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New Mexico Senate passes eyewitness identification reform bill
Posted: February 6, 2007
The New Mexico Senate passed a bill that would reform police lineups and reduce eyewitness misidentifications. The bill passed by a vote of 22-20 and will now go to the state House of Representatives. The bill would require police to conduct photo lineups sequentially, rather than simultaneously, an important reform (read more here), and includes several other vital reforms.
“This bill simply recognizes that police officers are human; we want to try to eliminate as much human error as possible and make sure that we get the actual perpetrator of a crime convicted,” Sen. John Grubesic, a Santa Fe Democrat, told the Sante Fe New Mexican.On Monday, Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck and Staff Attorney Ezekiel Edwards (Mayer Brown Eyewitness Fellow) posted this letter online, calling for the passage of the New Mexico bill. The letter reads, in part:
It’s not complicated: mandating reform in eyewitness identification procedures is a win-win situation, resulting in fewer innocent people being sent to prison, more guilty people getting caught, and our communities becoming safer.
“For years, Democrats and Republicans alike have embraced policies that are tough on crime. Now it is time they get smart about crime, too. In light of the daunting number of wrongful convictions caused by erroneous eyewitness identifications, along with the copious scientific research documenting the factors that enhance its error rate, our leaders must prioritize aggressive reform of police procedures in this arena. Supporting bills like New Mexico Senate Bill 5 is a good place to start.”Several blogs posted the Scheck and Edwards letter on Monday, including Talk Left, and a Christian Science Monitor story today discusses how states are turning to sequential lineups to improve the quality of eyewitness identifications.
- View the Innocence Project Fact Sheet on Eyewitness Identifications
- Read the Scheck/Edwards letter (PDF)
- New Mexico Senate Bill 5 (as introduced)
Tags: New Mexico, Eyewitness Identification
Texas Senate committee approves reform bills
Posted: April 11, 2007
The Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice approved bills yesterday that would significantly improve the state’s justice system. The bills, introduced by Senator Rodney Ellis (the chairman of the Innocence Project Board of Directors), would create an innocence commission, improve eyewitness identification procedures and increase compensation for the wrongly convicted.
The committee heard testimony yesterday from four men (James Giles, Brandon Moon, Chris Ochoa and James Waller) who served decades in Texas prisons for crimes they didn’t commit. Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck also testified.
Watch video of yesterday's full press conference, featuring Scheck, Ellis, Giles, Moon, Ochoa and Waller. (Real player required, download it here.)
Watch video of yesterday's Senate Committee on Criminal Justice hearing.
The bills will now go before the full senate for approval. Read the full story on the committee’s vote. (El Paso Times, 4/11/07)
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Exoneree Compensation, Eyewitness Identification
California Senate committee passes three reform bills
Posted: April 19, 2007
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, one of six “innocence commissions” around the country, is supporting three critical reform bills in the California legislature this year. Lawmakers heard testimony from three exonerees on Tuesday, and the Senate Public Safety Committee passed the three bills, which would improve eyewitness identification procedures, require recording of certain custodial interrogations and place requirements on prosecutors to verify information before a jailhouse informant testifies.
Two similar bills were vetoed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"This isn't a foolproof guarantee that we won't have wrongful convictions," said Gerald F. Uelman, a noted defense attorney and professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "But it would substantially reduce the risk." Uelman and former two-term Attorney General John Van de Kamp lead the panel, formally known as the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.Read more about these reforms and others in our Fix The System section.
Read the full story here. (San Jose Mercury News, 4/18/07, free registration required)
The San Jose Mercury News published a special series on wrongful convictions last year, entitled “Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice,” click here to read the articles.
Read the bills now pending before the California Senate:
SB756 (eyewitness identification reforms)
SB511 (recording of interrogations)
SB609 (snitch testimony reforms)
Tags: Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
Eyewitness reforms gain momentum nationwide
Posted: April 20, 2007
Eyewitness identification was a factor in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing. This legislative session, 16 bills including eyewitness identification reforms were introduced in a dozen states. One, in West Virginia, has been passed and is awaiting the governor’s approval. Ezekiel Edwards, Innocence Project staff attorney/Mayer Brown eyewitness fellow, told the National Law Journal that DNA exonerations have helped drive interest in these reforms.
Whether the pending bills pass or not, Edwards said there is definitely more activity now, which he attributed to wrongful convictions.
"They allow us to kind of look back at the cases as a collective and see what went wrong and the overreaching answer is eyewitness identification," said Edwards, who recently testified in favor of West Virginia's bill.What do these reforms include? Click here to learn more about blind sequential lineups and more in our Fix The System section.
Read the full story here. (National Law Journal, 4/20/07)
Read about pending reforms in Texas and California and the West Virginia reforms that were recently approved by the legislature.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Philadelphia Inquirer: Criminal Justice Failures
Posted: April 25, 2007
An editorial in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer calls for criminal justice reforms to address the causes of wrongful conviction.
Since the first person was exonerated by DNA evidence in 1989, such reversals are becoming more frequent. The 200 people cleared by DNA in the United States spent a combined 2,475 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
What if one of them were your brother, or son, or father?
There can be no doubt that there are other innocent people behind bars, including some on death row.Read the full editorial here. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/25/07)
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Exoneree Compensation, Eyewitness Identification
North Carolina House committee approves eyewitness ID reform bill
Posted: April 27, 2007
Eyewitness misidentification has been involved in more than 75 percent of the 200 convictions later overturned by DNA evidence, and a bill pending in North Carolina's House of Representatives would lead to reforms statewide that would help prevent misidentifications from happening. The bill was approved Tuesday by a House committee and will now go to the full House. Among reforms included in the bill are blind administration - where the lineup administrator does not know which participant is the suspect - and sequential photo lineups - where photos are shown one at a time rather than all at once. Studies have shown that viewing photos all at once leads witnesses to choose the person who looks the most like the perpetrator but may not be the perpetrator.
"Some people's memories are different than others," said Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, one of the primary sponsors of the bill... "When people remember what other people look like, they don't remember it the same."Eyewitness identification reforms were recommended in 2003 by North Carolina's innocence commission, a body formed to study the causes of wrongful convictions and implement policies proven to fix the system's flaws. North Carolina is one of six states with such commissions, though others are pending nationwide. The Innocence Project is advocating for the formation of these commissions nationwide as part of our month-long "200 Exonerated" campaign - launched this week to mark the milestone of the 200th DNA exoneration in the U.S.
Read the full story here.
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Eyewitness Identification
Exonerations have changed justice system
Posted: May 3, 2007
An article in today’s Washington Post reports on reforms happening nationwide as a result of DNA exonerations. The 200 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the last 18 years have made clear that certain patterns have led to injustice over and over again. The causes of wrongful convictions are well-defined and they can be fixed with proven reforms.
The overturning of convictions based on DNA evidence is prompting changes in criminal procedures that reach beyond race. States and cities are starting to enact or consider laws to change decades-old police methods such as eyewitness identifications and police interrogations that lead to confessions.
"The exonerations have been an extremely important force in getting the legal system to recognize there's a problem," said Gary L. Wells, an Iowa State University psychology professor whose research led to new practices in eyewitness identification. "I've been working at this for 30 years, and before DNA they pretty much ignored the studies."
Read the full story here. (Washington Post, 5/3/07)
Tags: False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification
NJ’s highest court tells judges to warn jurors about eyewitness error
Posted: May 22, 2007
Eyewitness misidentification was involved in 77 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA evidence. Yesterday, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that judges in the state must warn jurors that eyewitnesses may be wrong, no matter how confident they seem on the stand.
In a unanimous opinion, the state's high court said the "fallibility of eyewitness identifications" led them to revise the instructions judges read to jurors on how they should decide a suspect's guilt under the law.
"We believe that particular care need be taken in respect of this powerful evidence -- the eyewitness," Supreme Court Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote for the court. "Eyewitness identification testimony requires close scrutiny and should not be accepted uncritically."
Read the full story here. (Newark Star-Ledger, 5/22/07)
The justices also found yesterday that cases involving cross-ethnic, yet same-race, identifications did not require a special cross-racial identification jury charge. Read more about this on the Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog.
Tags: New Jersey, Eyewitness Identification
Exoneree Doug Warney calls for end to New York death penalty
Posted: May 29, 2007
Doug Warney, who was exonerated in 2006 after serving nine years for a murder he didn’t commit, published a column in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle last week calling for state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty for good.
In early 1996, I became the first person charged capitally under New York's new death penalty statute. The district attorney at the time said I was a monster who deserved to die. Fortunately, the grand jury indicted me only for second-degree murder. Otherwise, I could have easily received the death penalty. I was sentenced to only 25 years to life for a murder I had nothing to do with. In some ways, I was lucky.Read more about Warney’s case.
