ipl-logo

Eyewitness Memory

1519 Words7 Pages

Wrongful Prosecutions Due to False Remembrance
Several individuals have been wrongly prosecuted due to false eyewitness memories due to factors such as the how the human brain remembers things, emotions and the new scientific evidence on eyewitness memory.
The new advances in science on how the human brain stores memories and retrieves memories change how eyewitness testimonies are handled. There are two types of trace memories. The first type is called a verbatim memory and that memory consists of exact memories or very close to the original memories. Gist memories are a less specific trace memory. The gist memory is a fuzzy representation of the memory that was stored before. Gist memories are vague and therefore can be changed and altered …show more content…

The first principle is the Parallel Storage of Verbatim and Gist Traces which is the process of storing verbatim and gist memories. Verbatim traces are exact embodiments of the original memory while gist traces are vague interpretations of what …show more content…

The Innocence Project, an organization devoted to proving falsely accused convicts of their innocence, states that criminal investigators can cause the eyewitnesses testimony to become skewed and false. There are several ways of this happening such as performing a “show up”, which is where the witness is shown several suspects but the photos have context that makes the suspect even more suspicious. The Innocence project also says that they can shown the suspect in the back of police car or where the person is far away or in a poorly lit area. The victim then chooses the one that seems most suspicious. Another way of misidentification occurring is photos are shown of several suspects and then the one the police most suspects is marked. The Innocence project then gives multiple ways that the showing procedures can be changed to prevent misidentification. Officers who are giving the lineup should completely unaware of who the suspect is. This can prevent vocal cues or any influence the officer may have on the witness. Non suspects should also be included in the lineup to insure that not a single suspect stands out in any particular way. The witness should also be told that the suspect may or may not be in the lineup and that they cannot look the the officer in charge for any help. This in turn lessens the pressure on the witness and prevents misidentification

Show More
Related

  • Case Study Of John's Wrongful Conviction: Flawed Pathology Evidence

    1139 Words  | 5 Pages

    John (Jack) Salmon was charged with the murder of his common-law wife, Maxine Ditchfield, a 28 year old dog groomer and mother of three who had died due to fatal brain injuries on September 22th, 1970. John, a welder, met Maxine in 1967 and they started dating each other in 1970, and then moved in together. Following the couple’s time at a local hotel drinking beer, and later returning to their friends, Don and Mary Claydon’s residence where they continued to drink before deciding to go back to their house. That night and the following morning, Maxine experienced several falls with the associated bruising and marks on her face and body from hitting the floor and washroom features, resulting in evident changes in her movements. John

    Read More

  • Larry Youngblood Incident

    964 Words  | 4 Pages

    Detectives emphasized to David that the assailant may or may not be in the photo line up. Detectives also "told him they had arrested the man who raped him, and asked him to pick the assailant out of a photographic lineup. " David then picked Larry Youngblood as his assailant out of the photo line up. Although the photo lineup that David was given was reliable many other parts of this case were not.

    Read More

  • Innocence Project Report On The Case Of Jennifer Moore Case

    2099 Words  | 9 Pages

    This also protects the interrogators as it protects them from allegations of violence towards a suspect or corruption as their entire interrogation will be recorded so any allegations can be investigated thoroughly. This reform has actually been put into use by many police departments in the United States. The Innocence Project reports that over 850 jurisdictions nationwide have put the reform into place and that police departments are pleased with the reform. This is helped by the fact that the states of Alaska, Minnesota, and Illinois have some form of requirement in their constitutions for interrogations to be recorded. This reform would have helped free Curtis Jasper Moore even

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Elizabeth Loftus Memory In Canadian Courts Of Law

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    It states “scientific research indicates that identification procedures such as line-ups and photo arrays produce more reliable evidence when the individual line-up members or photographs are shown to witnesses sequentially – one at a time – rather than simultaneously.” By giving the reader such a valuable piece of information from a credible source, it engages Loftus’ readers into going more in depth with the research into finding out more about the recommendations provided. This is an attempt by the author to encourage those who are familiar with the justice system particularly in Canada and the United States who both mainly use the adversarial court system to rise up and take part into bringing in a new method that will protect the defendant while in court from being falsely accused of a crime they did not

    Read More

  • Legal Issues Involved In The Norfolk Four Cases

    936 Words  | 4 Pages

    PAPER 1: FALSE CONFESSION ASSIGNMENT Legal issues involved in the interrogation of criminal suspects are the leading cause for wrongful conviction of innocent individuals based off of false confessions. The primary motive for police officials is to close a case with a written and verbal confession from a possible suspect. Confessions override evidence if the confession is convincing enough to the jurors. Most people assume that people would not confess to a crime they didn’t commit, but due to the harsh interrogation circumstances, psychological coercion and situation factors, these can influence an innocent individual to confess to a crime they didn’t commit.

    Read More

  • Ronald Cotton Case Study

    1428 Words  | 6 Pages

    Effects of post identification feedback on eyewitness identification and nonidentification confidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 334–346. Lindsay, R., & Wells, G. (1985). Improving eyewitness identification from lineups: Simultaneous versus sequential lineup presentations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 556–564.

