Eyewitness identification and testimony - Is it reliable?

"Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see." - Benjamin Franklin 

The uproar surrounding the alleged shoving of Rep. Reecy Dickson (D - Macon) by a reported Tea Party member has been the talk of the Mississippi political world today.  Some folks say Rep. Dickson was shoved, some say she was grabbed, some say she wasn't touched at all.  Regardless of what happened, the State Capitol Police investigated and no charges were pressed.

But that leaves a lingering question, doesn't it?  How can so many supposed eyewitnesses claim so many versions of the event as the truth?



This is a problem well-known to attorneys practicing criminal law.  Prosecutors typically try to downplay the problems with eyewitness testimony or gloss over it.  Defense attorneys often attempt to focus on the many studies that have shown eyewitnesses aren't what they're cracked up to be.

As if on cue, I received an email from a fellow member of the Mississippi Bar who serves on the board of the American Judicature Society.  She was alerting me to the fact that NBC's Rock Center will air a piece tonight on the work of the AJS's Eyewitness Identification Field Studies.  Tonight's Rock Center episode will center primarily on the problems with photographic lineups, which of course stem from eyewitnesses.

An article from the 1999 Stanford Journal of Legal Studies is a bit more broad.  Titled "The Problem with Eyewitness Testimony, a talk by Barbara Tversky, Professor of Psychology and George Fisher, Professor of Law", it covers the problems of false memories, gap-filling, bias, retelling, and reliance on assumptions.  All of these things play upon one another to seriously undermine the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.  They also might well explain why we have such differing accounts of what happened outside of the House Education Committee yesterday after the charter schools bill.

In closing, if you practice criminal law or are interested at all in our justice system, I highly recommend checking out the Stanford article, the Rock Center link, and the Rock Center video tonight.