To What Extent is an Eyewitness Testimony Credible and...

Introduction Scholars and practitioners alike share a widespread belief that the single greatest cause of wrongful conviction is because of an eyewitness testimony. April 23, 2007, marked the 200th criminal conviction exonerated by DNA evidence in the United States of America. According to www.innocenceproject.org, over 75% of the 200 criminal cases revealed to be wrongful convictions involved a faulty eyewitness testimony. Collectively, these 200 people spent a total of 2,475 years in prison. With factors such as witness memory, dependability, deception, and the outside influences one may encounter, psychologists and practitioners have begun to dispute whether or not an eyewitness is credible and therefore should be used in a legal court†¦show more content†¦This post-event misinformation becomes integrated into the witness memory of the event, a phenomenon known as the misinformation effect (Loftus, Donders, Hoffman, Schooler, 1989). Judges have been very reluctant recently in allowi ng expert testimonies on memory. There are many reasons for why judges have been so argumentative over the idea. The first is almost all eyewitness memory research is tailored to criminal cases in which the relevance of an expert’s testimony is minimal to the actual case. The second reason is that relatively little eyewitness memory research has examined long-term memory for events, but rather that of the short-term memory. Although there is lack of memory in short term, some experts say that over a longer period of time the brain will remember and recall specific tragic events. Witnesses are more likely to get over a situation and recall more of what happened rather than what they recall when they’re in shock. Because experts do not have much of a necessity in other non-criminal cases, and are focused on long term memory, experts are not widely accepted in the court. Recent case studies have also shown a lack of memory in stressful criminal case activities. Anxiety or stress of a situation is almost always associated with real lifeShow MoreRelatedEssay on Childrens Testimony2644 Words   |  11 Pageswitnesses and the accuracy of their testimony has been widely debated. People are asking themselves if the memories of young children, specifically between the ages of five and ten, can be accurate and in return trusted. So, can children’s memory and testimony be accurate? Prolific amounts of research have been conducted in an attempt to answer this question. Most of the research suggests that unfortunately we can not rely on their accurate recall in testimony. I would have to say I agree with theRead MoreJFK Assassination Essay2393 Words   |  10 Pagesowner, Jack Ruby. Even though previously an attempt had been made to kill Oswald, no further security precautions had been taken to prevent this from happening again. The fact that reporte rs were allowed to be around Oswald as he was escorted out of court was plain irresponsibility on the part of the Dallas police. Public access to Oswald should not have been permitted under any circumstance. Oswald was murdered in front of cameras and video footage of the incident shows that the police didnt makeRead MoreEssay on Jfk Assassanation3209 Words   |  13 Pageshadnt been recorded was one of the reasons why there was so much confusion. Yet the only excuse the Dallas police could come up with was that they couldnt find a tape recorder! The questions that were asked by the officers proved to worthless and what little records were kept are said to be inadequate. However more seriously, the Dallas police were wildly believed to be at fault for Oswalds death and even the world wide doubt over his guilt. Even though previously an attempt had been made to killRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pages................. 23 What is a Statement?............................................................................................................................ 23 What is an Argument?......................................................................................................................... 25 What is the Issue?................................................................................................................................. 28 What is a Proof?.............