Read the full column here. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 05/22/07)
Tags: Douglas Warney, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, False Confessions
Vermont Gov. signs reform bill into law
Posted: June 5, 2007
Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas signed a bill last week granting access to DNA testing for people who claim innocence after being convicted of certain crimes in the state.
The bill also grants compensation to people exonerated after being convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and it creates committees to study new state policies on evidence preservation, eyewitness identification reform and recording of custodial interrogation.
Click here to read the full text of the bill as passed by Vermont’s House and Senate.
View a map of post-conviction DNA access laws and exoneree compensation laws nationwide.
Tags: Vermont, Exoneree Compensation, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
California considers legislation to prevent wrongful convictions
Posted: June 27, 2007 4:00 pm
Three new bills that would help prevent wrongful convictions passed in California’s Assembly Public Safety Committee yesterday. The bills, based on the recommendations of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, call for the recording of all interrogations of suspects in violent felonies, the corroboration of any jailhouse informant testimony and new guidelines for line-up procedures. Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, sponsor of the bill on lineup procedures, underscored the importance of reforms that address the leading causes of wrongful convictions.
"When opponents" of the bill say wrongful convictions are infrequent, "I say tell that to the guy who spent 17 years in prison for something he didn't do," Ridley-Thomas said. "If we're not vigilant it will happen more frequently."Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar bills after they had passed in both houses. This year’s bills address the governor’s concerns.
Read the full story here. (Los Angeles Times 6/27/07)
Read the full text of SB 756, which includes eyewitness identification reforms. (PDF)
Get an update on the status of SB 756.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Social scientists say Illinois identification report is unreliable
Posted: July 12, 2007 1:49 pm
Last year, a report released by Illinois police departments claimed that a non-scientific eyewitness identification review had called into question the practice of using “sequential double-blind” lineups, a reform underway nationwide and supported by the Innocence Project. But this month a panel of leading social scientists reports in a law journal that the Illinois report was fatally flawed and its results should be viewed with extreme caution.
This month’s report, which was published in the journal Law and Human Behavior, states that the Chicago report’s “design guaranteed that most outcomes would be difficult or impossible to interpret. The only way to sort this out is by conducting further studies.”
The Center for Modern Forensic Practice of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice organized the July report’s “blue ribbon” panel of authors, which included Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman of Princeton and Harvard professor and author Daniel Schachter.
According to James Doyle, Director of the Center for Modern Forensic Practice, “We convened some of the nation’s leading experts to look at the Illinois report because it’s critical that criminal justice policy be based on sound science. They found, unequivocally, that the Illinois report cannot be relied on to determine whether sequential double-blind procedures are effective. Most importantly, they recommend that future study of these procedures be designed in consultation with qualified scientists from the beginning, so that such studies can produce solid, reliable guidance for practitioners and policymakers.”Sequential double-blind lineups, which are supported by the Innocence Project as a means to reduce misidentifications, are conducted by an administrator who does not know the identity of the suspect. Lineup members, or their photos, are presented one at a time to avoid any comparison between them. Social science research has supported these reforms for three decades, and field studies of identification reforms continue nationwide.
Read the John Jay press release and the full article here. (John Jay College)
The Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog this week called the Chicago report “junk science” and calls for further study. Read the blog post here.
Eyewitness misidentification was a factor more than 75% of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing. Read about reforms supported by the Innocence Project here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Texas column: Don't always believe your eyes
Posted: July 13, 2007 11:31 am
A column in today’s Daily Texan points to the prevalence of eyewitness misidentification among wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA and calls for reforms nationwide to both lineup procedures and the way judges instruct juries on eyewitness testimony.
The problems with eyewitness testimony are known, and guidelines to ensure unbiased eyewitness testimony are available. Incorrect eyewitness identification has condemned innocent people to life in prison and even the death penalty. Judges should make sure that juries understand the nature of eyewitness testimony, with all its caveats and pitfalls.Read more about a “blue ribbon” panel report on identification studies released this week, and learn about reforms supported by the Innocence Project.
Read the full story here. (Daily Texas, 07/12/2007)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Chicago Tribune: Unscientific report on eyewitness reforms in Illinois was so flawed it is unreliable
Posted: July 30, 2007 1:13 pm
Social scientists were surprised last year when a non-scientific report from several Illinois police departments challenged the effectiveness of major eyewitness identification reforms taking root nationwide. The Illinois report was used to defeat reform legislation in several states – but a new analysis by some of the nation’s leading social scientists says the Illinois report’s methodology was so flawed that it is unreliable. The Chicago Tribune reports today that a new peer-reviewed psychology article “panned” the Illinois report and called for more research in this field to produce data that is scientifically valid and reliable.
While the debate raged on, a panel of social scientists and experts, including Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University, who had no previous stake in the issue, started a peer review of the study. They analyzed the Illinois pilot program's report, as well as critiques and support of the report, before writing the review, which is being published in the APA's Law and Human Behavior journal.Read more about eyewitness identification reforms in our Fix the System section.
If the Illinois pilot program had been designed correctly, it would have compared "sequential" lineups, in which a witness is shown a person or photo one at a time, to "simultaneous" lineups, in which potential suspects are shown in a group, but it would have used an administrator who doesn't know who the suspect is in both. That method is called the "double-blind" method.
Comparing group and individual lineups, while at the same time using some administrators who knew suspects and some who didn't, was like comparing "apples to dolphins," said James Doyle, director of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Center for Modern Forensic Practice, which coordinated the panel review.
"Just putting the two of them together doesn't make it a scientific review," Doyle said. "You've changed two variables at once. You can't do that."
Read the full article here. (Chicago Tribune, 07/30/07)
Get involved: Watch a video of exoneree Marvin Anderson describing the questionable lineup procedure in his case, and send us your own video clip explaining why eyewitness identification reform matters to you.
Tags: Illinois, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Celebrating freedom: Three exonerees mark anniversaries
Posted: August 8, 2007 7:00 am
Seven years ago today, Larry Youngblood walked out of an Arizona prison after serving nine years for a crime he didn’t commit. Eyewitness misidentification contributed to Youngblood’s conviction and it has been involved in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing.
Read more about Youngblood’s case and proposed reforms to identification procedures nationwide.
Also celebrating exoneration anniversaries this week:
Thursday: Ryan Matthews, Louisiana (Exonerated 8/9/2004)
Saturday: Wilton Dedge, Florida (Exonerated 8/11/2004)
Tags: Wilton Dedge, Ryan Matthews, Larry Youngblood, Eyewitness Identification
Eyewitness blog: The problems with jury instructions
Posted: August 15, 2007 1:49 pm
The instructions that judges most commonly give to juries when an eyewitness testifies, called a Telfaire instruction after a 1972 circuit court decision, asks jurors to consider the “strength” of the identification and the circumstances under which the identification was made . In a recent post on the Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog, public defender Ben Hiltzheimer argues that Telfaire is based on outdated research and needs to be updated to reflect new practices and knowledge in the field of eyewitness identification.
It's time to stop misinforming juries based on the antiquated, unscientific musings of an old Court, and to start letting science into the courtroom at every phase of trial. The Constitution demands it, and the rights of the wrongfully accused depend on it.Read about eyewitness misidentification as a cause of wrongful conviction.
Read the full post here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Georgia hearings on eyewitness identification start this week
Posted: September 18, 2007 10:09 am
A new committee of the Georgia legislature began hearing testimony yesterday on proposed state laws governing eyewitness identification procedures. Georgia Innocence Project Director Aimee Maxwell testified, as well as Innocence Project client Calvin Johnson, Jr., who was misidentified by an eyewitness and wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
More than 80 percent of Georgia police departments responding to a recent survey said they had no written standards for eyewitness identifications. One of the first steps to statewide identification reform is to adopt written policies following accepted procedures.
Read more: Most Georgia police have no eyewitness guidelines (Associated Press, 09/17/07)
Men freed from jail urge change in eyewitness IDs (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 09/18/07)
For the hearing schedule and more background on the new committee, visit the Georgia Innocence Project’s website.
In addition to Calvin Johnson, other Georgia exonerees will be present at today’s hearing. Read more about their cases here.
Watch video of a speech by Calvin Johnson, Jr. and an interview with Georgia exoneree Robert Clark.
Tags: Georgia, Robert Clark, Calvin Johnson, Eyewitness Identification
Dallas to study new identification procedures
Posted: September 26, 2007 2:55 pm
Since 2001, 13 wrongful convictions have been overturned by DNA testing in Dallas County – more than any other county in the United States. Eleven of those 13 wrongful convictions were caused, at least in part, by eyewitness misidentification. But starting in January, Dallas officials aim to do something about the problem by participating in a major federal study of lineup procedures and reforms proven to increase the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
The $300,000 study will be led by the Urban Institute, and will consist of more than 800 lineups in robbery cases. Four different types of lineups will be used – about 200 cases will be tested using each type – to collect scientific data on the outcome. Dallas police officials told the Dallas Morning News that they are excited to improve the county’s identification systems.
