Eyewitness Evidence Research Articles

Eyewitness testimony in the Lockerbie bombing case

It was in 1988 that a Pan Am flight blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. A Libyan named Al-Megrahi was convicted of the crime. His conviction was based in large part on the testimony of a single eyewitness, a shopkeeper who identified him as the person who had purchased clothing allegedly packed in the suitcase that contained the explosives that blew up the plane. But careful analysis of the eyewitness evidence leads to suspicions about the accuracy of the evidence. This analysis was presented to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission which concluded that the conviction might have been a miscarriage of justice.

A Teaching Aid for Improving Jurors' Assessments of Eyewitness Accuracy

SummaryWe investigated whether education can improve mock jurors' assessments of eyewitness accuracy in a criminal case. The interview‐identification‐eyewitness (I‐I‐Eye) teaching aid directed participants to attend carefully to how law enforcement interviewed the eyewitness and conducted the identification procedure, before considering what eyewitness factors during the crime might affect accurate identification. After viewing the I‐I‐Eye or one of two control aids, 293 undergraduate participants read a trial transcript about a criminal case that contained either strong or weak eyewitness evidence. The police consistently followed proper procedures for eyewitness evidence in the strong case, but not in the weak case. Only the I‐I‐Eye participants demonstrated sensitivity to the strong and weak eyewitness evidence by rendering more guilty verdicts in the strong compared with the weak case. The I‐I‐Eye teaching aid provides a framework for analyzing eyewitness testimony that may improve jurors' and legal professionals' assessments of eyewitness accuracy in criminal cases. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Repetition and Reconfiguration: Demand‐Based Confabulation in Initial Eyewitness Memory

AbstractRepeated recall, as a result of repeated questioning, is typical of situations involving eyewitness evidence. The present study addressed questions of eyewitness performance with reference to repeated questioning in an initial interview, in a format based on actual police procedures. This experiment focused on eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness confidence, and the addition of false details to eyewitness accounts. Ninety‐two adult respondents were asked to recall all the information they could from a single viewing of a scene depicting an assailant aiming a handgun at a victim. This initial question was followed by three additional questions, in which respondents were asked to report any additional details they could recall. On average, respondents provided several times as many correct as false details to the initial question. However, performance deteriorated significantly to the three subsequent questions; on average, across the three subsequent questions, witnesses recalled nearly as much false as accurate information. Witness confidence was positively related to amount of accurate information recalled. However, confidence was also positively related to the number of instances of erroneous recall. These results indicate that reconfigurative dynamics begin to operate, producing confabulated responses in response to questioning demands, as early as the initial interview. This work may also help to clarify the critical relationship between accuracy and confidence in eyewitness reportage, at least within the framework reflected by the present research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Interviewing behaviors in police investigators: a field study of a current US sample

Considerable research shows that scientifically based interviewing techniques (e.g. the Cognitive Interview) increase the quality and quantity of witness recall compared to typical police interviewing guidelines. In an effort to improve witness evidence, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recommended guidelines for conducting witness interviews that follow empirical research (Technical Working Group: Eyewitness Evidence, 1999). These guidelines were distributed to all police departments in the USA in 1999, along with a trainer's manual. The present study is the first to examine whether US police investigators adhere to these nationally published guidelines when interviewing witnesses and victims of crime. A sample of audiotaped real-world witness interviews from 26 South Florida investigators was analyzed. Results indicated that investigators rarely engage in recommended ‘positive’ interviewing techniques (e.g. rapport building or context reinstatement) while using many ‘negative’ techniques (e.g. interrupting the witness or using complex questions). Based on the data provided, it appears that national US recommendations on witness interviewing have not been translated into real-world interviewing practice by the investigators surveyed. Implications for interviewing policies are discussed.

The Truth and the Law

The purpose of legal proceedings is to identify the true factual circumstances of any matter in dispute. This principle is of fundamental significance for the administration of justice and the maintenance of public confidence in the legal system. Recognising the central significance of truth necessitates the narrow statement of exceptions or qualifications to the fact-finding process, which should be confined to circumstances in which the search for truth conflicts with other public values, including the principle of a fair trial. This paper compares and contrasts civil law and common law jurisdictions with respect to truth seeking. In particular, this paper highlights that even in jurisdictions expressly devoted to finding the truth, exclusionary rules and practices continue to circumscribe the material available to the tribunal of fact. Contrary to widespread belief, analogues to the common law exclusion of illegally obtained evidence, legal professional privilege, and hearsay, exist in civil law countries. Further, the absence of party-led fact-finding in such countries, particularly, the severe restrictions on the compulsory disclosure of documents, significantly attenuates the capacity of parties to bring all relevant materials to the court’s attention. This paper also discusses the frailty of human memory, particularly, the psychological research on the limitations of eyewitness and identification evidence. While an impediment to truth seeking, improved understanding of the scientific research may improve the fact-finding process.

