Police Lineups

One of the most important purposes of physical evidence is to establish the identity of a suspect or victim. Some of the most valuable clues at a crime scene are fingerprints. "Processing a crime scene" is a long, tedious process that involves focused documentation of the conditions at the scene and the collection of any physical evidence that could possibly shed light on what happened and point to who did it.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Supreme Court began to recognize the issues of faulty eyewitness testimony and began to establish limited safeguards. Some of the safeguards introduced by the Supreme Court include allowing the defendant to have an attorney present at a lineup, allowing defendants to challenge identifications resulting from questionable police procedures, and establishing model jury instructions (Jost 862-863).

In Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (1977), the Supreme Court elaborated on the standards to use in determining the procedure for a motion to suppress due to suggestive pre-trial identification. The Court held that “reliability is the linchpin” in determining the admissibility of identification testimony, and applied the “totality of the circumstances” standard of Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293 (1967).

crime scene could be analyzed and compared with a sample from a suspect. A match could place

Information is the lifeblood of a criminal investigation. The ability of investigators to obtain useful and accurate information from eyewitnesses of crimes is crucial to effective law enforcement, yet full and accurate recall is difficult to achieve (Stewart, 1985). Such elicitation of complete and accurate recall from people is important in many aspects of life; specifically, eyewitness recall may determine whether a case is solved. Principle advocates of the cognitive interview (Fisher, Geiselman, Holland & MacKinnon,

In the past decade, eyewitness testimonies have cast a shadow on what is wrong with the justice system in today’s society. Before we had the advanced technology, we have today, eyewitness testimonies were solid cold-hard facts when it came to proving the defendant was guilty. However, time has changed and eyewitness testimonies have proven to be the leading causes of wrongful convictions due to misidentification. The Thompson and Cotton case is a perfect example of how eyewitness testimonies can put an innocent man behind bars.

Back than and up until now we still see an abundance of crime rate on the streets from illegal possession to murder. Ex mayor Michael Bloomberg has implemented a policy called Stop and Frisk in 2002. Some say it worked some say it doesn’t, from a ten-year period data shows that more then 5 million stops were made on young African American men who just made 1.9 percent of the city’s population according to New York Civil Liberties Union. Many politicians say it was a racial policy but it took weapons and drugs off the street. Stop and frisk was more proactive instead of reactive which means Acting before a situation becomes a source of confrontation. Research shows that crime has dropped drastically in 2002-Present since stop and frisk was implemented. Did it work? Many say no and blame the lead in our drinking water, which we will get into later. I believe Stop and Frisk didn’t lower crime to the effectiveness that we all would want it to work.

Jury selection beings with a summons being sent out to all eligible adults. These summons, in Canada, are sent out randomly in order to obtain representativeness amongst the jury members (Friedland, 1990). While this seems to be the best way of obtaining impartial jurors, it sometimes ends up creating other problems through-out the trial. The Crown and defense try to avoid problems, such as bias, impartiality, pre-trial publicity, and polarization, during jury

Eyewitness identification are considered to be the most powerful evidence against a suspect. There are numerous reasons for this to occur which includes stress, human memory, and the focus on weapons which leads for the eyewitness to focus less on the perpetrator. When an individual is in a position with high stress, their ability of remembering what actually occurred won't be easy to prove. It leaves the eyewitness unable to recall what occurred at the tie of the scene. This has been a huge problem over the years. According to “Carla Stenzel” eyewitness misidentification will occur because our memory is dynamic. It is very impossible for our brains to perform everything we see. Our memories take in pieces of information and processes the most important information. When a witness is asked by a police officer to give certain details of a suspect, they won't be able to remember how exactly they looked like but will be able to give out certain details like their height, race, and hair color. When a crime is being committed witnesses usually testify that there focus was more on the perpetrator's weapon. All they can focus on would be the size and shape of the weapon and focus less on the actual suspect. Another contribution would be the way the investigator presents the operator to the witness. The investigator prepares a lineup which includes a six pack of people. The use of a six pack lineup has

The police officer bringing the detained man fitting the description of a robbery that just occurred back to the scene in order for the cashier to identify him would be a showup. The one man show up occurred almost directly after the offense had been committed. This is more suggestive than a lineup. (2015) I have never personally been apart of a lineup or conducted one. However, I have conducted several showups. I was able to locate a suspect of felony vandalism and criminal trespass thanks to the eye witness testimony. I was able to bring him back to the scene of where the offense had taken place within thirty minutes and the witness was able to identify him as the suspect. Not to mention, as I have stated previously the cameras in the store

Just like the license plate reader, civil societies are worried about the instant identification finger printing method employed by law enforcers in nabbing offenders. The gadget/ system which gives police an instant access to database for cross checking against the prints they have obtained from a suspect enables the officers to pick any data and history on the subject from name, date of birth, social security number any other details about the person. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, has employed the use of the new technology going by the name of FALCON to assist in the criminal identification process. The system is able to compare the partial and palm prints obtained from a crime scene to the fingerprints in the data bank. FALCON is also capable of pulling and

Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.

Historically, crime and criminals have always caught the attention of law-abiding citizens. Whenever there is mention of serial killers or unsolved murders or abductions, psychological profiling, floats to the top of the list of concerns (Egger, 1999). Psychological profiling is an attempt to provide investigators with more information about an offender who has not yet been identified (Egger, 1999). Its purpose is to develop a behavioral composite that combines both sociological and psychological assessment of the would-be offender. The type of person who could have committed the crime can often be identified on the premise that accurate analysis and interpretation of the crime scene can point to a

Two hypotheses were presented in this article. Both of them focus on how unfair lineups are more likely to cause witnesses to make false accusations about who actually committed the crime. Does the lineup cause subjects to

Identifying and arresting suspects are primary responsibilities of investigators. first comes the identifying process. There are many ways that a suspect can be identified, if the suspect is found at the scene you can use these methods, field identification can be one method, for identifying and suspect, field identification can be made or done by the victim, victims or witnesses, but it must be made within a short time 15 to 20 after the crime has been committed. Another method can be Show-up-identification this method is used if the suspect has fled the scene and was caught shortly after the crime has been committed police can either bring the victims to the location where the suspect was arrested or, although it’s not recommended police