"Everybody in law enforcement wants to use the best system," said Dallas police Assistant Chief Ron Waldrop, commander of the criminal investigations bureau. "Once it's been shown scientifically which is the best system, I think everybody will move to that system."Among the lineup styles being tested will be “sequential double-blind,” in which the lineup administrator doesn’t know which lineup member is the suspect, and the witness views individuals one at a time, instead of all at once. Social science research, including a field study in Hennepin County, Minnesota, have shown that this method reduces misidentifications. A report last year in Illinois challenged this format, but today’s Dallas Morning News article notes that the Illinois report “has come under withering criticism from experts who say it had major design flaws, including a lack of uniformity in the way the lineups were conducted.”
The Innocence Project strongly supports additional field study of “sequential double-blind” – particularly field study that, unlike the Illinois report, uses solid scientific methodology. The Dallas County study may also include field testing of “blind” administration as compared to “non-blind” administration, but the Innocence Project and leading researchers in the field have long expressed concerns about the ability to effectively field study the impact of “blind” administration on the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 09/26/07)
Read more about eyewitness misidentification and the Innocence Project’s proposed reforms to prevent wrongful convictions.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Former prosecutor calls for governor to sign California bills
Posted: September 26, 2007 3:03 pm
Three bills awaiting the signature of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would reform the state’s criminal justice system to provent wrongful convictions. In an op-ed in today’s Sacramento Bee, former federal prosecutor Thomas Sullivan calls for the state to improve its justice system for all parties involved.
I have sat on both sides of the table -- prosecuting crimes as a U.S. attorney and representing the accused as a defense lawyer. This broad experience has shown me that if we can bolster the reliability of evidence in the courtroom, we can strengthen our system of justice for everyone's benefit. California now has a vehicle for that brand of change with three significant bills. If enacted, the trio would enhance the overall accuracy of evidence -- and ensure that California heeds the lessons of (wrongful convictions).Read more about the pending bills in our previous blog post.
Read the full column here. (Sacramento Bee, 09/26/07)
Watch a video of California exoneree Herman Atkins, explaining how these reforms would prevent others from suffering the injustice he did.
Tags: California, Herman Atkins, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
Editorial: Dallas study will “advance the cause of airtight justice”
Posted: October 1, 2007 12:06 pm
In January, the Dallas Police Department will launch a pilot program to study its eyewitness identification procedures, comparing the accuracy of traditional methods with techniques shown by several previous studies to reduce misidentifications. An editorial in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News praises the city's police department for taking part in this pilot program, and calls on jurisdictions throughout Texas to adopt practices shown to prevent wrongful convictions. A good next step, the newspaper writes, will be the creation of a Texas Innocence Commission, which was proposed this year in the state’s legislature but did not pass.
Dallas may well prove to have the most up-to-date photo lineup methods available, but there's no vehicle to evenly apply the lessons across the state. And there's no doubt about failures in other counties, as the Innocence Project has tallied 29 exonerations statewide.Read more about eyewitness identification reforms underway nationwide, and learn more about the six states with active Innocence Commissions.
State leaders should be weary of hearing apologies to innocent men who have spent years in prison.
They must do everything possible to break this disgraceful pattern.Read the full editorial. (Dallas Morning News, 09/30/07)
The Dallas study is part of a larger national study by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. Read more about this effort.
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Eyewitness Identification
California governor vetoes justice reforms
Posted: October 16, 2007 3:15 pm
For the second year in a row, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday vetoed three bills passed by the state legislature to reduce the number of wrongful convictions in the state. The bills would have required law enforcement agencies to record interrogations in certain crimes, required jailhouse informant testimony to be corroborated and created a task force to develop guidelines on increasing the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
The chairman of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice said in a statement yesterday that “Schwarzenegger has taken California out of the front lines of criminal justice reform.”
The vacuum of leadership in the Governor’s mansion will not make the causes of wrongful convictions disappear. We cannot insert our heads in the sand as the parade of innocents who have been wrongfully convicted continues to grow.Schwarzenegger, in his veto messages, said new state policies would “would place unnecessary restrictions on police.”
Read the full statement here. (PDF)
Read the governor’s veto statements here.
More coverage: Gov. vetoes bills on criminal procedures (Los Angeles Times, 10/16/07)
The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, one of six innocence commissions nationwide, will hold its next public meeting tomorrow, October 17, at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. Click here for the meeting’s agenda.
Tags: California, Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Informants/Snitches
Crime victim calls for better identification practices in Georgia
Posted: October 23, 2007 4:45 pm
After Jennifer Thompson-Cannino was raped in 1984, she identified a man in a police lineup as her attacker. The officer conducting the lineup told her she had done a “good job,” confirming that she’d picked the suspect. Eleven years later, DNA evidence proved that suspect, Ronald Cotton, had been wrongfully convicted of the rape.
Before a rapt audience Monday at a legislative study committee hearing, Cannino recounted the horror of her sexual assault on June 29, 1984, and her horror when learning 11 years later she had misidentified her attacker and helped send the wrong man to prison. The real attacker, later identified by DNA evidence, had gone on to rape six more women after he attacked Cannino.Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck and Iowa State Psychology Professor Gary Wells also testified before the group Monday, describing lineup procedures proven to increase the accuracy of eyewitness identifications. Download the study committee’s full schedule here.
"It's a human system," Cannino said. "We are fallible. We make mistakes. There are practices that can be put into place."
Read the full story here. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/23/07)
Read more about Ronald Cotton’s wrongful conviction and exoneration here.
Tags: Georgia, Ronald Cotton, Eyewitness Identification
Stronger justice in Vermont around the corner?
Posted: December 19, 2007 2:25 pm
In the next few days, leading criminal justice experts will release their recommendations on improving Vermont’s criminal justice system to prevent and address wrongful convictions.
In an op-ed published today in the Rutland Herald, Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom writes that legislation passed this year in Vermont advanced the state’s justice system. The reform package provided DNA testing access to convicted people, created a system for compensating the exonerated. The legislation also created task forces to review procedures on evidence preservation, recording of interrogations and eyewitness identification procedures. Saloom, Massachusetts exoneree Dennis Maher and many criminal justice experts testified at the Vermont Legislature in support of the reforms this year. The panels are scheduled to release their findings in the coming days.
Since the task forces were formed, five more innocent people have been exonerated through DNA evidence. The state Legislature and the task forces are positioned to prevent such injustice in Vermont. The opportunity to enhance the state's criminal justice system is in their hands. In the next few days, we'll find out what they choose to do with it.View Vermont’s legislation and find your state’s criminal justice reform stance on our interactive map.
Read the full op-ed here. (Rutland Herald, 12/19/2007)
Tags: Vermont, Dennis Maher, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation
NY Times editorial calls for reforms nationwide
Posted: January 10, 2008 11:00 am
An editorial in today’s New York Times considers the release last week of Charles Chatman in Dallas and calls for critical reforms nationwide to address and prevent wrongful convictions. Hundreds of innocent people remain behind bars, the editorial says, and the risk of convicting innocents will remain strong until we implement reforms that are proven to improven the accuracy and fairness of the criminal justice system – including reforms to eyewitness identification, interrogation procedures and crime lab oversight.
While DNA evidence has captured the popular imagination, Mr. Chatman’s story — and that of many postconviction exonerations — is also in large part about eyewitness misidentification, the most common factor in wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project has proposed some important reforms that states should use in upgrading their criminal justice system. These include improvements in the use of eyewitness testimony and electronic recording of interrogations.
Better oversight and funding of crime labs is also crucial, along with creation of innocence commissions to manage claims of wrongful conviction. A groundbreaking federal law now grants federal inmates access to DNA testing. Most states and localities are lagging in doing this, and in properly preserving evidence.
Read the full editorial here. (New York Times, 01/10/08)
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Exoneree Compensation, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
Cross-Posted: Georgia lawmakers advance eyewitness identification reform
Posted: February 13, 2008 11:02 am
Ben Hiltzheimer wrote this week on the Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog about reforms pending before Georgia's legislature. The full post is here:
GA House Committee Approves Eyewitness ID ReformsRead more about eyewitness identification reforms supported by the Innocence Project.
A Georgia House of Representatives committee recently approved two pieces of legislation designed to reform police procedures for collecting eyewitness evidence.
The Non-Civil Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve HB 997 and 10 to 5 to approve HR 1071. The legislation now heads to the House Rules Committee for consideration with a favorable recommendation.
The bill, known as the Witness Identification Accuracy Enhancement Act, calls for the state law enforcement agency to develop a set of guidelines for the collection of eyewitness evidence in showups, photo arrays, and live lineups. It also calls on the state public safety training center to work with prosecutors to develop a training program for implementation of the procedures.
