Eye-Witness Testimony Flashcards
What is an eyewitness testimony?
Evidence given under oath in a court of law by an individual who claims to have witnessed the facts under dispute (experienced the incident). It is a written or oral statement.
What are the US statistics for wrongful convictions and mistaken identifications?
Mistaken eyewitness identifications contribute to 69%.
375 wrongful convictions.
Why is it bad to have inaccurate eyewitness identifications in investigations?
They can confound investigations from the earliest stages and critical time is lose as police are distracted from the real perpetrator.
What are the UK statistics for false convictions from inaccurate eyewitness statements? How many people could yearly be wrongfully convicted?
75%
100 innocent people.
What are the consequences of an innocent person being wrongfully convicted?
They’re at risk of discrimination, relationship damage and poor mental health.
How much on average does a UK taxpayer pay annually for one wrongfully committed prisoner?
£35,000
How do wrongful convictions affect the law and society?
There is reputational damage to the police and legal system as they lose their power due to the public not trusting them anymore. Perpetrators also continue to offend more so society is unsafe.
What were the 3 proposals that the Home Office suggested to reduce the risk of prosecution based on wrongful eyewitness testimony?
1- A jury should be directed as a matter of law not to convict without corroboration.
2- A jury should be specially warned of the danger of convicting without corroboration.
3- The identification of an accused while he is in the dock should be inadmissible unless by a witness who has previously identified him under controlled conditions, such as an identification parade.
Who is Ronald Cotton?
A man convicted of rape in 1985 by Jennifer from an identikit. Jennifer picked Ronald out as the perpetrator and he was charged with 2 life sentences. In prison he heard Bobby Poole boasting about not serving time for his crime(he was the real perpetrator). Ronald had already served 10 years before being released.
Who is Steve Titus and what happened to him?
Steve was a man who was stopped by the police and was wrongly convicted for rape as a woman said he looked most like her perpetrator. He fought for his freedom and a journalist eventually tracked down the real perpetrator but by then he had already lost his job, his fiancé, his savings and his life after a stress induced heart attack.
What is the key question for the cognitive approach?
Is eye-witness testimony too unreliable to be used in court as evidence?
How much can it cost per case in compensation for a wrongful conviction?
£1 million
What are some case study’s impacted by a wrongful conviction?
Ronald cotton, Steve Titus, William Mills, Steven Avery, Jill Dando
Why is the eye witness testimony topic socially sensitive research?
Potentially overturning convictions of crimes that have some significant damage to victims.
Describe the computer analogy.
> The human brain is like a computer because it…
-inputs information through the 5 senses to the brain
-processes the information- usually in the working memory
-outputs behaviour
-stores information in the long term memory.
