Innocence Blog

February 9, 2007

Legal groups challenge flawed eyewitness identification study in court

Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction. Of the 194 DNA exonerations to date, more than 75% have involved a false identification by a witness or victim. One recent field study of procedures that have always been proven to make identifications more accurate has caused controversy, and a civil lawsuit filed in Illinois yesterday aims to set the record straight on recent research in the field.

The MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law filed the lawsuit, which would force the Illinois police departments that conducted a controversial 2006 identification study to reveal their underlying data. The Illinois study claimed that eyewitnesses make more false identifications in “blind sequential” procedures (where witnesses view lineup members – or their photos — one at a time and the administrator doesn’t know which person is the suspect) than in traditional “simultaneous” lineups (where lineup members are all in one room or all on page of photos). The study, which has been widely discredited because its methodology was so flawed that the results are unreliable, contradicts significant scientific findings on the issues in recent years. The authors of the report and the police departments involve have refused to make the data behind the study public, raising even more serious doubts about the methodology and the objectivity of the study.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers joined in the lawsuit. The groups filing the suit allege that the data collection methods used in the Illinois study were severely flawed and that the data should be shared with the public.

“It does not serve the public interest to conceal data that was gathered at the taxpayers’ expense,” NACDL President Martin S. Pinales said, recognizing the gravity of the litigation. “It only creates doubt and suspicion. If the data support the report’s conclusions, then the police and authors of the report should have nothing to hide. But considering that this report contradicts all of the previous social science research on eyewitness identification, we have reason to believe that the information we are seeking will show that the research was deeply flawed and may have resulted in mistaken identifications.”

Read the full press release here.

A previous peer-reviewed scientific field study in Hennepin County, Minnesota, proved that eyewitnesses made fewer mistakes in “sequential blind” lineups than traditional “simultaneous” lineups. A quarter-century of strong social science research has also found that the eyewitness identification reforms are effective. Read the Innocence Project’s press release on the Hennepin County study.

MacArthur Justice Center press release on Thursday’s lawsuit (PDF)

Read the lawsuit filed Thursday (PDF)

Hennepin County, Minnesota field study (publish in Cardozo Law Review, April 2006) (PDF)

Understand The Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification

Fact Sheet on Eyewitness Misidentification

Several states — and the federal government — are considering DNA database expansions despite backlogged labs

A bill before the Arizona Senate would expand that state’s DNA database to include samples of everyone arrested (but not necessarily convicted) for a crime in the state. However, the state lab had a backlog of 80,000 samples from convicted felons as recently as 2004 and would have to spend millions of dollars to update its lab and hire additional staff to handle triple the current volume of samples. An Arizona Daily Star editorial on Thursday argues against the expansion:

…expanding the DNA database is problematic for several reasons.

First, there are concerns over the loss of civil liberties. Simply being arrested does not mean a person has committed a crime, and many people who are arrested are never charged. Yet those people's DNA would become part of the database.

A more practical concern with expanding the DNA database is that the state doesn't have the resources to test an additional 75,000 people a year — the estimate given by Senate staff that examined the possible impact of the legislation.

…Senate staff found that the bill would cost an additional $3.75 million per year for DNA tests, DPS would have to hire 15 new workers to handle the increased volume of samples, and the state would have to expand its testing facility at a cost of $8 million to $10 million.

Read the full article here. (Arizona Daily Star, 02/08/07)

Several other states are currently considering bills expanding DNA database collection, while funding for crime labs remains woefully inadequate nationwide. Congress also quietly passed an amendment in January authorizing the federal government to collect samples from anyone arrested by federal authorities. The FBI lab, which would process these millions of samples, already has a backlog of 150,000 samples.

More informations on DNA database expansion and crime lab backlogs:

Orlando Boquete: A free man

In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, reporter Jim Dwyer profiles exoneree Orlando Boquete's years as a fugitive and his new life as a free man.

Read more about Boquete's case in our Know the Cases section.

PREVIOUS DATE | NEXT DATE