The House Resolution outlines specific best practices for conducting the identification procedures. Importantly, the resolution “strongly encourages” double-blind lineup procedures, where the administrator of the lineup would be a “neutral independent administrator, when feasible, and no person familiar with the identity of the suspect should be present during a photographic lineup or physical lineup.” This is arguably the most important requirement of the two pieces of legislation, as social scientists are broadly in agreement that the communication of subtle cues — either inadvertent or intentional — to witnesses by lineup administrators regarding the identity of the police suspect is the primary flaw in status quo lineup practices that lead to misidentification, and ultimately wrongful conviction.
The full test of the best practices outline in the resolution are as follows:(1) It is strongly encouraged that the administrator of a photographic lineup or physical lineup should be a neutral independent administrator, when feasible, and no person familiar with the identity of the suspect should be present during a photographic lineup or physical lineup;
(2) Prior to beginning a photographic lineup or physical lineup identification procedure, the administrator should instruct the witness that:
(A) The witness does not have to make an identification, and the identification procedure is important to the investigation whether or not an identification is made;
(B) The individuals depicted in the photographic lineup or physical lineup may not appear exactly as the witness observed on the date of the crime because features such as hairstyles and facial hair are subject to change;
(C) The perpetrator may or may not be among those shown in the photographic lineup or physical lineup;
(D) When a neutral independent administrator is conducting the photographic lineup or physical lineup, the administrator is not aware of whether the suspect is included in such photographic lineup or physical lineup; and
(E) Regardless of whether an identification is made, law enforcement will continue to investigate the crime; and(3) When conducting a photographic lineup or physical lineup, the administrator should preserve the outcome of the procedure by documenting any identification or nonidentification result obtained from a witness. All witness responses to the photographic lineup or physical lineup participants should be documented using the witness´s own words, either in writing or with an audio or video recording.
State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield is the author of this welcome piece of legislation, and has made significant progress in bringing the interested parties together to move it through the legislative process over the last couple of years.
Unfortunately, law enforcement officials continue to resist the resolution, despite the systemic wrongful conviction problem that continues to plague the Georgia criminal justice system.[Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriff’s Association] told Committee Members that while the resolution is not legally binding, he still feels the State is dictating to law enforcement what to do.Given that law enforcement agencies across the state have failed to adopt well-settled best practices on their own and the substantial cost associated with failing to do so, a legislative mandate hardly seems out of line. We’ll be following this one closely.
All seven people exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing in Georgia were convicted in part based on eyewitness misidentifications. Read about their cases here.
Visit the Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog.
Tags: Georgia, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Misidentification led to false charges in Pittsburgh case
Posted: February 15, 2008 4:32 pm
While Michael Disimo spent two months in jail for a bank robbery he didn’t commit, he lost his job and missed his son’s birthday. Disimo was arrested for the 2005 bank robbery when a police officer thought he looked like the description of the perpetrator. A bank teller was then brought to the location of the police stop to identify Disimo, in what is called a “show up” identification procedure. She said she was 100 percent sure it was him.
He was questioned by police and the FBI.Disimo was freed after the eyewitness withdrew her identification and another man confessed to committing the robbery.
Disimo said, "They had given me the polygraph test and they said that I failed it and at that point, ya know, I was really like confused, shocked, scared, definitely scared because I had never been arrested before."
Disimo was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and held on $50,000 bond. Money he didn't have.
"I flipped out and basically had a breakdown. They had put me on a suicide watch." Disimo said.
Read the full story here. (Pittsburgh.com, 02/15/08)
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction, contributing to 75 percent of the 213 cases overturned by DNA testing to date. Improving the identification procedures used by police around the country will prevent both wrongful convictions and wrongful arrests. A witness’ “100 percent” identification is strong evidence in a courtroom. Would Disimo have been convicted if the real perpetrator hadn’t come forward?
Read more about eyewitness identification reforms supported by the Innocence Project.
Tags: Pennsylvania, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
One year of freedom for Georgia exoneree
Posted: February 14, 2008 12:07 pm
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Willie "Pete" Williams' exoneration in Georgia. He was convicted based on eyewitness misidentification in 1985 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was exonerated on February 13, 2007 by postconviction DNA testing after serving nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Read more about Willie “Pete” Williams' case here.
Read yesterday’s blog post on eyewitness identification reforms in Georgia.
Other exoneration anniversary this week:
Thursday: Bruce Godschalk (Served 14.5 Years, Exonerated 2/14/02)
Tags: Bruce Godschalk, Willie Williams, Eyewitness Identification
Florida editorial calls for eyewitness reform
Posted: February 20, 2008 12:08 pm
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing, yet many jurisdictions have not implemented simple reforms that are proven to increase the accuracy of lineups and other identification procedures. An editorial in the Daytona Beach News-Journal calls for Florida lawmakers to enact new procedures for law enforcement officials that would prevent misidentification.
One of the easiest, and potentially most effective, fixes involves a simple tweak to a basic police tool: the lineup. This practice -- in which police actually line up a row of people, or display a set of photographs and ask a witness to identify one as the criminal -- is subject to flaws, particularly when the officer administering the lineup knows who the suspect is. Even though the officer might not intend to taint witness identification, it happens, through subtle "tells" such as fleeting changes of facial expression.
The solution is to remove that officer from the lineup process, substituting another officer -- one who has never seen the suspect and doesn't know who the ringers are. This procedure, called a "double-blind" lineup, is the best way to ensure that eyewitness IDs are as accurate as possible. In addition, police should take care to ensure that all subjects in a lineup are as physically similar as possible.
These two fixes are simple. They require no new technology and, because they simply substitute one officer for another, little extra police time. Moreover, they're fully supported by irrefutable research. Witnesses tend to trust their eyes, but by now police and lawmakers should know better.
Read the full editorial here.
What is your state doing to improve eyewitness identification procedures? Find out on our interactive map.
Read a guest post from the Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog on a proposed eyewitness reform bill in Georgia.
Tags: Florida, Eyewitness Identification
New Ohio coalition calls for criminal justice reform
Posted: February 25, 2008 3:42 pm
A report delivered to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland last week by leaders from across the state’s criminal justice system calls for lawmakers to address wrongful convictions with a package of reforms proven to prevent injustice. The report, delivered by the state’s head public defender, a former attorney general and the director of the Ohio Innocence Project, suggests statewide standards for evidence preservation, eyewitness identification procedures, recording of interrogations and crime lab oversight.
"We need to establish additional safeguards to make sure this stuff doesn't happen here," said former Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican who while in office pushed for DNA testing that freed a man wrongfully convicted of rape and murder.
Ohio Public Defender Tim Young agreed. "Make a list of the worst things that can happen in life, and being locked in prison for a crime you didn't do is near the top of that list. We have a fundamental responsibility, especially with DNA evidence, to make sure justice was done."
Read the full article, and view maps of other reforms passed around the country to address and prevent wrongful convictions. (Columbus Dispatch, 02/24/2008)
Tags: Ohio, Innocence Commissions, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
News report explores problems with eyewitness identification
Posted: March 26, 2008 3:25 pm
A report on ABC News’ "Primetime" last night considered the problem of eyewitness misidentification and reforms taking root nationwide to prevent future wrongful convictions. Reporters staged a fake crime and examined how eyewitnesses made mistakes in their identifications,and the results reveal the ways in which eyewitnesses can make mistakes and procedures can lead them to identify the wrong person.
Read more and watch a video clip of the report here.
The Innocence Project has been advancing significant policy reforms to address this problem nationwide. Read more about our work here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Another misidentification revealed by DNA testing
Posted: April 9, 2008 3:40 pm
More than three-quarters of the 215 people exonerated by DNA testing were convicted based, at least in part, on eyewitness misidentification. There’s no way to know the number of people who are arrested each year – and spend months or years in jail awaiting trial – based on misidentification, before other evidence clears them.
In these cases, the system did find the truth before conviction, but not until a misidentification led to the arrest of an innocent person. While police focus on the wrong suspect, the real perpetrator remains at large, and becomes harder to find. And the innocent person can lose his or her job, family or house while sitting in a jail cell.
The countless people arrested each year for crimes they didn’t commit provide more reason for states to reform their eyewitness identification practices. The improved procedures proposed by the Innocence Project — and already in place in several states — reduce the number of misidentification, and therefore the number of false arrests.
The case of Cesar Augusto Alvarez in San Jose, California, is an example of this issue. Three days before Christmas last year, he was charged with rape and sent to jail – the victim had no doubt that he was the perpetrator. Now, three months later, DNA evidence has proven his innocence and all charges have been dismissed.
Read more about Alvarez’ case here.
Reforming eyewitness identification procedures helps everyone – it prevents wrongful convictions and arrests, it helps law enforcement focus on viable suspects and it helps victims get justice. Find out what you can do in your state to help make these reforms a reality.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Cross-racial identification and jury instruction
Posted: May 20, 2008 1:30 pm
In 66 of the 216 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, cross-racial eyewitness identification was used as evidence to convict an innocent defendant. Cross-racial identification is when the witness and the defendant being identified are of different racial backgrounds. Three decades of social science research has shown that cross-racial bias exists in identification. As Zeke Edwards (a Mayer Brown Eyewitness Identification Fellow at the Innocence Project) noted in a blog post last week, the American Bar Association falls short in the language they recommend judges read to juries in cases involving cross-racial identification.
