Two police officers thought the sketch resembled Miller, a man they had questioned a few days earlier. According to the trial transcript, most of the eyewitnesses testified to having been positive when they picked Grant out of the lineup. In 1932, Yale University law professor Edwin M. Borchard documented nearly seventy cases of miscarriage of justice caused by eyewitness errors in his book, Convicting the Innocent. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. Family weapons were used to kill the victims in the Murdaugh case, prosecutor says Prosecutor Creighton Waters speaks during closing arguments on Wednesday, March 1. Recently though, with the rise of social science, eyewitness testimony has taken a tumble from its lofty standing. [Youre smart and curious about the world. In the Miller case, a woman was raped in her car in a parking garage in downtown Chicago. Recently, up to 400 female pupils from around 30 schools were subjected to poisoning attacks in what is believed to be an attempt to stop them getting an education. Of course, he knew that Lydell Grant was the one under suspicion. Kendall Taggart BuzzFeed News Reporter 28 Brandon L. Garrett, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong 6368 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). 8 Clifford & Hollin, Effects Of the Type of Incident and the Number of Perpetrators on Eyewitness Memory, Journal of Applied Psychology 66.3 (1981). Eyewitness misidentifications are known to have played a role in 70 percent of the 349 wrongful convictions that have been overturned based on DNA evidence (so far). Thanks for reading The Crime Report! This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 4, 2020. At his criminal trial, both parking lot attendants identified Miller as the perpetrator. The shooter wound up crashing the car and escaping on foot. Neighbors told arriving firefighters that they had heard a thunderous crash at about the same time as the blaze is believed to have begun. Speak to our experts today for advice. Compared to administrators conducting double-blind lineups, these informed administrators are more likely to ask witnesses about the suspect and smile when witnesses are looking at the suspect rather than at another person in the lineup. Compiled by Ann Njarara, Bree Peilen, Daniel Neuman, Emory Cook, Linda Lin, and Perrin Lowrey, Introduction
After killing the officer, the shooter fled the scene and a high-speed car chase ensued. This case raised important questions about the reliability of expert evidence. 'The issue in Iran at the moment is not that of hijab.'. In recent years, more and more jurisdictions have come to accept expert testimony on the reliability of eyewitness identification. The processes at play in Lydell Grants case are predictable and unfortunately common. By itself, that fact only shows that contaminated memory is unreliable (just as contaminated DNA evidence is). It does make sure that photos in a lineup resemble one another.) Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? What facts gave rise to the belief that Leiterman may have been wrongfully convicted based on contaminated evidence? Discover world-changing science. 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Editorial: Los Angeles County bus riders get no shelter from the storm, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, Yet more rain expected to hit California in March. 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. 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. Instructions given to eyewitnesses should be clear, simple and standardized across jurisdictions. The parole board initially approved him for release. My review of the transcripts from Grants trial suggests a simple explanation for these high-confidence mistakes: The police did not use scientific best practices for collecting the eyewitness identification evidence. 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. All six of those eyewitnesses were wrong. But a comparison of the pairs mugshots reveals that they bear little physical resemblance to one another beyond both being Black men. Ernest Saunders, along with three other men, were part of the Guinness Four who were accused of being involved in ascheme to fraudulently increasethe price of Guinness shares. 13 See Timothy P. OToole & Giovanna Shay, Manson v. Brathwaite Revisited: Towards a New Rule of Decision for Due Process Challenges to Eyewitness Identification Procedures, 41 Val. Incredibly, prior to Heidelbergs sentencing, the real shooter, James Clark, confessed to the crime, but the confession fell on deaf ears and Heidelberg was sentenced to 99 to 175 years in prison. 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. This decision attracted intense media attention and was seen to be a controversial decision due to the nature and severity of his offences. Other major dangers that have plagued eyewitness reports are factors such as high-stress situations, how witnesses are interviewed by police, and whether the victim is the same or different race as the witness.6 In 2001, Meissner and Brigham performed a broad review of research on cross-race identification, analyzing data from 39 research articles and 5,000 subjects/witnesses. Letters to the Editor: Yes, L.A. drivers are getting worse. The psychiatrist found that she had an adjustment disorder at the time she killed her husband, enabling her solicitors to challenge her conviction for murder. And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? The sooner police, prosecutors and judges understand that fact, the better off we all will beincluding you, if you are ever incorrectly fingered by an eyewitness. Overall, an issue plaguing both courts and law enforcement is the lack of standard procedures to safeguard defendants against unreliable eyewitness testimony. Similarly, a witness may mistakenly perceive the circumstances of a crime or event, such as a car accident. Mugshots of Lydell Grant (left, in 2010) and Jermarico Carter (right, in 2007) show the men dont look very similar. Thus, Chester was charged with three separate felonies as a way to overwhelm him and break him down. 31 Elizabeth Loftus, Eyewitness Science and the Legal System, 14 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 110 (2018). In assessing the reliability of eyewitness identification, federal and state courts are still divided on (1) whether expert testimony on eyewitness identification should be allowed under either Daubert or Frye and (2) the proper exercise of trial court discretion when deciding whether to admit such expert testimony.18
Today, he remains in prison. Most witnesses didnt come forward of their own accord, and often enough it was the lead investigator for the district attorneys office, John Johnson, who found the witnesses, and brought them in to testify. In Millers case, the two parking lot attendants were immediately suspicious when the victims car approached the ticket booth. Not only do such statements inflate eyewitnesses confidence in the accuracy of their identification, but they lead them to falsely remember having been that confident all along. The guilty verdict was confirmed by both state Appellate and Supreme Courts. 6 Wells, Memon, Penrod, Eyewitness Evidence: Improving Its Probative Value, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, (2006). It is important to strive to continue to conduct social science research on the nature of eyewitness and the efficacy of potential reforms like the ones above in order to create effective safeguards against unreliable eyewitness testimony. John Wixted is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego. I can vouch for the truth of his observations, having been involved in several cases dealing with witness misidentifications while representing both plaintiffs and defendants. 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. Medicolegal court reports are requested where expert witness evidence is required. To date, 25 states have adopted these core procedural reforms, including Texas in 2011, one year after the investigation of Aaron Scheerhoorns murder. In other cases, the circumstances of a purported witness identification may be flimsy; yet the prosecutors still rely on that identification, which is then presented as rock-solid evidence at trial. Improper lineup procedures can also lead to witness misidentifications. 32 National Research Council, Identifying The Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification 38, 4-8 (2014). Even where a judge determines that a given identification procedure is unnecessarily suggestive, the judge may nonetheless admit the results of the procedure if they are deemed reliable based on these factors.13 In his dissenting opinion, Justice Marshall criticized the Court for ignoring studies showing that unnecessarily suggestive eyewitness identifications had led to erroneous convictions even where such identifications had been deemed reliable.14
The rebuttal comes more than a month into the murder trial of Murdaugh, the 54-year-old disbarred personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina's Lowcountry, where his . It is not uncommon for the Parole Board to instruct expert evidence from psychiatrists and psychologists. Subsequent memory tests, including the dramatic one that occurs in court in front of the jury, constitute contaminated evidence. Having served 10 years in prison, the psychologist recommended his release from prison. Witness misidentifications can affect both plaintiffs and defendants. She was sentenced to life in prison. Often, it can be the strongest evidence in a criminal case even though it can also be the most unreliable. Psychologists have learned a. was a video tape, and his presence and the time of the event were confirmed by two athletic directors, his coach, and members of the opposing team. 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