Law Commons^™

Examining The Role Of Evidence-Based Suspicion In Racial Disparities In Wrongful Convictions, Jacqueline Katzman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There are clear racial disparities in the rates of wrongful convictions, with Black exonerees disproportionately represented among the population of those exonerated, in DNA and non-DNA exonerations alike (National Registry of Exonerations, 2022; Innocence Project, 2022). This racial disparity also exists for those exonerees who were wrongfully convicted, at least in part, because an eyewitness mistakenly identified them. For decades, when eyewitness scholars explored racial bias, they focused on the cross-race effect or own-race bias among eyewitnesses, a bias positing that witness performance suffers when a witness is asked to make an identification of a cross-race face (Lee & Penrod, …

An Archival Exploration Of Lineup Fairness In Eyewitness Research, Phoebe Kane

Student Theses

In this study, we were interested in investigating if the Betaface facial analysis program reliably predicts eyewitness lineup choosing behavior. If face analysis programs are as good or better than human judgements, using them could be a reliably more efficient, reproducible, and equitable basis for choosing fillers and evaluating lineup fairness. We collected 27 datasets from eyewitness researchers and analyzed them to produce Betaface similarity values, which measured the similarity between all the photos in each array. We compared these Betaface data to the identification data from the original studies. Our analysis of the arrays via Betaface yielded data with …

Reforming Eyewitness Identification Processes: Challenges And Recommendations For Successful Implementation, Daniel Manley

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Considering "Machine Testimony": The Impact Of Facial Recognition Software On Eyewitness Identifications, Valena Beety

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article uses a wrongful conviction lens to compare identifications by machines, notably facial recognition software, with identifications by humans. The Article advocates for greater reliability checks on both before use against a criminal defendant. The Article examines the cascading influence of facial recognition software on eyewitness identifications themselves and the related potential for greater errors. As a solution, the Article advocates the inclusion of eyewitness identification in the Organization of Scientific Area Committees' ("OSAC") review of facial recognition software for a more robust examination and consideration of software and its usage. The Article also encourages police departments to adopt …

Facing Injustice: How Face Recognition Technology May Increase The Incidence Of Misidentifications And Wrongful Convictions, Laura Moy

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Part I of this Article explains how face recognition is used in conjunction with eyewitness identification in the law enforcement context. Part II explores how and why the growing use of face recognition technology may increase, rather than decrease, misidentifications and therefore wrongful convictions. Part III recommends policy changes that should be considered, including some of the reforms to eyewitness identification procedures that have been advanced by others.

This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.

Not All Videos Are Created Equal: Camera Perspective Bias And Video-Recorded Eyewitness Identification Procedures, Kelsey N. Doherty

Student Theses

Video-recorded eyewitness identification procedures can preserve an accurate record of the conditions under which the eyewitness made an identification. Scholars posit that having the record will allow legal actors to make better decisions on the basis of an identification. Yet limited research has examined how jurors’ judgments are influenced by this evidence. Research on other types of video-recorded evidence has demonstrated a strong camera perspective bias, wherein jurors’ judgments are influenced by the angle with which the evidence is recorded. This study examined whether the camera perspective bias similarly influences jurors’ perceptions of video-recorded identification procedures. Participants viewed a mock …

Self-Policing: Dissemination And Adoption Of Police Eyewitness Policies In Virginia, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

Professional policing organizations emphasize the importance of the adoption of sound police policies and procedures, but traditionally doing so has been left to individual agencies. State and local government typically does not closely regulate police, and neither federal constitutional rulings nor state law typically sets out in any detail the practices that police should follow. Thus, law enforcement agencies must themselves draft and disseminate policy. This paper presents the results of studies used to assess the adoption of eyewitness identification policies by law enforcement agencies in Virginia. Policymakers were focused on this problem because Virginia experienced a series of DNA …

What U.S Defense Attorneys Know About Facial Composites, Marisa H. Jaross

Student Theses

The Innocence Project’s DNA exoneration database (2018) indicates that approximately 27% of wrongful conviction cases containing eyewitness evidence also included a composite or sketch[1] of the perpetrator. This statistic is alarming, given that composites are rarely used in criminal investigations (PERF, 2013), but not surprising considering “good” composites are notoriously difficult to construct (e.g., Wells, Charman, & Olson, 2005). It is well understood that eyewitness evidence can be particularly persuasive evidence of guilt for juries and thus we were interested in learning more about how defense attorneys prepare for trial with respect to this specific type of eyewitness evidence. …