First, the initial language is conditional. “You ‘may’ consider, if you think it is appropriate …,” instead of you “should” consider.Edwards goes on to cite a better jury instruction, which he encourages lawyers to propose in cross-racial identification cases.
Second, there is no mention of the numerous scientific studies that have shown, empirically, that cross-racial bias exists. In cases where experts have not testified at trial on the subject (i.e., most cases), jurors are left ignorant of the copious social science research on the topic. Instead of stating that “scientific studies have shown,” the court cites the amorphous “ordinary human experience.”
Read his full post here. (Eyewitness Identification Reform Blog, 05/16/08)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Buffalo News: A roadmap for fixing the system
Posted: May 27, 2008 5:01 pm
Today is the third day in a five-part series of editorials and feature stories on wrongful convictions from the Buffalo News, covering the cases, their causes and critical reforms to prevent future injustice. Today’s editorial focuses on eyewitness misidentification, the leading cause of wrongful conviction overturned by DNA testing.
“For generations, we’ve known that witness identifications are inherently unreliable,” said Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark. The problems are significant, portentous and, at least in some cases, probably insurmountable. But strategies exist that will at least reduce the chance of misidentification in lineups. They are inexpensive and should be adopted quickly.Visit the Buffalo News website for the paper’s complete coverage of this issue, with a feature story, an introductory editorial from Sunday and another from Monday on recording custodial interrogations.
Misidentification is involved in more than 75 percent of the wrongful convictions overturned through DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project. On reflection, that’s not especially surprising.
Read the full story here. (Buffalo News, 05/27/08)
Tags: False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification
Charles Grodin: Why I support the Innocence Project
Posted: May 28, 2008 10:05 am
Actor Charles Grodin writes today in the New York Daily News about reforms taking root around the United States to address and prevent wrongful convictions. He applauds Colorado for passing evidence preservation legislation last month and calls on all states and individual law enforcement agencies to improve eyewitness identification procedures.
I shudder to think how many people are sitting in our prisons who have been wrongly convicted.
I support The Innocence Project, and I think if you can, you should too.
Read Grodin’s full article here. (NY Daily News, 05/27/08)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Eyewitness Misidentification
Texas prosecutors reflect on their role in wrongful convictions
Posted: June 9, 2008 12:05 pm
A groundbreaking article in this week’s issue of Texas Lawyer tells of a dozen Dallas exonerations through the eyes of the trial prosecutors. Their reflections on these cases represent a range of perspectives, but common themes emerge. There is consensus that eyewitness identification is unreliable on its own and that cases resting on a single eyewitness are a recipe for wrongful conviction. Prosecutors agree that forensic science has improved the quality of justice in American courtrooms. Many prosecutors remembered every detail of these convictions years later, and worked for the defendant’s release soon after learning of new DNA evidence proving innocence.
Prosecutors call these wrongful convictions “tragic” and one says that hindsight is 20-20.
"I don't fault anyone for doing what they're doing," Prosecutor Douglas Fletcher says. "But you can look back on any profession. Doctors can look back at doctors 30 years ago and say . . . "Why were they treating cancer that way?'"Another prosecutor, James Fry, says the unreliable nature of eyewitness identifications has been exposed by these exonerations.
… "In the criminal justice system, people are being convicted on one-witness cases. And what this says to me is we've got an inherent problem about how many of these cases we're getting wrong. And it's still going on today," says James Fry, a former Dallas prosecutor who helped send a man to prison for 27 years for a crime he didn't commit. "My question to everybody involved in this across the state and across the nation is what are we going to do about this? I don't know."Read the full story here. (Texas Lawyer, 06/06/08)
Tags: Charles Chatman, Wiley Fountain, Larry Fuller, James Giles, Donald Wayne Good, Andrew Gossett, Billy Wayne Miller, David Shawn Pope, James Waller, Gregory Wallis, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Judge: Chicago police can keep study data secret
Posted: July 2, 2008 5:38 pm
An Illinois judge ruled this week that the Chicago Police Department doesn’t have to share all of the raw data from its controversial and discredited 2006 report on eyewitness identification procedures. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a lawsuit last year seeking access to the data used in the report, which has been soundly discredited by leading social scientists for its lack of scientific methods. The judge ruled that the police must share closed case data, but could keep information on active cases a secret.
Access to data from closed cases alone isn't sufficient, argued Locke Bowman of the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of NACDL.And a post on the Eyewitness Identification Reform blog points to an interesting first-hand account of Chicago’s lineup procedures posted in the comments section of the Chicago Tribune website.
A healthy public debate requires full disclosure, he said.
"If the data supports the report's findings that traditional lineups work better than reform methods, the Chicago Police have nothing to hide," he said after the ruling. "But if the data doesn't support those findings, it's time for the Chicago Police Department and departments around the state to change the way they handle eyewitness identifications."
Read the full story here. (Chicago Tribune, 06/30/08)
Three decades of solid social science research has pointed to sequential lineups as a critical reform to reduce misidentifications. The Innocence Project and other leaders in the field have called for additional field study – using solid scientific techniques -- of the reform. A blue-ribbon panel of social scientists convened to review the difference in data between various studies of eyewitness education procedures, found that the Chicago report’s "design guaranteed that most outcomes would be difficult or impossible to interpret. The only way to sort this out is by conducting further studies." Read more here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Rhode Island Police Review Eyewitness Identification Procedures
Posted: May 18, 2010 4:32 pm
The proposed eyewitness reform legislation has not passed for the previous five years and is being held in Rhode Island’s legislature for further study. The Innocence Project is among several groups advocating for Rhode Island to follow recommended practices to avoid misidentifications.
Rhode Island’s current guidelines dictate that live and photo lineups, called six-packs, include a group of six individuals or photos. State police now have the ability to draw photos from not only the thousands of images in its database but from local police departments as well, said Lt. Michael J. Winquist. State police are in the process of revising policies to include some of the DOJ’s best practices.
The legislation would also create a task force of law enforcement members who would determine if lineups need to be conducted by “blind administrators” – officers who know don’t know which participant is the suspect. The task force would also determine if individuals or images in a lineup should be presented one at a time instead of as a group.
State police Col. Brendan P. Doherty supports the creation of the task force, Capt. David Neill said. “I think anything we can do to increase the accuracy of any photo or live lineup is beneficial to law enforcement.”
…
Deputy Attorney General Gerald J. Coyne opposed the proposed legislation at a symposium about eyewitness identification practices, which Seligmann organized at Brown last month. Coyne said he didn’t support the bill as a fix because it would be difficult to change as so-called best practices evolve. Checks and balances are already in place, he said, emphasizing that defense lawyers should have the legal skills to know when to challenge identification procedures.
Read the full story here.
Learn about eyewitness misidentification and eyewitness identification reforms here.
Learn about your state's eyewitness identification policies here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
The role of race in misidentification
Posted: August 11, 2008 4:02 pm
Social science research has shown that eyewitness misidentifications are more likely to happen when the perpetrator and witness are of different racial backgrounds. And statistics on the 218 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing to date support the evidence. More than one-third of these wrongful convictions were caused by a cross-racial identification.
Jennifer Thompson-Cannino (above) knows first-hand how a misidentification can happen. When an African-American attacker broke into her home and raped her in 1984, she made a conscious effort to note the perpetrator’s features so she could identify him later. Thompson-Cannino, who is white, helped police draw up a composite sketch, and then she viewed photographs and identified Ronald Cotton as the rapist. She told the jury she was certain, and Cotton was sentenced to life. But she was wrong.
DNA testing exonerated Cotton after he had served more than a decade in prison. Eyewitness misidentification played a role in more than three-quarters of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, and Thompson-Cannino and Cotton now travel the country telling audiences how it can happen. And she has written a book with Cotton, scheduled for release early next year, about wrongful convictions and their unusual partnership to address the causes of this injustice and reforms to prevent it from happening again.
Read an Associated Press Sunday feature story on cross-racial identifications here.
Read more about Thompson-Cannino and Cotton here.
Tags: Ronald Cotton, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
The causes: An investigative series on eyewitness identification in Dallas
Posted: October 14, 2008 6:24 pm
A groundbreaking three-part series on wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence in Dallas County wraps up today with a story on the outsized role eyewitness testimony still plays in trial.
"We've shown how unreliable eyewitness testimony is in sexual assault cases," said Rob Warden, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University law school. "But now the system itself is pretending that all of these armed robbery cases are just hunky dory when we know, if anything, it's no doubt less reliable in an armed robbery case than in a sexual assault case."The three-day series delves deeply into the role of eyewitness misidentification in wrongful convictions and includes profiles of 19 men cleared by DNA testing in Dallas since 2001, which is more than any other county in the nation during that time. Visit the series website to read the stories and watch video clips.
