Eyewitness = Unreliable

Misidentification is a major factor in wrongful convictions.  While you may believe what you see, you may not have seen what you believe you saw.   The Innocence Project has found that eyewitness misidentifications contributed to over 75% of the more than 220 wrongful convictions in the United States which have been overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence. Traditional eyewitness identifications remain the most commonly used  evidence brought against criminal defendants even though there is proof of the inaccuracy of traditional eyewitness identification procedures. For example,  the eyewitness often assumes that the perpetrator of the crime is one of the people presented in the lineup. This often leads to the selection of a person as the perpetrator despite doubts by the witness.

Additionally, people’s memories can be distorted by many different factors. For example, the conditions in which the alleged perpetrator was viewed.  There is the anecdote of how Abraham Lincoln defended a man by showing that there was not enough light to have accurately viewed the suspect.   The human memory is fallible. Memory is not fixed, it can be influenced and altered. After the crime and throughout the criminal investigation, the witness attempts to piece together what happened. His memory is evidence and must be handled as carefully as the crime scene itself to avoid forever altering it.

Another problem that can arise in eyewitness testimony is the ability to communicate what was seen.  The most common problem in this area involves the witness’ inability to articulate the descriptive facts required to reach adequate investigative conclusions.  Defense counsel must be alert to communication disabilities such as language barriers, insufficient vocabulary, deficient intellectual functioning and communication disorders.  Such eyewitness problems create fertile areas for cross-examination.

The problem is that police investigations can rely on eyewitness descriptions and later identification which are thoroughly inaccurate.  These inaccurate eyewitness identifications can distort police investigations.  The police may stop looking for other suspects once a witness identifies the suspect to detectives, whether or not that person actually committed the crime. This means that the police are distracted from finding the real perpetrator, focusing instead on building the case against an innocent person.