Implementing The Lessons From Wrongful Convictions: An Empirical Analysis Of Eyewitness Identification Reform Strategies, Keith A. Findley

Missouri Law Review

Using eyewitness misidentification – one of the leading contributors to wrongful convictions and the most thoroughly and scientifically studied of those contributors – as the focus, this Article begins to fill that void by empirically analyzing a variety of approaches to eyewitness identification reform that have been attempted. This Article establishes a taxonomy of reform efforts that includes top-down, command-and-control legislation; entirely bottom-up, essentially laissez-faire approaches to identification practices; and a hybrid that builds on emerging notions of democratic experimentalism – a form of “new governance” – to foster bottom-up experimentation by imposing obligations on police while giving them the …

Cross-Racial Identifications: Solutions To The "They All Look Alike" Effect, Laura Connelly

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

On a late summer evening in August of 1997, Nathan Brown was in his apartment rocking his young daughter to sleep when the police knocked on his door. The police sought Brown, one of a few Black men in his apartment complex, after a young White woman said she had been assaulted by a shirtless Black man wearing black shorts with strong body odor walking through the complex’s courtyard. Minutes later the police took Brown outside and put him in the patrol car for a one-on-one “showup.” They brought him out by himself to see the victim wearing black shorts …

Implementing The Lessons From Wrongful Convictions: An Empirical Analysis Of Eyewitness Identification Reform Strategies, Keith A. Findley

Keith A Findley

Learning about the flaws in the criminal justice system that have produced wrongful convictions has progressed at a dramatic pace since the first innocent individuals were exonerated by postconviction DNA testing in 1989. Application of that knowledge to improving the criminal justice system, however, has lagged far behind the growth in knowledge. Likewise, while considerable scholarship has been devoted to identifying the factors that produce wrongful convictions, very little scholarly attention has been devoted to the processes through which knowledge about causes is translated into reforms.

Using eyewitness misidentification—one of the leading contributors to wrongful convictions and the most thoroughly …

The Promises And Pitfalls Of State Eyewitness Identification Reforms, Nicholas A. Kahn-Fogel

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of state-based eyewitness identification reforms, including legislative directives, evidentiary rules, and judicial interpretations of state constitutions as providing greater protection against the use of unreliable eyewitness evidence than the United State Supreme Court offered in its 1977 decision in Manson v. Brathwaite. While previous scholarship has included thorough consideration of a single state's eyewitness law, state-by-state analysis of a sub-issue in eyewitness law, and brief general surveys of state approaches to eyewitness reform, this article adds to the current body of scholarship with an in-depth evaluation of eyewitness identification law in states that have …

Cross-Racial Identification Errors In Criminal Cases, Sheri Johnson

Sheri Lynn Johnson

No abstract provided.

On The Admissibility Of Expert Testimony On Eyewitness Identification: A Legal And Scientific Evaluation, Tanja Rapus Benton, Stephanie A. Mcdonnell, Neil Thomas, David F. Ross, Nicholas Honerkamp

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

This article is a state-by-state and circuit-by-circuit analysis of judicial decisions on the admissibility of expert testimony on eyewitness identification problems. The basis for the admission of expert testimony is analyzed, and then the rationale used in those decisions is considered with regard to the current data from psychological studies. This article also addresses the apparent disregard of social science research by the judicial system.

Perry V. New Hampshire: Abandoning The Supreme Court's Fundamental Concern With Eyewitness Reliability, Shaun Gates

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innocence And Its Impact On The Reassessment Of The Utility Of Capital Punishment: Has Time Come To Abolish The Ultimate Sanction?, Vincent R. Jones, Bruce Wilson

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V. Henderson: A Model For Admitting Eyewitness Identification Testimony, Amy D. Trenary

University of Colorado Law Review

Eyewitness identification testimony is notoriously unreliable and has significantly contributed to wrongful convictions. Most courts use the standard set forth by the Supreme Court in Manson v. Brathwaite to assess whether eyewitness identifications are sufficiently reliable to present to the jury. But in the thirty-five years since Manson, an extensive body of research has amassed that calls into question the continuing validity of that standard. Researchers have identified numerous system variables (procedural elements subject to official control) and estimator variables (factors related to the witness, perpetrator, and event) that affect the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. The Manson standard fails to …

Brief Of Amici Curiae, Neil Vidmar Et Al., Connecticut V. Guilbert, Neil Vidmar, Theresa A. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Manson And Its Progeny: An Empirical Analysis Of American Eyewitness Law, Nicholas A. Kahn-Fogel