Perceptions and Credibility: Understanding the Nuances of Eyewitness Testimony

Of the first 225 exonerations of wrongfully convicted individuals in the United States by the Innocence Project, 77% were based on mistaken eyewitness identifications. Given the mounting evidence on reliability issues surrounding eyewitness testimony, coupled with the fact that forensic evidence is neither infallible nor always available, it becomes important to better understand how jurors use these different types of evidence in their decision making. The current research seeks to fill a void in the literature by evaluating the influence of eyewitness testimony on case outcomes while accounting for other types of evidence (e.g., DNA). Although the results underscore the value of forensic DNA evidence, they also highlight the importance of eyewitness testimony in juror decision making. In fact, both pretrial perceptions of the reliability of eyewitness evidence and the credibility of an eyewitness during trial significantly impact the desired verdict for jurors above and beyond other types of evidence. Implications for case processing and avenues for future research are discussed.

Can experts help jurors to evaluate eyewitness evidence? A review of eyewitness expert effects

Courts occasionally permit psychologists to present expert evidence in an attempt to help jurors evaluate eyewitness identification evidence. This paper reviews research assessing the impact of this expert evidence, which we argue should aim to increase jurors' ability to discriminate accurate from inaccurate identifications. With this in mind we identify three different research designs, two indirectly measuring the expert's impact on juror discrimination accuracy and one which directly assesses its effect on this measure. Across a total of 24 experiments, three have used the superior direct methodology, only one of which provides evidence that expert testimony can improve jurors' ability to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate eyewitness identifications.

Is saccade-induced retrieval enhancement a potential means of improving eyewitness evidence?

Saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (SIRE) is the effect whereby making bilateral saccades enhances the subsequent retrieval of memories. Two experiments explored SIRE's potential to improve eyewitness evidence. Participants viewed slideshows depicting crimes, and received contradictory and additive misinformation about event details either once (Experiment 1) or three times (Experiment 2). Participants then performed saccades or a fixation control task before being tested on their memory for the slideshows and making confidence judgements. Saccades increased discrimination between seen and unseen event details regardless of whether or what type of misinformation was presented. Because prior studies indicated that SIRE might be more robust for individuals who are strongly right-handed versus not, we examined SIRE as a function of handedness and found that saccades improved memory for event details regardless of participants' handedness. However, participants who were not strongly right-handed had fewer false memories than participants who were strongly right-handed, extending previous findings of superior memory among individuals who are not strongly right-handed. Saccades also increased confidence in true memories (Experiment 1) and decreased confidence in false memories (Experiment 2). The results support SIRE's potential to improve eyewitness evidence.

The south beach study: Bystanders' memories are more malleable

People's reports are affected by what others say. The current study compared memory conformity effects of people who interacted with a confederate, and of bystanders to that interaction. A second goal was to observe if memory conformity occurs in a naturalistic setting. A male confederate approached a group of people at the beach and had a brief interaction. About a minute later a research assistant approached the group and administered a target-absent lineup to each person in the group. Memory conformity was observed. Bystanders were twice as likely to conform as those who interacted with the confederate. Forensic investigators should take into consideration the role a person plays in an event when assessing eyewitness evidence. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

Lord Willoughby, I Presume? 100 Years of Assessing Eyewitness Evidence

This paper examines police practice and the law relating to eyewitness identification over the past century. In 1904 an inquiry into mistaken identity, and the associated media attention, led directly to the establishment of the Criminal Court of Appeal in England. Much advancement has been made to avoid miscarriages of justice through the use of identity parades, rules and regulations, such as PACE Code D, and judicial warnings such as the Turnbull direction. However, the number of appeals based upon fraught eyewitness evidence persists to this day. Can the perennial problem of inherent human observational error ever be overcome?

The Admissibility of Social Science Evidence in Criminal Cases

The rapid development of emerging scientific methods, especially the increased understanding of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), has had, and will undoubtedly continue to have, an almost stunning impact on our justice system, particularly at the trial level. The forensic applications of these new scientific discoveries have been most dramatically seen the criminal trial court. They have also caused us to re-examine other forms of forensic evidence that have been rather routinely admitted our courts. Forensic evidence from social scientists is certainly one of those forms. Which of these forms of scientific forensic evidence have sufficient validity to be used a criminal proceeding that could take away a person's liberty or even their life? Who answers that question and how? The Supreme Court of the United States has decided, first the Frye case and then later the Daubert trilogy of cases, that it is the trial judge who must decide these issues and be the who will determine which forms of scientific forensic evidence get in to the jury's consideration. The first part of this article defines and explores that expanded gatekeeper role, as it continues to be a task of increasing onus to trial judges. The next part considers the implementation of that gatekeeper role as it is applied to criminal proceedings. The third part of this article narrows the inquiry specifically the issue of the applicability of the Daubert, and even Frye, analysis to the admissibility of social science evidence generally. Finally, the article examines specific questions regarding testimony of experts about the reliability of eyewitness evidence and regarding the continued admissibility of certain types of forensic abuse syndrome evidence.

