Witness challenges Flashcards
Neil v Biggers
Archie Biggers convicted of rape and the only evidence was a witness ID during police station show up (only person shown).
Convicted and conviction was upheld in a tied SCOTUS decision
he got habeas corpus based on SCOTUS tie
SCOTUS held that there was no substantial risk of misidentification based on the Biggers Test Factors: view, attention, accuracy, certainty, and time.
2-prong test looking at SUGGESTIVENESS and RELIABILITY
Manson v Brathwaite
Court reaffirmed the Biggers findings and added the following Key Distinction about suggestive procedures:
Manson emphasized that a suggestive procedure does not automatically render an identification inadmissible; the court must still consider the factors outlined in Biggers to assess reliability.
State v Hurd
Jane Sell was attacked and repeatedly stabbed in the night. police suspected her current or former husband but she couldn’t remember anything.
she was hypnotized and pressured to ID her ex-husband
NJSC established a 2-part test for admissibility of hypnotically refreshed memories in criminal trials; prosecution had the burden to show it was reliable
People v Shirley
victim was hypnotized and her post-hypnosis testimony was presented as evidence against Shirley who challenged the admissibility
he was convicted and he appealed
CASC ruled that testimony derived from hypnosis is inadmissible b/c it lacks reliability and can lead to confabulation of mixing real and false memories
Rock v Arkansas
Vicki Rock shot her husband and forgot details of the shooting so she was hypnotized and able to recall what happened.
She was unable to testify about this at her trial due to AK’s blanket ban on hypnosis
SCOTUS ruled that the blanket ban violated her 14th, 5th, and 6th amendment rights to testify on her own behalf
White v Illinois
4 yo girl who was sexually assaulted made several spontaneous statements to people who testified as to those statements at White’s trial. he was convicted
SCOTUS held that the confrontation clause doesn’t require the prosecution to prove a declarant’s unavailability before admitting hearsay statements
- this applies to all criminal cases
this limited the protections of the confrontation clause
Crawford v Washington
couple confronted a man who allegedly attempted to rape the wife and the husband stabbed the man supposedly in self-defense
wife told police she didn’t think the man was holding a weapon which was the opposite of what her husband said
trial court allowed the admission of wife’s statements to police even though she couldn’t be confronted on cross exam because of spousal privilege
SCOTUS held that prior testimonial statements of witnesses who have since become unavailable may not be admitted without cross-examination
Perry v New Hampshire
Perry was convicted for breaking into a car. Witness identified him at the scene but couldn’t pick him out of a lineup of photos
2nd witness identified him from photo lineup
SCOTUS upheld conviction and ruled that judicial review of eyewitness testimony is only necessary in the case of police misconduct
State v Henderson
Larry Henderson was convicted of murder based on eyewitness testimony but the witness was shown only his photo
NJSC ruled that judges must address witness identification processes at pretrial hearing AND juries needed enhanced instructions about how memory works and how conditions of the crime and identification procedure can impact memory accuracy