Read about the Innocence Project’s recommendations for states to improve eyewitness identification practices.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Texas Senator proposes an end to ‘show-up’ identifications
Posted: October 15, 2008 4:05 pm
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing, and “show-up” identifications are among the most unreliable identification procedures still used by police. In a show-up, police officers bring the suspect and eyewitness within a sight of one another and ask the witness whether the suspect was indeed the perpetrator. Show-ups have been involved in countless wrongful convictions, including three of the 20 overturned by DNA testing in Dallas County to date.
Texas State Sen. Rodney Ellis, who serves as the Innocence Project Board Chairman, said he plans to propose a ban on show-up procedures in Texas to prevent future wrongful convictions.
"I think because of the outrageous number of wrongful convictions in Texas, it's time to begin the dialog [to ban showups]," Mr. Ellis said. "Whether or not I can get legislators to a point at which they would mandate it would not be used is a separate issue."Ellis also supports the creation of a Texas innocence commission to study the causes of wrongful convictions.
Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 10/14/08)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Texas Senator calls on state to act against injustice
Posted: October 22, 2008 4:51 pm
Texas State Sen. Rodney Ellis writes in today’s Dallas Morning News that the state legislature should prioritize criminal justice reforms to prevent wrongful convictions in the next session. Ellis, who is also the Innocence Project Board Chairman, wrote about a package of legislation he will introduce in 2009 to overhaul eyewitness identification procedures in the state, require the videotaping of interrogations and mandate the disclosure of deals made with informants for their testimony.
Ultimately, the Texas Legislature, courts and local governments should take responsibility for wrongful convictions. We elected officials to ensure that police departments are adequately funded and officers are properly trained. We also must guarantee that impoverished people accused of crimes receive a quality defense. And the courts are ultimately responsible for ensuring that evidence is reliable, the innocent are freed and defendants' constitutional and due process rights are protected.
Read Ellis’ op-ed here. (Dallas Morning News, 10/22/08)
Tags: Texas, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification
Texas Senator Introduces Legislation To Prevent Wrongful Convictions
Posted: November 14, 2008 4:15 pm
Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis has said that in the 2009 term he would introduce legislation to reform eyewitness identification procedures, and this week he did just that. On Monday, Senator Ellis (who also serves as the Innocence Project Board Chairman) submitted three key pieces of legislation to improve the criminal justice system in Texas, and prevent further wrongful convictions.
SB 115 would create an Innocence Commission to investigate the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas, and propose solutions to prevent similar injustices. SB 116 would require the videotaping of custodial interrogations, which greatly reduce the possibility of false confessions and, perhaps most importantly, provide judges and juries with the best evidence of what transpired during an interrogation. SB 117 requires police departments to adopt eyewitness identification procedures that are proven by research and experience to minimize the possibility of eyewitness misidentification, and to also commit those eyewitness identification procedures to writing.
An investigative report by the Dallas Morning News in October showed that faulty eyewitness testimony played a major role in 18 of the 19 Dallas County wrongful convictions proven by post-conviction DNA testing. Praising The Dallas News and maintaining the need for these reforms, Senator Ellis wrote:
As evidenced by The Dallas News' series…which did the state a great service by investigating the causes of Dallas County's 19 DNA exonerations, eyewitness identification procedures must be overhauled, with the goal of making evidence as reliable as possible. Under my proposal, police departments must adopt procedures based on science and proven best practices and train detectives in these methods.Eyewitness identification reform is being embraced in municipalities, counties, and states across the country, but there is still a long way to go before the most accurate eyewitness identification practices are standard practice. These bills in Texas, and other reforms set to be introduced across the country in 2009, are a sign that critical reforms to aid law enforcement and prevent wrongful convictions could be on the horizon.
Learn more about the Innocence Project’s recommended policy reforms here.
Tags: Texas, Eyewitness Identification
Study Finds Few Texas Police Departments Have Written Eyewitness Procedures
Posted: November 19, 2008 3:45 pm
A new study released today by the Justice Project found that only 12% of Texas law enforcement agencies responding to a survey said they had written policies for lineup procedures. Nearly 75% of the 1,034 agencies in the state answered the survey.
From the report:
This overall lack of sound, scientifically-based policy indicates that the State of Texas must pass legislation that requires departments to adopt written policies that implement best practices for the conduct of eyewitness identification procedures.The Innocence Project recommends that law enforcement agencies develop written identification procedures based on practices shown in scientific study to reduce the number misidentifications. View our recommendations here.
Download the full report here.
Blogs covering the report today:
Grits for Breakfast
Dallas Morning News - Unfair Park
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Guest Post: Learning from Wrongful Convictions
Posted: December 4, 2008 10:14 am
By Catherine K. Eloranto, J.D.
Associate Professor, Criminal Justice
Clinton Community College, Plattsburgh, NY
“Well he must be guilty of something.”
That comment from a graduating criminal justice major floored me. It was my second year of teaching, and I had just described Kirk Bloodsworth’s battle to prove his innocence. That moment was a turning point for me. I knew that this area of the state was dotted with prisons, many of which employ the parents, uncles, brothers and sisters of my students. What I did not realize was how doggedly the students would cling to the view that if someone landed in prison, they must have committed a crime.
As a former prosecutor and judge, I am keenly aware of the cracks in the criminal justice system. The promise of “justice for all” is more true for some than for others. And I knew I had to find a way to challenge the students’ perceptions and beliefs without alienating them. This began my connection with the Innocence Project. That first year, when we got to the issue of the death penalty in ethics class, I used data from the Innocence Project website, but students still weren’t grasping the serious flaws each wrongful conviction revealed in the criminal justice system.
As I read more from the website, I felt a greater urgency to help students understand the ramifications of wrongful convictions. My goal was twofold: to convey the information in a meaningful way, and to help them learn to think critically about important issues. With these goals in mind, I created activities for my ethics and criminal procedure classes.
In ethics, I have the students write a paper analyzing the arguments for and against the death penalty. They are required to go to www.innocenceproject.org, and read the case history of one or more individuals who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. This is an eye-opening experience for the students, as for the first time they read about and see the picture of someone who could have been executed, but for the dedicated work of the Innocence Project and others. I use case examples to demonstrate the causes of wrongful convictions. When we look at forensic science misconduct, the students examine the case of former Mississippi Medical Examiner Steven Hayne, whose misconduct was brought to light by the Innocence Project. Through an integrated approach, the conclusions are inevitable.
In criminal procedure, I focus on eyewitness misidentification as a cause of wrongful convictions. We discuss the constitutional requirements of Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293 (1967) (in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that unnecessarily suggestive identification procedures, and by extension any resulting conviction, would violate due process), the psychological research, and examine current law enforcement procedures. Again, to bring it home in a personal way, they go to the Innocence Project website to read data on wrongful convictions based on misidentification, and to read and discuss specific cases where eyewitness misidentification caused wrongful convictions.
At the end of each semester, I have students write about the most important things they learned in class. Since I have begun emphasizing the issue of wrongful conviction, 25-30% of students discuss wrongful convictions. They get it, and I no longer hear “Well he must be guilty of something.”
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Steven Barnes Officially Exonerated in New York
Posted: January 9, 2009 4:30 pm
Steven Barnes was able to spend the holidays with his family for the first time in almost 20 years when DNA testing proved that he did not commit a murder for he was convicted in 1989. Even though he was released as a result of the testing, the state said the charges against Barnes would stay until further investigation.
At a hearing this morning in Utica, New York, Barnes was officially exonerated when the county apologized for his wrongful conviction and the court lifted the original indictment. Barnes is the 227th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence and is the 24th in New York.
Read the Innocence Project's press release here.
Highlights of today’s news coverage of Barnes’ case:
Utica Observer-Dispatch: It's official: Barnes exonerated on all charges
Associated Press: Wrongly jailed NY man formally cleared of murder
WKTV: Steven Barnes fully exonerated for 1985 rape and murder
Tags: New York, Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight, Informants/Snitches, Steven Barnes
Dallas Police to Change Identification Procedures
Posted: January 16, 2009 5:11 pm
The Dallas Police Department has announced that it will change the ways its officers conduct eyewitness identification procedures, employing the ‘sequential double-blind’ lineup method which has been proven to reduce misidentification.
After two years of delays, the department announced this week that it would not be participating in a planned study testing various identification procedures for accuracy, effectiveness and feasibility. Police Chief David Kunkle said yesterday that the department couldn’t wait any longer to make the necessary improvements.
"The study was taking way too long, and even with the results, I don't know that it would change where we would end up," Kunkle said. "The standard to where the department should be is a little clearer than it was a few years ago."In a sequential double-blind lineup, the administrator does not know which participant is the suspect, and he or she presents suspects one-by-one. Presenting lineup members one-by-one (sequentially), rather than all at once (simultaneously) has been proven to reduce inaccurate eyewitness identifications.
