“Recognition” is a January 18, 2016 New Yorker story about a man convicted of rape in 1986 based on eyewitness testimony. Worth reading if you’re interested in how our criminal justice system operates.
2 thoughts on “Eyewitness testimony”
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Not mentioned is the quality of the legal representation that Mr. Cole had obtained. I suspect that the very best legal talent might have been out of reach for an economically modest family such as this. It probably makes a big difference in borderline cases and might have made all the difference for that poor man. OJ Simpson could testify to that!
I was on a jury for a robbery case that relied almost exclusively on the eye witness testimony of the person who was robbed. The defendant, was clearly wearing an ankle tracking device (indicating he was already convicted of a different crime) and was represented by a public defender. The public defender brought in an eye witness expert witness who provided us with excellent information on the subject. As I recall, the entire jury was in agreement to acquit within an hour of reviewing the evidence.
I looked up the defendant after the trial and found that he had recently been convicted of various Meth related drug crimes. Given the nature of the grab and run robbery that he was on trial for, there is a high probability that he was guilty of the crime for which we acquitted him.