Eyewitness Identification, Criminal, And Criminal Law Essay

Imagine being at home with your family, when a knock comes at the door. You go to answer the door and you are promptly arrested and taken away from your family. Why, because you have been identified by someone as the perpetrator of a crime you have never heard of. Since you know that you are innocent you don’t worry, until you get to the sentencing. Once you are sentenced for 50 years without parole, reality takes hold. You may think this cannot happen to you, but until we fix some major flaws with law enforcement, prosecution deals, and an overloaded system: This could happen to anyone. State prosecutors should not be able to convict anyone on eyewitness testimony only, without any other physical or forensic evidence. In eyewitness identification, in criminal law, evidence is received from a witness who has actually seen an event and can so testify in court.† (Law.com Legal Online Dictionary) While this could be an important piece of the investigation, it can never take the place of DNA, or forensic evidence. Unfortunately, that happens all too much, with our overburdened legal and criminal justice systems. â€Å"Eyewitness misidentification is widely recognized as the leading cause of wrongful conviction in the U.S., accounting for more wrongful convictions than all other cause combined.† (Boston College Journal of Law and Social Justice, Volume 35:1, p.2) While we have been aware of this problem for many years, innocent people are still being convicted daily. Too many peopleShow MoreRelatedLineups, Show-Up And Arrays In Criminal Investigation Analysis768 Words   |  4 Pagesshow-ups, and photographic arrays when watching a television show such as Law and Order have witness view se veral people through a one-way glass to identify the person they saw commit the crime. â€Å"According to the Innocence Project, eyewitness misidentification is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions, with nearly 75% of overturned convictions resulting from misidentification† (Naito, 2014). However, since I have been working as a law enforcement officer I have never actually seen a lineup performed;Read MoreThe Role of Eyewitness Testimony and the Weapon Effect in a Criminal Investigation 1241 Words   |  5 PagesEyewitness testimony plays a crucial role in criminal investigations. Thus, it is important to know how to eliminate factors that can negatively impact eyewitnesses’ recall ability. The result of eyewitness misidentification can lead to numerous inaccurate and wrongful convictions. One study suggests that more than 75,000 people a year become criminal defendants on the basis of eyewitness identifications (Schechel, OToole, Easterly, Loftus, 2006, p.178) . Another study has shown that approximatelyRead MoreTo What Extent is an Eyewitness Testimony Credible and Therefore be Used in Court?1732 Words   |  7 Pagespractitioners alike share a widespread belief that the single greatest cause of wrongful conviction is because of an eyewitness testimony. April 23, 2007, marked the 200th criminal conviction exonerated by DNA evidence in the United States of America. According to www.innocenceproject.org, over 75% of the 200 criminal cases revealed to be wrongful convictions involved a faulty eyewitness testimony. Collectively, these 200 people spent a total of 2,475 years in prison. With factors such as witness memoryRead MoreThe Role Of Eyewitness And Scientific Identifications854 Words   |  4 PagesAlthough Eyewitness and Scientific Identifications are important tools for the conviction of criminals, eyewitness testimony has proven to be persuasive evidence before a judge or jury but recent years of strong statistical research has pr oven that eyewitness identification is often unreliable. And can lead to atrocious acts such as wrongfully stripping an individual of his God given freedom for the majority of his or her life. Two prime examples of the detrimental impact that identifications have onRead MoreThe Death Penalty And The Criminal Justice System1475 Words   |  6 Pagesabout the proper procedures used by the criminal justice system to convict a person to live or death. The death penalty has created a public policy issue that has produced wide scholarly research, public debate and legal attention. The reality is that the majority on Americans support the death penalty. Only a small proportion believes that there has to be something done during the investigation and gathering of evidence process to proof that the convicted criminal in is guilty. When a murder is committedRead MorePerry vs. New Hampshire: Case Brief1428 Words   |  6 Pagesafter seeing Perry, standing next to a parked car near her apart ment. After responding to her call, law enforcement officers request her to point out the suspect and she positively identifies Perry. Following her identification, Perry is arrested and brought for trials at the states local court. Claiming that the witness wrongly identified him, Perry files a motion to suppress the identification, which he terms as unnecessarily suggestive. He files the motion believing that the witness pickedRead MoreVictims Of The American Criminal Justice System851 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Leading up to now, America has been a place where laws, crimes, and other stipulations have a cause and effect. Since America’s inception as a free land, in this land people are obligated to follow laws and orders directed by the United States Government. However, many follow the laws and become victims of the American Criminal Justice system. Hence, we have people who become victims of wrong convictions. Wrongful conviction is define as a person who is currently serving a sentence viaRead MoreRape And Murder Of Dawn Hamilton1335 Words   |  6 Pagesfour main factors: eyewitness misidentification, forensic science error, false confessions, and jailhouse informants, commonly known as â€Å"snitches.† The most common cause of wrongful convictions is eyewitness misidentification, occurring in about 3 in 4 exonerations (Wise et. al.). As stated in the United States Supreme Court Case United States vs Wade, â€Å"The annals of criminal law are rife with instances of mistaken identification.† And this is unfortunately true, because eyewitness memories are malleableRead MoreEyewitness Testimony And The American Psychological Association1580 Words   |  7 Pageseven before the rise of modern law and judicial practices, eyewitness testimony has been a crucial part in reaching verdicts in court. The opinions and observations of bystanders or active participants in a crime scene are often considered to be very valuable in determining the guilt or innocence of accused individuals. However, there has been a large amount of scrutiny in the law world concerning both misappropriated and untrue testimonies administered in courts of law. Although the testimony of individualsRead MoreEssa y on Eyewitness Identification and Reliable Testimony2502 Words   |  11 PagesEyewitness 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