EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION AND TESTIMONY

Estimator variables

Factors that are outside the control of the legal system and that are related to the accuracy of an eyewitness identification (e.g., weapon focus, lighting conditions, etc.).

system variables

Factors that can be controlled by the legal system. Most commonly used in eyewitness identification research (e.g., lineup procedures).

when and by whom were the 9 recommendations for witness identification created?

an APLS committee in 1998

what are fears that accompany the implementation of new policy recommendation?

courts will be flooded with appeals, officers insufficiently trained to implement new policies

what is the cross race effect?

cross race accuracy is worse than within race accuracy

Encoding

gathering information and putting it in the form of memory

Storage

holding encoded information in the brain overtime

sequential v simultaneous lineups

pictures showed one at a time v all at once

what can increase a persons confidence

post identification feedback, time, retrieval inhibition

What can lead to unconscious transference?

prior exposure to a mugshot before a lineup which has led to a decrease of correct identifications and increase in mistaken identifications

retrieval inhibition

recall of a crime scene may be altered depending on how the eyewitness is initially questioned

what are the evidence based grounds to include a suspect in lineup?

unique description, self incriminating possessions, investigator knows suspect was in area of crime, physical evidence at scene linked to suspect, unique pattern to crime associated with suspect

expert testimonies on eyewitness ID

used as a safety measure and to educate jurors on the matter. used when ID procedures deviate from guidelines. Judges occasionally reluctant to include ET because they fear it might persuade jurors to undervalue all eyewitness testimony

some techniques for revealing the truth?

voir dire, cross examination, jury deliberation

why does the cross race effect occur?

we have more difficulty identifying people who are a different race than we are. we observe people of our own race in greater detail and encode others in less detail

how do scripts influence our retrieval of encoded information?

we tend to forget details of an event if they don't prescribe to the script. prior knowledge and beliefs intrude and get mixed in with memories of observed events

scripts

widely held beliefs about sequences of actions that typically occur in particular situations

what influences retrieval inhibition

wording of questioning. mentioning some words and suggesting some ideas as make that idea more prominent in a witnesses head

What percentage of wrongful convictions are due to mistaken eyewitness testimony?

71%

What are the Manson Criteria?

1) The witnesses opportunity to view the perp 2) The witnesses level of attention 3) The accuracy of the witnesses previous description of the offender 4) The witnesses degree of certainty 5) Amount of time between the crime and the identification

What percentage of cases with only eyewitness testimony were convicted? How many had only 1 eyewitness?

74% and 49%

Describe the study that examined the impact of high stress on eyewitness accuracy

Charles Morgan examined soldiers undergoing survival training. half were under high stress conditions and half were under low stress conditions. the rate of correct identifications was much higher in the less stressed group. 71% of low stress made a correct identification whereas 38% of high stress made correct identification.

Which cases created the Manson criteria?

Neil v Biggers 1972 and Manson v Braithwaite 1977

When did US Supreme Court revisit the Manson criteria and what was the verdict?

Perry v New Hampshire 2012. Declined to update the criteria but left it up to individual states to decide whether they wanted to include an expert testimony on eyewitness identification

bias-reducing instructions

Specific instructions given to eyewitnesses during a lineup identification procedure. They remove the presumption that the witness is obliged to identify someone from the available options and they also force witnesses to rely solely on their own memory

Examples of states allowing eyewitness expert testimony?

State v Henderson (2011) New Jersey, State v Lawson (2012) Oregon, People v Lerma (2016) Illinois.

what is a show up?

a singular suspect being shown to a witness as opposed to an entire lineup. dangerous because it is highly suggestive to the witness that the person being shown is the criminal

preexisting expectations

a widespread belief about how the sequence of an event should transpire. what we expect to see influences what we actually end up seeing

what is the danger with repeating an ID procedure?

a witnesses prior exposure to a suspect increases the probability that he or she will identify a suspect as a culprit

Retrieval

accessing and pulling out stored information at a later time

How are eyewitness certainty inflated?

as a result of biased questioning and lineup procedures

Memory trace

biochemical representation of our experiences in the brain

How does stress influence a witnesses estimation of time elapsed?

can make time seem 3-4 times longer than it actually was

How do childrens accuracy differ from adults in a culprit present vs a culprit absent lineup?

children have the same probability of correctly identifying a perp in a culprit present lineup as adults but are far more likely to name someone in a culprit absent lineup

How does a witnesses confidence change overtime?

confidence increases over time.

what are the benefits of the 9 guidelines?

cost effective, faster, ensure non biased questioning and lineups, can use a program to select lineup fillers, unbiased instructions can be shown on a computer screen.

Errors in retrieval

distortion can also occur during retrieval

Weapon Focus Affect

in situations of high arousal including a perpetrator using a weapon, witnesses are more likely to focus on the weapon as opposed to the perpetrators face because it is more dangerous.

post-identification feedback effect

increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification

Errors in encoding

inexact replica of what we saw or heard. encoding is selective; we select some aspects and ignore others

describe obtaining an immediate post lineup confidence statement

it is the 6th guideline provided by the APLS committee that describes how immediately after a lineup ID, the witness must give a rating of how confident they are which must be recorded. this serves to show jurors the initial confidence as It can be inflated overtime

What is the issue with jury deliberation?

jurors put too much weight on reliability of eyewitness identification. Jurors cannot distinguish between accurate and inaccurate eyewitness testimony

what is voir dire?

jury questioning during the jury selection process to weed out any potential biases

how is a jury affected by witness confidence?

jury's are very convinced by witness confidence

Errors in storage

memory trace deteriorates overtime which leads to forgetting the memory and making it more vulnerable to revision and corruption

what are double blind lineups?

neither the administrator nor the witness should know who the suspect is in the lineup

cognitive dissonance

once you commit yourself to a course of action, you will become motivated to justify and stick to that course of action

what is considered an appropriate lineup filler?

only 1 suspect per lineup and should include 5 fillers who do not make the suspect stand out from the fillers based on physical appearance.

recommendations for prelineup interviews?

should happen immediately after crime. recorded. include descriptions of culprit, familiarity with culprit, self reports. before concluding, officer should instruct witness not to discuss the crime so as to be less vulnerable to distortion or outside influence.

what is the purpose of video recording the ID procedure

so juries, judges, attorneys can see witnesses post lineup statement

what is a mock witness?

someone is given the witnesses description and a lineup. if more than 2/12 can pick out the suspect, it is a biased lineup

unconscious transference

the tendency of eyewitnesses to misidentify a familiar (but innocent) face as belonging to the person responsible for a crime.

at what point do researchers determine that findings are strong enough to implement into policy recommendation?

there need to be sufficient findings