Seeking Justice For The Innocent

New Jersey Warns Juries in Eyewitness Identification (2)

Beginning September 4, 2012 a new law in the state of New Jersey will warn juries that human memory is not foolproof and eyewitness testimony must be carefully scrutinized. The new eyewitness instructions should help influence other states to change their instructions too.

Click here for the full story in ABAJournal

Are Eyewitness Accounts Wrong A Quarter Of The Time?

This is an article on the Vanguard Court Watch of Yolo County by David Greenwald discussing the problems with eyewitness testimony.  This article recounts the case of Franky Carillo who was exonerated after serving 20 years.  Public Defender Ellen Eggers convinced the judge to come to the crime scene where an eye witness specialist reenacted the crime scene to illustrate that the eye witness’s story could not be true.  To read the full article click here. 

Eyewitness Misidentification

The United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, admits that statistically 8 to 12% of all state prisoners are either actually or factually innocent. If this statement alone isn’t harrowing enough, consider this quick statistical delineation. As of January 1, 2010, there were 1,404,053 total inmates in American state prisons, according to Prison Count 2010. If the Bureau of Justice’s mean statistic of falsely imprisoned people is used (10%), then in 2010 there were approximately 140,405 falsely imprisoned people in our country.

Eyewitness testimony is an integral part of the judicial process, but often can be described as a chronic ailment of the American judicial system and one that contributes to wrongful convictions. The evidence is plain to see. Search any credible study or media source, and it will invariably display the same thing. Reliance on the memory of witnesses is, after all, not reliable.

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Memory Expert Helps Explain Problems With Eye Witness Identification

75% of the cases that have been overturned by the Innocence Project through DNA were wrongful convictions because of eye witness misidentification. This article discusses the findings of Dr. Loftus, an authority on memory and human perception.  Click here to read the full article by David Greenwald of the Vanguard Court Watch of Yolo County.