Read the full story here. (Dallas Morning News, 01/16/09)
Dallas becomes the eighth department in Texas to use sequential double-blind lineups, joining the states of New Jersey and North Carolina and several other major police departments in implementing the policy.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Georgia Improves Identification Training
Posted: January 21, 2009 1:49 pm
The group that oversees law enforcement training in Georgia has said it will significantly increase its courses for officers on eyewitness identification procedures this year.
Departments across the state have been working to improve identification procedures since a House of Representatives study committee found a lack of statewide standards. Rep. Stephanie Stuckley Benfield, a sponsor of identification reform efforts, said training is the key to improvement and that law enforcement agencies have been receptive.
"So much of this comes down to training," said the DeKalb County Democrat. "If you've got good training, then you're less likely to make mistakes."
…Keith Howard supervises the criminal investigations section of the Georgia Police Academy and helped expand the course for Georgia POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training Council)….
The training outlines correct preparation for the lineup when choosing participants or their photographs, the best practices for presenting the lineup and preserving the results through good documentation of what the witness intended.
A major point that both Rep. Benfield and Innocence Project officials have pushed for is a "blind administrator" to conduct the lineups. That's a police officer who has no knowledge of the investigation and could not influence a victim or eyewitness to select a suspect.
"You don't want to indicate the suspect to the witness," Chief Parker said. "They may feel undue pressure to identify the person."
Read the full story here. (01/19/08)A 2007 study by the Georgia Innocence Project found that 82% of Georgia law enforcement agencies had no policies in place for eyewitness identification procedures. Read more and download training materials at the POST website.
Tags: Georgia, Eyewitness Identification
Do False Confessions Contribute to Misidentifications?
Posted: January 29, 2009 4:21 pm
A new study has found a link between false confessions and the confidence in incorrect identifications made by eyewitnesses. The study, conducted by psychologists at Iowa State University and John Jay College and published in the January issue of Psychological Science, found that the eyewitnesses became more confident in their identification when they learned that someone confessed to the crime.
The study was conducted by staging a fake crime in front of students in a university laboratory:
At some point, a person walked in, picked up a laptop from the desk, and walked out of the room. A few minutes later, the research assistant entered the room and announced, with obvious distress, that her laptop was missing. The group of students were the eyewitnesses and were asked to help solve the crime. The students were first asked to identify the thief from a line-up (however, unbeknownst to them, the actual thief was not in the lineup) and rate the confidence of their answers. The students returned two days later, to continue helping with the investigation. When they returned, they were told either that all of the suspects denied involvement or that a specific suspect confessed to the crime. The students were then to reconsider their original identification and rate how confident they were.
The vast majority of study volunteers identified an innocent man as the criminal, and many did so with confidence. That's disturbing in itself, but it gets worse. While few were persuaded by claims of innocence - that happens all the time - a disturbing number changed their mind when a suspect confessed. An astonishing 60 percent who had fingered one suspect flip-flopped when a different man confessed. Even those who had been very sure of their original identification experienced a steep drop in confidence. When asked to explain their change of heart, most said they had been mistaken earlier, that their memories had fooled them.
Read more here. (Science Daily, 01/29/2009)
Tags: False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, False Confessions, Eyewitness Misidentification
Exonerations Spark Reforms in Ohio
Posted: March 26, 2009 4:31 pm
After the recent exonerations of Robert McClendon and Joseph Fears in Ohio, state lawmakers – both Democrats and Republicans – are seeking to pass a package of reforms that would help free innocent prisoners and prevent future wrongful convictions. A bill pending before the Ohio legislature would grant wider access to post-conviction DNA testing and would require changes to lineup procedures and the electronic recording of some interrogations.
But some police and prosecutorial organizations are resisting the changes, saying they would be burdensome and costly for police departments to implement and would prevent police from doing their jobs.
State Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said even with compromises this bill would be a step in the right direction and would help prevent wrongful convictions.
"It will be progress that will save the system money," he said, noting that it will mean fewer arguments and appeals over the legitimacy of confessions.
Seitz stressed that he wants to work out issues and move the bill, noting two recent cases of innocence and "countless other cases in which people hoped to get exonerated only to find that the dog ate my homework and the (DNA) evidence was gone.
"This issue is too important. We've got real problems with real-life people. All I would say to anybody who doesn't like this bill is: What if it was you in jail for 18 years for a crime you didn't commit?"
Read the full story here. (Columbus Dispatch, 03/26/09)
Tags: Joseph Fears, Robert McClendon, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Access to DNA Testing
Reforms Move Forward in Texas
Posted: April 29, 2009 2:13 pm
An editorial in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News calls for quick passage of a bill in the Texas Senate that would increase the compensation paid to exonerees after their release. The new bill would increase the maximum amount paid by the state to the exonerated to
$80,000 per year served for a wrongful conviction, and includes the option of monthly annuity payments for life. The bill, named for deceased exoneree Timothy Cole, passed the House last week and is currently pending in the Senate. From the editorial:
Without this measure, the state will continue committing a double injustice to these people – once for their wrongful imprisonment and again for the failure to help them rebuild their lives once they're set free. Two wrongs make the Timothy Cole Act the right thing to do.Read the full editorial here. (Dallas Morning News, 4/28/09)The Austin American-Statesman joined this week with an editorial of its own.
Meanwhile, Texas lawmakers are also considering requiring law enforcement departments in the state to adopt written procedures for eyewitness identification. Exoneree Johnnie Lindsey recently testified on behalf of this effort – watch a video featuring Lindsey here.
Tags: Exoneree Compensation, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Missouri Column: Too Many Errors
Posted: June 1, 2009 5:25 pm
Attorney and former police officer Stephen Wyse writes in the Springfield, Missouri, News-Leader today that his state is in dire need of reforms to prevent wrongful convictions and better identify the perpetrators of crime. There have been seven DNA exonerations in Missouri, but efforts to reform eyewitness identification procedures, forensic practices and interrogations have fallen flat in recent years.
There are no endeavors where perfection is universally possible, but where substantial errors can be eliminated by adopting the "best practices," don't we owe that to ourselves as citizens? Memorial Day honors those who protect our freedom. We should all commit ourselves to defending the spirit of the Constitution and the liberty it enshrines.For an overview of exonerations by state and the reforms in place, visit our interactive maps here.
Read the full column here. (News-Leader, 06/01/09)
Tags: Missouri, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight
Two Cleared in Ohio as State Senate Passes Reform Bill
Posted: June 25, 2009 1:05 pm
Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen were freed in Ohio in February after serving more than 14 years for sexual assaults they’ve always said they didn’t commit. Yesterday, an Ohio county judge ordered all charges dropped against them.
During a multi-year investigation into this case, the Ohio Innocence Project turned up convincing evidence that Smith and Allen didn’t commit the child sexual assaults for which they were convicted in 1994. Read more about the case in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Upon her release, Smith said she was glad to move on with her life:
“I go find a job and just live my life finally, after all these years, with my children, my grandchildren and my family,” a tearful Smith said during an interview at the Lorain office of her attorney, Jack Bradley.Also yesterday, the Ohio Senate voted 32-1 in favor of a bill addressing several of the most critical reforms to free the innocent and prevent wrongful convictions. The bill expands the state’s DNA access law, requires all lineups to be double-blind, requires recording of interrogations in serious crimes and requires preservation of evidence in serious crimes. It now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Read the full story. (Chronicle-Telegram, 06/25/09)
“This was a piece of much needed legislation that will bring Ohio up to speed with the best practices in the country,” said Mark Godsey, a UC professor of law and faculty director of the Ohio Innocence Project.
Read more on yesterday’s vote.
Tags: False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
New Report: Ways to Prevent Misidentification and Wrongful Convictions
Posted: July 16, 2009 4:06 pm
An Innocence Project report released today examines eyewitness misidentifications, the leading cause of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing, and recommends simple reforms states and local jurisdictions can take to address the problem.
Titled “Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification,” the report lays out the problems with traditional eyewitness identifications procedures and lists six simple reforms to reduce misidentifications.
As shown in the graph below, eyewitness misidentification was a factor in 75% of wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing. 
Nine states have taken action to prevent eyewitness misidentifications, and 17 more states have considered legislation on the issue in the last two years. The Innocence Project announced today that it will focus on implementing reforms over the next year in 10 states, including New York, Texas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan and Rhode Island.
“We know from social science research and real-world experience that these reforms work. We’re looking forward to working with police and policymakers in several key states over the next year to help them understand the need to improve lineups and the benefits of these reforms,” Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom said. “Victims are denied justice, innocent defendants are sent to prison and the public’s safety is at risk when real perpetrators go undetected.”
Read the executive summary here.
Download the full report.
Read today’s press release.