    Read More

  • Ronald Cotton Eyewitness Testimony

    878 Words  | 4 Pages

    He says that when a suspect is not in a line up, witnesses will tend to pick the most similar to the criminal. The two key properties of eyewitness testimony is that it is often unreliable and highly persuasive. Recognition memory is rapid so if someone takes longer than 10-15 secs then they are not using reliable recognition memory. Showing a photo one by one is more effective and accurate as it allows the victim to compare each photo to their memory rather than each other. A study person was undertaking whereby 300 participants viewed deliberately shaky footage of a man putting a bomb down an airshaft.

    Read More

  • Crime Lineups Paper

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    This specific procedure necessitates the witness to view each photo separately from the rest so not to pick the suspect due to his/her close similarity. When reviewing photos sequentially, one will be more likely to compare the photo to their memory rather than to the others grouped together. Lineups continue to be called to question from the defense in that there is always the possibility the results may produce a false identification of a suspect. This is commonly due to the officer inadvertently providing verbal or no-verbal clues as the witness reviews the lineup. In addition, lineups are to be construct so those displayed have similarities such a facial hair, eye glass, or skin tone.

    Read More

  • Eyewitness Identification In The Criminal Justice System

    80 Words  | 1 Pages

    The criminal justice system depends majorly on eyewitness identification for investigating and prosecuting crimes. Psychologists have been the only ones who have warned the justice system of problems with eyewitness identification evidence. Recent DNA exoneration cases have corrupted the warnings of eyewitness identification researchers by showing that mistaken eyewitness identification was the largest factor contributing to the conviction of many innocent people eyewitness testimonies are not reliable therefor you would assume they would be taken out of court, but instead

    Read More

  • Essay On Incredible Eyewitnesses

    960 Words  | 4 Pages

    Most cases where someone has been exonerated due to DNA retesting had a problem with eyewitnesses misidentifying the suspects. This is a problem that can change someone’s life forever. Misidentification of suspects is a flaw in the criminal justice system that can be addressed through more police training and increased help from the judges. Misidentification by the eyewitnesses and the police officers are current problems in the justice system. Suspects are identified by the eyewitnesses of the crime, but this can lead to some problems with who is identified.

    Read More

  • Eyewitness Misidentification

    1297 Words  | 6 Pages

    It used to help the jury understand what happened, however, witnesses can easily be wrong. When giving eyewitness testimony, the witness is required to give a description of what they saw, what the perpetrator looked like, and details about the crime, then choose who they think committed the crime out of a lineup. The perpetrator is sometimes not in the lineup, and there are often fillers so the identifier has more to choose from. The lineup is usually what puts the perpetrator on trial, and is an easy place to get something wrong. Overall, it is better to have a lineup done digitally because of possible influence on the witness.

    Read More

  • The Problem Of Wrongful Conviction

    228 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ordinarily, plenty of other acquitted individuals are not supported by their counties to uncovering convictions of the innocent and or don’t have the resources of quality lawyering. Moreover, these wrongful convictions will continue to rise, putting innocent people behind bars. In addition, it is understandable working with a few individuals to collect evidence an error can occur, ordinarily the reality of this is some agents of the legal system overlooked cruelty to have their name known.

    Read More

  • Eyewitness Identification

    453 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not surprisingly, witnesses are likely to assume that the culprit is in the lineup; when explicitly warned that the lineup may or may not contain the culprit, witnesses are less likely to make a selection (Brewer & Wells, 2006). Identification accuracy is impaired under encoding conditions likely to undermine memory strength, such as divided attention, short exposure duration, and long viewing distance (e.g., Lindsay, Semmler, Weber, Brewer, & Lindsay, 2008; Palmer, Brewer, McKinnon, & Weber, 2010). Some conditions, such as identifying a culprit of a different race or one who was wearing a disguise (e.g., Meissner & Brigham, 2001), undermine encoding and/or lineup discrimination performance. Other conditions such as lengthy retention intervals are associated with diminished memory strength (Deffenbacher, Bornstein, McGorty, & Penrod, 2008). Indicators of Identification Accuracy Because an identification decision is often the key evidence against a suspect, characteristics of identification decisions that might discriminate accurate from inaccurate decisions have been explored.

    Read More

  • Eyewitnesses: 60-Minute Segment Of Ronald Cotton And Jennifer Thompson

    702 Words  | 3 Pages

    This week’s topic was very interesting to learn about how important eyewitnesses can be when a crime and accidents do occur. In the case that was presented in the 60-minute segment of Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson is exactly how legal system can fail us when it comes to the eyewitnesses’ identification testimony and how a person’s perception and memory can be altered. The aspect of psychology and law research from this week’s course material is most relevant to the topic of perception and memory. The memory has different stages the first is encoding the process of entering perception into memory.

    Read More

  • Essay On Wrongful Convictions

    1225 Words  | 5 Pages

    Furthermore, there can be several factors at play when a wrongful conviction occurs and each case is unique. Three of the more common and detrimental factors that will be explored in this essay are eyewitness error, the use of jailhouse informants and professional and institutional misconduct. Firstly, eyewitness testimony can be a major contributor to a conviction and is an important factor in wrongful conviction (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p. 227). Witness recall and, frankly, the human emory are not as reliable as previously thought. In fact there has been much research showing the problems with eyewitness testimony such as suggestive police interviewing, unconscious transference, and malleability of confidence (Campbell & Denov, 2016, p.227).

    Read More

More about Eyewitness Memory

Open Document