Psychological Issues Used in Prosecutors Cases

When it comes to critiquing how the identification information was obtained, several things are considered unreliable. The first mistake of the use of eyewitness testimonies in the Thompson & Cotton case was Jennifer was in a state of shock when identifying her assailant. Jennifer was in a deep slumber as a stranger at knifepoint awakened her causing adrenaline rush and high stress as she was fearing for her life. “My body was terrified although my mind hadn’t caught up yet” (Cannino et al. 12). This type of state of mind causes the brain to cloud its judgment when high stress occurs during the process of identifying a criminal. Although, Jennifer was able to study her attacker to the best ability possible, stress can alter the memory process clouding exact description especially held at knifepoint.

In Canada, the leading cause of wrongful conviction is due to the factor of eyewitness account. It has been proven that individual’s minds are not like tape recorders because everyone cannot precisely and accurately remember the description of what another person or object looks like. The courts looks at eyewitness accounts as a great factor to nab perpetrators because they believe that the witness should know what they are taking about and seen what occurred on the crime scene. On the other hand, eyewitness accounts lead to a 70 percent chance of wrongful conviction, where witnesses would substantially change their description of a perpetrator.

Eyewitness identifications is a noteworthy topic. Victims see their attackers from time to time, but

Have you ever been a witness to a crime? Would you feel comfortable if prosecutors relied on your eye witness testimony alone for a conviction? According to “The Magic of the Mind”, eyewitness testimony which relies on the accuracy of human memory, has an enormous impact on the outcome of a trial. Eyewitness testimony is a legal term. During an eyewitness testimony, the witness usually goes into an account of the crime he or she has witnessed. This can include details of the crime or identification of perpetrators. Eyewitness testimony is an important area of research in cognitive psychology and human memory (simplypsychology.com). Eyewitness testimony can be affected by many psychological factors such as:

“Violence, stress, and the presence of a weapon at the time of a crime all may have detrimental effects on the ability of a witness to make an accurate identification” (Vallas, 2011). Stress distorts an eyewitness’s observations, and while it is understandable to focus on the weapon when faced with a situation in which the eyewitness is in danger, the focus on the weapon is not as important as the description of the perpetrator. Since it is not within the power of researchers studying the effects of violence and stress on witnesses to replicate the exact stress and violence of an actual crime, it has been difficult to determine the actual effect that these two factors have on witnesses (Vallas, 2011). However, many experiments conclude that an increase in the level of violence used in the crime results in a decrease in both the accuracy of the identification as well as the witness’s recall abilities (Vallas, 2011). Weapon focus is described as

Eyewitness identifications are among the most persuasive, and sometimes only, juncture in the apprehension of criminals. This typically involves a simultaneous line-up(SIM) where the suspect(target) is placed among known innocents(foils) who resemble the witness’s description of the perpetrator (Wells & Olson, 2003). The selection or lack of selection from the witness is given significant legal weighting. However, 75% of convictions involved exculpation through DNA testing where eyewitness misidentification was at fault. Furthermore, in 38% of these cases, multiple witnesses have misidentified the same innocent person(Project, 2009), which brings to question the accuracy of the procedure.

Verbal overshadowing has been coined as the undependable eyewitness testimonials of explicit memories resultant of the cognitive barriers to a person’s inability to accurately verbalize or depict the events that have transpired. To illustrate the inaccuracies caused by verbal overshadowing, if it even exists, we conducted a study to demonstrate the differences in a person’s cognitive ability to accurately identify a perpetrator that has committed a crime in a police lineup (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). Participants were provided a brief video clip of a perpetrator committing a crime, and data retrieval were manipulated between two conditions: a one-week delay in description retrieval, and half hour delay in description retrieval of the perpetrator’s identity. Although immediate retrieval is coined as the best technique to providing an accurate description, many argue the immediate retrieval may contribute to the effects of verbal overshadowing. In essence, all eyewitness remembrance is predominately terrible, no matter the individual providing the description (also see, Brown C., Lloyd-Jones, T. J., & Robinson, M.,

Unfortunately, the mistaken eyewitness identification is responsible for 52% of entire wrongful convictions in criminal justice system (Wells &Seelau, 1995, pg. 765). To help my audience better understand the

Craik and Tulving were one of the first reseachers to discover levels-of-processing (Craik &Tulving, 1975). Other researchers have expanded on Craik and Tulving research into other areas such as deep and shallow processing, recall and recognition, and production of false memory. Also, Craik and Tulving’s discovery of the levels-of-processing have been applied to the justice system as well, more specifically eyewitness testimony. For this article, research was conduct to explore the relationships between levels-of-processing, false memory, recognition, and how the research would related to eyewitness testimony based on gender.

to interview the witnesses for several days or even weeks after the incident (particularly if

Clearly, mistaken or deliberate manipulations even of minor details can impede the accurate reconstruction of an event and possibly incriminate innocent suspects. Importantly, the present findings indicate that a large proportion of eyewitness fail to detect such mistakes.

Eyewitness misidentification are the leading errors to a wrongful conviction. Although there is such a high risk for errors, it is still the most powerful testimony or piece of evidence during a trial. With the value an eyewitness is given, there are many risks a prosecutor takes when using them as their most important piece of evidence. Throughout the process, starting from the crime and going until the conviction, eyewitnesses are placed under stress and anxiety. There is also the flaw that the human brain tends to overlook specific details. According to the California Innocence Project, “details like a stranger’s height, weight, age, and hair are often overlooked”. (“Eyewitness Identification Problems and Procedures. . .”). And therefore leads to witnesses filling in the missing pieces based off of their inference and what they feel like the suspect is supposed to look like. Through this process the brain is trying to come up with a clear picture of the event, and does so by imaging details. Even if a witness does observe either the weapon or the offender with detail, the other is often overlooked and leads to little information about the event as a

For this research paper, I am mostly writing on mistaken eyewitness identification in a false witness testimony. My audience for this particular topic will of course be my peers. The importance of this topic is to understand why eyewitness identify the wrong people and how to prevent wrongful convictions.

Whenever a crime takes place, eyewitnesses who are present on the scene can help the police or authorities when the crime is being investigated. However, eyewitness memory can be affected by a series of factors.

The accuracy of eyewitness report relies on the quality of three different perceptual processes: encoding (processing information), storage (retaining information for short-term use of long-term recall), and retrieval (locating the stored information). The quality of each of these processes depends on how many interfering factors are present.