Are Eyewitnesses Reliable
Studies say that even though 50% of eyewitness testimonies are wrong, the information given to the jury by a confident eyewitness beats the reliable facts of fingerprints and DNA. Researchers have studied the affects of eyewitness testimony and it is said that incorrect eyewitness identifications account for more convictions of innocent people than any other causes combined. Two studies have shown that after being questioned for a crime, positive feedback by police enforcers or other investigators made the eyewitness more confident, even if there answer was wrong. Unfortunately, how confident people are about making identifications doesn't necessarily reflect how accurate their identification is. In fact, an eyewitness' degree of certainty is quite flexible and can easily become overblown. "Confidence levels can be influenced by external factors that have nothing to do with the witness's actual memories or perceptions of the event." (psychologist, Elizabeth Brimacombe). I believe that eyewitness testimony should not be used in court cases in which it is the only factor of determining the defendant's future. Other factors should be considered. In some cases, the jury may not understand the concept of DNA and might not
n Teenager Shareef Cousin remains one of 63 juvenile offenders on Death Row in the United States, notwithstanding increasingly mounting evidence that he did not commit the murder of which he was convicted. At his trial, and eyewitness identified him as the killer. But the State never turned over the defense a tape-recorded statement the witness made the police days after the crime in which she said that she didn't know if she could identify the person because it was dark and she wasn't wearing her glasses or contact lenses. At trial, she testified she was 100% certain Shareef was the killer. A new trial has been ordered, but he remains imprisoned. n Kevin Byrd served 12 years of a life sentence in Texas for a rape he did not commit. After DNA testing proved he could not have committed the crime, the prosecutor, judge, and sheriff in his case applied to Governor Bush for a pardon. A person's memory does not function like a video recorder. It is more like static, which changes and fluctuates over time. When someone experiences a consequential event, they remember only fragments of the situation and re-associate the information with previously stored memories and also prior expectations. Often
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