Faculty Scholarship

Since the Supreme Court established the current constitutional framework for determining the admissibility of eyewitness identification evidence in Manson v. Brathwaite in 1977, scientists and scholars who have evaluated the opinion have uniformly criticized it as insufficient to deter police from using flawed identification procedures and inconsistent with scientific evidence of the best ways to assess the reliability of evidence tainted by such procedures. Until now, however, the work of these scientists and scholars has been based primarily on simulation experiments and on a selective assortment of easily criticized judicial decisions applying Manson. This study provides the first systematic analysis …

Don’T I Know You?: The Effect Of Prior Acquaintance/Familiarity On Witness Identification, James E. Coleman Jr., Theresa A. Newman, Neil Vidmar, Elizabeth Zoeller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Through The Lens Of Federal Evidence Rule 403: An Examination Of Eyewitness Identification Expert Testimony Admissibility In The Federal Circuit Courts, Lauren Tallent

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Limited Diagnosticity Of Criminal Trials, Dan Simon

Vanderbilt Law Review

Few political institutions play as palpable, ubiquitous, and solemn a role in the U.S. public life as the criminal justice system. The task of determining the defendant's criminal liability with a high degree of certitude is performed through the ritualized and highly proceduralized adjudicative process, with the trial at its core. The United States Supreme Court has portrayed the criminal trial as a "decisive and portentous" and "paramount" event. Trials are considered "the central institution of law as we know it," the "crown jewel" of the legal system. Amidst its multiple purposes, an essential objective of the criminal trial is …

The Admissibility Of Eyewitness-Identification Expert Testimony In Oklahoma, Sean S. Hunt

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Reliance On Eyewitness Confidence, Neil Vidmar, James E. Coleman Jr., Theresa A. Newman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reforming Eyewitness Identification Law And Practices To Protect The Innocent, Margery Koosed

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses varying eyewitness identification reform proposals that may help to finally achieve a greater level of reliability in this critical phase of the criminal justice process. The author concludes a comprehensive reform that includes tightening exclusionary rules, along with (minimally) corroboration requirements for death-sentencing, and more appropriately, for convictions in capital and non-capital cases, with a concomitant loosening of standards for relief on appeal, hold the most promise.

The article addresses adopting best practices; assuring compliance by means of exclusion; admitting expert testimony and educating juries; instructing on the vagaries of eyewitness identification; requiring corroboration with independent and …

Reforming Eyewitness Identification Law And Practices To Protect The Innocent, Margery Koosed

Margery Koosed

This article discusses varying eyewitness identification reform proposals that may help to finally achieve a greater level of reliability in this critical phase of the criminal justice process. The author concludes a comprehensive reform that includes tightening exclusionary rules, along with (minimally) corroboration requirements for death-sentencing, and more appropriately, for convictions in capital and non-capital cases, with a concomitant loosening of standards for relief on appeal, hold the most promise.

The article addresses adopting best practices; assuring compliance by means of exclusion; admitting expert testimony and educating juries; instructing on the vagaries of eyewitness identification; requiring corroboration with independent and …

I’Ll Never Forget That Face . . . (But I Might Not Remember It Accurately), Jules Epstein

Jules Epstein

No abstract provided.

Manson V. Brathwaite Revisited: Towards A New Rule Of Decision For Due Process Challenges To Eyewitness Identification Procedures, Timothy P. O'Toole, Giovanna Shay

Faculty Scholarship

Almost 30 years ago, in Manson v. Brathwaite--the Supreme Court set out a test for determining when due process requires suppression of an out-of-court identification produced by suggestive police procedures. The Manson Court rejected a per se exclusion rule in favor of a test focusing on whether an identification infected by suggestive procedures is nonetheless reliable when judged in the totality of the circumstances. The purpose of this Article is two-fold: to demonstrate that the Manson rule of decision fails to safeguard due process values, in part because it does not account for the intervening social science research, and to …

Interdisciplinary Trends In Evidence Scholarship, Roger C. Park, Michael J. Saks

ExpressO

Abstract In recent decades, evidence scholarship published in leading law reviews has become markedly interdisciplinary, while treatises and texts continue to fill the need for doctrinal analysis. The authors describe this trend and set forth its recent history. They review and critique scholarship that applies concepts and insights from psychology, probability theory, philosophy, feminism, and economics to the law of evidence. They also comment on the pitfalls, benefits and prospects of interdisciplinary evidence scholarship

New Procedures Will Aid Accurate Eyewitnes Identification, Lisa Bruiniers, Craig Ching, Mark Goossens, Dan Taylor

Student Publications

No abstract provided.