'The Story Of An Eyewitness'

Eyewitness testimonies are based on a person’s ability to recall what took place accurately. Memory research has proven that a person’s memory is not a recording but it is reconstructive. Loftus and Palmer’s study set out to prove that the memory could be reconstructed through the use of language.

It’s 5:15 AM, and the streets are quiet. By 5:30, the streets are torn apart, and rubble is strewn everywhere. What happened in those fifteen minutes was the San Fransisco earthquake. When you look at “Comprehending the Calamity” by Emma Burke and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings, you can truly imagine the extent of the damage and fear, even though Burke’s purpose is to inform, while Yep’s is to entertain.

before, during, and in the aftermath of the disaster. While reading this book, I became

“The people came out of their houses and smelled the hot stinging air and covered their noses from it. And the children came out of the houses, but they did not run or shout as they would have done after a rain” (3). This is a perfect description of the setting. It contains the hopelessness that people felt during that

And it involves interaction with familiar faces, tasks, procedures, and organizations. (Auf der Heide, Erik. 1989) An emergency is generally personal in nature. A disaster is “an event associated with the impact of a natural hazard, which leads to increased mortality, illness and/or injury, and destroys or disrupts livelihoods, affecting the people or an area such that they (and/or outsiders) perceive it as being exceptional and requiring external assistance for recovery” (Cannon 1994, 29, fn.2). Finally, a catastrophe can be viewed as “…any disaster that overwhelms the ability of state, local, and volunteer agencies to adequately provide victims with such life-sustaining mass care services as food, shelter, and medical assistance within the first 12 to 24 hours.” (GAO, Disaster Management, 1993, p. 3).

There are many different factors that play a part in the increased chance of a witness correctly identifying a suspect. Such factors should be brought to the attention of the jury and the judge to help in properly assessing whether a witness is correctly identifying a suspect. A study by Magnussen, Melinder, Stridbeck, & Raja (2010) found that of the three different types of people: judge, jury, and general public, that for the most part all where fairly ill-informed on the reliability of eyewitness testimony with judges having the most. Judges only had about an 8% difference in knowledge when compared to jurors. With this information it is very clear that education on the reliability of eyewitness testimony needs to become more of a general knowledge information for the everyone, especially people who are involved in upholding the law. Another factor to look into when evaluating the accuracy eyewitness testimony is the role that memory plays. Memory is divided into three processes: perceiving, remembering, and recalling information (Simmonsen, 2013). There is plenty of room in all three of those stages to forget or falsely remember something. Some factors that play a part when a person perceives an event is the amount of time they are exposed to the event and the suspect. A study conducted by Horry, Halford, Brewer, Milne, & Bull. (2014) found that witnesses were increasingly more likely to correctly identify a suspect if they had been exposed to the suspect for sixty

The Corruption of Eyewitness Testimonies In 1993, three young boys from in West Memphis, Arkansas, were brutally murdered and mutilated. As a result of the town being in shock, they were quick to point fingers and falsely accuse “outcast” civilians as suspect. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelly Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and lastly, Jason Baldwin was also sentenced to life imprisonment. It is not only utterly horrifying that three young boys were brutally murdered, but also horrifying that three young men were wrongfully incarcerated for a crime which they did not commit.

It’s a scary sight, as rabbits and birds run for their life, the storm gets even closer. All of nature has a grudge against you, as even the wind pelts the soil against your home. Your mother gives you a wet cloth, which you put on your forehead. You still feel the dust, inside your mouth, on your skin, on your teeth, in your breath. You group with your family in complete darkness, and wait for this disaster to end.

First during the day the dust storm was coming you could see the 7,000 feet high storm coming in our direction. While the storm was coming everyone was panicking on what to do some people were getting prepared on what to do. When the storm hit it was a disaster and i could hardly see anything. Some people were still outside and i was wondering what was going on and could hear or see anything because of the storm it was a whole disaster for our city.

Two stories with a historical genre “Horrific Wreck Of The City” by Fred Hewitt and “Comprehending The Calamity” by Emma Burke both tell the story of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 in varying perspectives.

A natural disaster is a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life. “The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger and “Super Disasters of the 21st Century” by Jacqueline Adams describes the cause and effect of nature’s savagery. Each author uses similar and different strategies and techniques to accomplish this goal. In an excerpt from the article “Super Disasters of the 21st Century,” Jacqueline Adams points out recent disasters and provides an in depth look at how hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis occur and the devastation that result. In an excerpt from “The Perfect Storm”, Sebastian Junger combines a first person anecdote

One gentleman spoke of him as a child seeing thousands of crawfish crossing the main road. He said his grandmother told him that meant that there was wind coming. Other survivors spoke of the events that took place and watching their family members get swept away and there was nothing that they could do but watch in horror. Another gentleman spoke of how he saw a lot of his friends he went to school with he had to help identify some of the people who perished and spoke of they had the look of fear on their faces. Also some family members were found scattered about some miles away from where they were last

Annotated Bibliography Chapter 7: Eye Witnesses: Can we trust human memory to be accurate? Beck, E. (2009). Cool Eyewitness Encounters : How's Your Memory?. Edina, Minn: Abdo Publishing. 2009, pp.

This article was concerned in identifying psychological impact of disasters. The article analyzed the psychological effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 2010 BP oil spill. The article discussed how years after these disasters the environment and the people felt the effects of these man-produced disasters.

In The Story of an Eyewitness, Jack London gives the reader a dramatic first-person description of the horrible aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Jack London’s description was first published in Collier’s on May 5, 1906. He is trying to get the tragic events that he witnessed across to the reader. He does this by using a great amount of detail and using figurative language like similes, metaphors, personification, hyperboles, and irony. His descriptions are so good that the reader feels like they are at the scene of the disaster.