Thursday, February 12, 2009

THE FRAILTIES OF EYE-WITNESS TESTIMONY

Two weeks ago, the New York Bar Association presented a report that examined 53 cases where criminal convictions were overturned. In some of those cases, the accused had spend decades in prison for, among other things, murder, rape and other serious crimes. The study concluded that the major causes of these improvident convictions were human error, including false testimony, mishandling of evidence, coerced confessions, illicit law enforcement conduct. Most importantly, in 36 cases, it was found that the accused was convicted of faulty eye-witness identification.

In the next week or two, I will be posting on my website an article relating to the frailties associated with eye-witness testimony and the movement to fix the problem.

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