Criminal Justice: Your Lyin' Eyes

Criminal Justice: Your Lyin' Eyes

Adam Serwer blogs at The American Prospect about the recent New Jersey Court ruling on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote an opinion holding that the legal standards for admissibility of eyewitness evidence needs to change. Rabner cited factors like cross-racial identification and stress that may impact victim's recollection. The ruling cites scientfic studies on the unreliability of eyewitness identification that show victims pick the wrong person in a lineup as often as they pick the right one.

While victims' memories may be shaky, if they appear confident while giving testimony juries are likely to convict.

According to the Innocence Project, over 75 percent of DNA exonerations involve eyewitness misidentification.

Read about it here: http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=08&year=2011&base_name=you_cant_believe_your_eyes