The impact of eyewitness expert evidence and judicial instruction on juror ability to evaluate eyewitness testimony.

It has been argued that psychologists should provide expert evidence to help jurors discriminate between accurate and inaccurate eyewitness identifications. In this article we compare the effects of judicial instruction with expert evidence that is either congruent or incongruent with the ground truth, focusing on juror ability to evaluate "real" eyewitness evidence. In contrast to studies which have employed "fictional" eyewitness designs, we found no appreciable effect of either congruent or incongruent expert evidence on participant-juror sensitivity to eyewitness accuracy. We discuss the role of methodology on the inferences and conclusions that can be made regarding the impact of eyewitness expert evidence.

Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool.

Given the crucial role of eyewitness evidence, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident. This is not always achieved due to demands on police resources. Two studies trace the development of a new tool, the Self-Administered Interview (SAI), designed to elicit a comprehensive initial statement. In Study 1, SAI participants reported more correct details than participants who provided a free recall account, and performed at the same level as participants given a Cognitive Interview. In Study 2, participants viewed a simulated crime and half recorded their statement using the SAI. After a delay of 1 week, all participants completed a free recall test. SAI participants recalled more correct details in the delayed recall task than control participants.

Logic and Research Versus Intuition and Past Practice as Guides to Gathering and Evaluating Eyewitness Evidence

Psychologists have conducted extensive research and devoted substantial thought to the memory, cognition, decision-making, logic, and human interaction components of eyewitness evidence. It is fortunate that much of that work has been formally recognized by law enforcement and the legal community and used as the basis for procedure and policy changes with regard to how eyewitness evidence is collected and evaluated. The authors discuss reasons that some segments of law enforcement, the legal community, and the public resist these research findings (e.g., by seeing psychology's role as a way to discredit eyewitness evidence or being committed to established procedures that have no empirical support). The authors also address gaps between these common misconceptions and what the psychology research perspective has to offer, in an effort to gain even more support for research- and logic-based recommendations concerning eyewitness evidence.

Interrogation techniques and memory distrust

Extensive research has shown that certain interrogation techniques may lead to false confessions. Gudjonsson and MacKeith (1982) argued that the ‘memory distrust syndrome’ could underlie some of these false confessions. The present study examined the relation between memory distrust, false confessions, and several interrogation techniques, by accusing innocent undergraduate students (n=50) of exam fraud. To this end, five interrogation techniques were used, namely providing false technical evidence, providing false eyewitness evidence, minimising, maximising, and suggesting memory problems. Suggesting memory problems was found to have largest impact on memory distrust. Furthermore, it appeared that people were most willing to confess when false technical evidence was provided. Although it was found that, in all interrogation techniques, memory distrust scores correlated highly with false confession scores, they did not have a uniform effect. Several explanations for the findings, and the implications of these findings, are discussed.

Toward a more informative psychological science of eyewitness evidence

AbstractLike Hugo Münsterberg, we believe that psychological science can inform the courts and police regarding eyewitness evidence. But 100 years into the enterprise, the body of knowledge acquired to date demands considerable circumspection, both in the claims expert psychological witnesses make in court and in the recommendations psychologists tender to investigating officers. There are a number of points regarding eyewitness evidence that psychologists can offer with considerable confidence, but many matters are as yet open to debate (and some issues are likely to remain unsettled for a long time). We encourage researchers, law enforcement and the legal community to (a) identify and prioritize the problems to be solved, (b) focus on a more integrative empirical approach, including more of the field experiments currently in use, as well as new descriptive research, especially on base rates and (c) use basic psychological theory and principles to consolidate the wide range of phenomena present in individual cases. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sequential processes in a landslide hazard at a slate quarry in Okayama, Japan

The 12 March 2001 landslide at a slate quarry in Okayama, Japan killed three workers. Composite studies based on field surveys of the landslide slope, interviews with local residents and quarry workers, and inspections of hydrological and seismological data have been used to clarify the causes of this slide and its movements. The results indicate that the landslide was enabled firstly by the steepness of the slope, which had been undercut by river; secondly, the structure was that of a dip-slope that was prone to deep-seated slides along bedding planes; thirdly, numerous joints and faults were present. Surprisingly, rainfall, earthquakes, and explosions do not appear to have played any role in the triggering of this slide. The interviews demonstrated that the frequency of precursory failures increased over a period of several hours before the 12 March 2001 landslide. Inspection of the seismograph records and the eyewitness evidence both indicate that the main part of the landslide consisted of two phases of slope failure within 23 s. After the slide, the frequency of the failures gradually decreased with time over a period of several days. Three new terms are proposed for landslides: foreslide, mainslide, and afterslide, following the terms foreshock, main shock, and aftershock used in seismology.

