes of the clinical trial, double-blind lineups aim to prevent witnesses and administrators expectations from influencing the outcomes of the identification procedure. Miller was placed in a lineup and one of the parking lot attendants positively identified Miller; the other parking lot attendant tentatively identified him. Eyewitness Testimony: Recommended Practices, Eyewitness testimony continues to be commonplace in law enforcement and trials. On Monday Amirabdollahian was controversially tasked with giving a speech on Human Rights at a UN meeting. Arnaud, Celia Henry. 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