Key issue Flashcards
What is the key issue?
Is eye witness testimony reliable
What is an eyewitness testimony?
An account given by people of an event they have witnessed such as a robbery or road accident
What did Elizabeth Loftus argue?
That eye witness testimony’s should be treated with caution demonstrated through numerous studies that memory could easily be distorted by leading questions
What was the Devlin committee?
A committee set up to investigate the use of eye witness testimonies finding that many people have been convicted of crimes through eye witness testimonies alone
2 Disadvantages of eye witness testimonies?
- Can put innocent people in jail for many years
- If they fail the real perpetration is still at large to commit more crimes
What did the Devlin committee instruct the trial judges?
To instruct the juries that its not safe to convict on a single EWT alone
An example which found EWT to be very reliable?
-Yuille and cutshall where they looked at real life crime finding most witnesses giving accurate information and when leading questions were asked it made little difference
what theory did Loftus construct and what did it explain?
The Reconstructive Hypothesis to explain how memory can be distorted and so why we should not trust EWT
What two things could be used to improve reliability of EWT’s?
- State cues
- Context cues