An Examination of Criminal Jury Directions in Relation to Eyewitness Identification in Commonwealth Jurisdictions

This paper presents an analytical review of judicial directions to guard against wrongful convictions based upon erroneous eyewitness identification evidence. Factors known as the Turnbull Rules, derived from the English case R v Turnbull,1 are of significance within many common law jurisdictions when considering the accuracy of eyewitness identifications and the practice of jury directions or mandatory warnings. The influence of these rules, together with variations in the approach taken by Commonwealth jurisdictions, illustrates that while the factors identified in Turnbull are to be found in the approaches adopted across the various jurisdictions studied, there is diversity in terms of whether or not such directions are mandatory and also as to their form and scope. The frailties of eyewitness evidence are of primary concern to any reliable prosecution and exist irrespective of jurisdiction. Such evidence has been the subject of psychological evaluation and the findings of such studies cross national, ethnic and jurisdictional boundaries. These findings, and the processes employed to test such evidence, can be used to develop the form which directions to a jury may take. The requirement for a jury direction and the scope of such a warning are two matters where there are differences between the approaches taken by individual Commonwealth legal systems. While approaches differ according to jurisdiction, generally either legislation and/or case law will provide guidance to judges in terms of formulating a sufficiently robust warning. It is suggested that this wide variation in practice is incompatible with the universal theory of honest, yet mistaken, eyewitnesses. However, any approach which is adopted must also seek to prevent the balance tipping so far in favour of the accused that a jury discounts the evidence of the honest and accurate eyewitness. This paper will examine the approach to eyewitness identification evidence adopted in several Commonwealth nations and evaluate the influence of the English Turnbull case within these jurisdictions. A universal paradigm will be suggested, which would require directions to be given to juries in all cases which involve eyewitness evidence. Such a direction would incorporate a common framework which the judge would then tailor as required to take account of the circumstances of each particular case.

Object-oriented graphical representations of complex patterns of evidence

We reconsider two graphical aids to handling complex mixed masses of evidence in a legal case: Wigmore charts and Bayesian networks. Our aim is to forge a synthesis of their best features and to develop this further to overcome remaining limitations. One important consideration is the multilayered nature of a complex case, which can involve direct evidence, ancillary evidence, evidence about ancillary evidence, etc. all of a number of different kinds. If all these features are represented in one diagram, the result can be messy and hard to interpret. In addition, there are often recurrent features and patterns of evidence and evidential relations, e.g. credibility processes or match identification (DNA, eyewitness evidence, etc.), that may appear, in identical or similar form, at many different places within the same network, or within several different networks, and it is wasteful to model all these individually. The recently introduced technology of ‘object-oriented BNs’ suggests a way of dealing with these problems. Any network can itself contain instances of other networks, the details of which can be hidden from view until information on their detailed structure is desired. Moreover, generic networks to represent recurrent patterns of evidence can be constructed once and for all and copied or edited for reuse as needed. We describe the potential of this mode of description to simplify the construction and display of complex legal cases. To facilitate our narrative, the celebrated Sacco and Vanzetti murder case is used to illustrate the various methods discussed.

Accuracy of Eyewitness Identification is significantly associated with performance on a standardized test of face recognition

Objectives This study assessed the relationship between Eyewitness Accuracy regarding a person met under conditions of high stress and performance on a standardized, neutral test of memory for human faces. Method Fifty-three U.S. Army personnel were exposed to interrogation stress. Forty-eight hours later, participants were administered the Weschler Face Test and then asked to identify the one interrogator who they had encountered 48 h earlier. Results A significant positive relationship was observed between performance on the Weschler Face Test and performance on the Eyewitness task. Inaccurate eyewitnesses exhibited more False Negative errors when performing the Weschler Face Test. Discussion Trait ability to remember human faces may be related to how accurately people recall faces that are associated with highly emotional circumstances. Detection probability methods, such as ROC curve analyses, may be of assistance to forensic examiners, the police, and the courts, when assessing the probability that eyewitness evidence is accurate.