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Transcript

Factors that can effect eyewitness testimony

Statistics

  • Anxiety

  • Stress

  • Reconstructive memory

  • Confidence of witness

  • Leading questions

Robert Cotton vs Bobby Poole

  • Nearly 78% of the first 239 U.S. convictions were overturned by DNA evidence.

  • 1/3 of overturned cases rested on the testimony of two or more mistaken eyewitnesses

  • Surveys show that most jurors place heavy weight on eyewitness testimony when deciding if a suspect is guilty.

  • In 20-25% of the 75,000 police line-ups conducted annually, the witness picks a filler.

  • It has been noted that jurors are heavily swayed by the confidence of the witness who takes the stand.

Bobby Poole vs Robert Cotton

  • Jennifer Thompson was a 22 year-old college student in 1984

  • Physically assaulted and raped by a man who had forcibly entered her home

  • During her attack she worked hard to memorize the man's defining features

  • She went straight to police and gave all of her information, and picked her attacker out of a lineup

  • She was completely confident she had chosen the right man

Jennifer Thompson and Robert Cotton today

Food for thought

More statistics

  • Criminals are becoming increasingly cunning with their crimes.

  • Therefore, eyewitness testimonies are some of the only plausible leads that law enforcement may have at their disposal.

  • Psychologists have proposed that if we are to consider eyewitness testimonies as admissable evidence, we must limit the inconsistencies in each conviction.

Conclusion

  • Over the past quarter-century, more than 1,400 people convicted of serious crimes had been wrongly convicted

  • A person's memory of an event is not improved by retelling the story. It is more likely that the account of the event will be wrong, the more often the story is told.

TED Talk

  • Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus describes how memory works

  • 4:15 - 5:30
  • Should we take a different approach to eyewitness testimony?

  • What would happen to our justice system if these testimonies were no longer admissable in court?

Elizabeth Loftus: How Reliable is Your Memory?

How Reliable is Eyewitness Testimony?

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