Share the link to the new report on Twitter or Facebook.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Friday Roundup: Cases and Reforms Move Forward
Posted: July 31, 2009 5:30 pm
Around the country this week, individual cases moved forward – as did efforts to reform the criminal justice system to prevent wrongful convictions and assist the exonerated.
A judge in Wisconsin this morning dismissed rape and murder charges against Ralph Armstrong, who has been in prison for 28 years. Evidence shows that a prosecutor concealed substantial evidence that Armstrong was innocent. Armstrong will remain in custody while the state decides whether to appeal the ruling. The Innocence Project has worked on Armstrong’s case since 1993, and Co-Director Barry Scheck today called Armstrong’s case a “particularly chilling” example of prosecutorial misconduct.
Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County may be the home of pilot programs for identification reforms, according to District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., who chairs the county’s investigations section of the state Committee on Wrongful Convictions. The news comes on the heels of the Innocence Project’s new report on eyewitness identification reforms, released earlier this month. Read more in the press release here.
Republican and Democratic leaders are asking Virginia’s General Assembly to provide compensation for exoneree Arthur Whitfield, who spent more than 22 years in prison and was released when DNA tests proved his innocence. Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds, the respective Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates, are calling for action during the assembly’s special session in August.
DNA may play a key role in the case of a Florida man convicted of murder 25 years ago. David Johnston was scheduled for execution in May, but the Florida Supreme Court delayed his execution when defense attorneys requested DNA testing on blood samples and nail clippings kept as evidence.
Tags: Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Arthur Lee Whitfield, Exoneree Compensation, Eyewitness Identification
Examining the Houston Crime Lab
Posted: August 12, 2009 6:17 pm
Ernest Sonnier walked out of a Houston courtroom last week a free man for the first time in 23 years, and his case is the latest to be overturned after faulty testing at the Houston Police Department Crime Lab contributed to a wrongful conviction.
An editorial today in the Houston Chronicle points out that two years after the conclusion of a $5 million investigation into problems at the lab, countless cases still need to be evaluated for possible retesting. In addition, the paper writes today that the case is a sign of the need for independent crime labs.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said, “There are still thousands of cases from the Houston Crime Lab that need to be reviewed, and that needs to happen quickly.”
He praised the administration of DA Lykos for ending prosecutorial foot dragging, creating a unit to examine convicts' credible claims of innocence, and being “focused on getting to the truth.”
In addition to swiftly reviewing those remaining cases, local officials need to move forward with a plan to create a regional crime lab independent of police and prosecutor influenceLast week, Chronicle columnist Rick Casey addressed another cause of wrongful conviction in a two-part series on eyewitness identification and the Timothy Cole case. Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson contributed a cartoon about faulty lineups.
Read the full editorial here. (Houston Chronicle, 08/11/09)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight
Eyewitness Reforms and Stronger Evidence
Posted: September 17, 2009 2:25 pm
USA Today reports today on states and cities across the U.S. that have changed eyewitness identification procedures after DNA exonerations underlined flaws in traditional procedures. Not only are these improved procedures helping to prevent misidentifications — law enforcement agencies are finding that they provide stronger evidence, too.
Dallas is one of the latest cities to make the change voluntarily:
Since changing its policy in April, Dallas Police Lt. David Pughes says the department has conducted 1,400 lineups and believes "we're bringing a stronger piece of evidence to court."The Innocence Project is working with advocates and lawmakers in more than ten states to support proposed reforms in the next year. Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing, playing a role in more than 75% of the 242 DNA exoneration cases. Read more about this issue and the proposed reforms in the recent Innocence Project report: “Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification.”
…Pughes, who oversees the department's lineup program, calls the modifications a "huge, huge change to the investigative process." He admits the changes came only after Dallas County emerged as the nation's largest source of exonerations. "The lineup process really hadn't been challenged until DNA exonerations brought to light that innocent people were in jail," Pughes says.
Read the full story here. (USA Today, 09/17/09)
Advocacy by exonerees and crime victims have contributed to reforms, like in North Carolina, where exoneree Ronald Cotton and crime victim Jennifer Thompson-Cannino spoke out in favor of lineup reforms and helped bring about a comprehensive new state law in 2007. Thompson-Cannino was the victim of a rape in 1984 and she misidentified Cotton as the perpetrator. He was exonerated through DNA testing in 1995, and today the two are friends and co-authors of the 2009 book “Picking Cotton.” Watch them on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” here.
What’s the law in your state? Find out here.
Tags: Ronald Cotton, Eyewitness Identification
Ten Great Moments of the Decade
Posted: December 30, 2009 11:00 am
It goes without saying that DNA testing and the issues surrounding wrongful convictions have left their mark on the criminal justice system in the last ten years. When the decade began, DNA testing had been used in American courtrooms for more than 11 years, but exonerations were still fairly rare.
In the last ten years, 182 people have been exonerated through DNA testing and states have passed dozens of laws addressing the causes of wrongful convictions. Yet there is plenty of work to do — countless innocent people remain behind bars as we pass into 2010 and the threat of wrongful convictions in today’s courtrooms is still very real.
As we look forward to freeing more innocent people than ever in the decade ahead and enacting major reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, here is a list (in chronological order) of 10 seminal moments from the 2000s.
"Actual Innocence” is published (2000)— Written by Innocence Project Co-Directors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, with Jim Dwyer, this groundbreaking book examines the emergence of DNA testing and the causes of wrongful conviction it unveiled. During the decade, it became a blueprint for overturning wrongful convictions and reforming the criminal justice system.
Larry Mayes becomes the 100th Exoneree (2001) — Mayes spent 21 years in Indiana prisons before DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project and the Innocence Project at the Indiana University School of Law proved his innocence and led to his release.
Illinois clears death row (2003) — Pointing clearly to the frightening rate of exonerations in his state (since 1977, 13 death row prisoners had been cleared while 12 had been executed), Gov. George Ryan granted blanket clemency to all 167 people on death row on January 10, 2003.
Congress passes the Justice for All Act (2004) — The JFAA is the most significant legislation to ever address wrongful convictions in the United States. It provides an avenue for federal prisoners to seek DNA testing and funds incentives for states to offer similar testing and to improve DNA testing capacity. It also provides compensation for federal exonerees.
“After Innocence” premieres (2005) — An award-winning documentary chronicling the lives of seven men released from prison after serving years for crimes they didn’t commit, After Innocence brought the issue of wrongful convictions to America’s movie theaters and living rooms. Watch a trailer here.
“The Innocent Man” published (2006) — John Grisham’s first non-fiction book tells the heartbreaking story of a murder in Oklahoma and an unimaginable injustice suffered by two innocent men. The book reached best-seller status around the world and a film version is in development. Following the book’s publication, John Grisham joined the Innocence Project’s board of directors. Several other excellent books also chronicled wrongful conviction cases during the decade, check back tomorrow for the decade's must read list.
Jerry Miller becomes the 200th Exoneree (2007) — It took 12 years to exonerate the first 100 people through DNA testing. It was just seven years later that Innocence Project client Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated through DNA. He served 25 years in Illinois prisons before he was cleared.
Dennis Fritz and Peggy Carter Sanders Dance on Stage (2008) — the history of criminal justice in the United States is filled with poignant moments of injustice overturned, from tear-filled homecomings to stirring speeches and courtroom victories. One of the most memorable is the moment Dennis Fritz, who was exonerated after 11 years in prison for an Oklahoma murder he didn’t commit, unexpectedly danced onstage with the mother of the murder victim at a New York event. Watch this touching moment on video here.
50th Member Joins the Innocence Network (2008) — the Innocence Network is an international affiliation of groups working to overturn wrongful convictions. As the field has broadened over the last 10 years, more organizations have been created to meet the growing need for pro bono legal services and advocacy. In 2008, the Innocence Network reached a membership of 50 organizations, today there are 54.
National Academy of Sciences releases forensic report (2009) — Faulty forensic evidence played a role in more than half of the wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing. Many forensic techniques used in courtrooms today have never been subjected to rigorous scientific evaluation. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a landmark report calling for the U.S. federal government to create a federal entity to oversee and support the forensic disciplines. Learn more here.
Photo: Innocence Project client Luis Diaz was exonerated in Florida in 2005 after 25 years in prison for a series of crimes he didn't commit. Courtesy South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Tags: Innocence Commissions, Exoneree Compensation, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Forensic Oversight, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing, False Confessions, Unvalidated/Improper Forensics, Informants/Snitches, Bad Lawyering, Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification
Politics Delay Reform in Ohio
Posted: February 8, 2010 4:35 pm
A bill that would address the causes of wrongful conviction and help innocent parolees seek exoneration is stalled in the Ohio House of Representatives, seven months after passing the Senate.
The measure would require that law enforcement agencies preserve crime scene evidence and conduct “blind” identification procedures -- in which the administering officer doesn’t know the identity of the suspect. It would also open a path for people on parole to seek DNA tests that can prove innocence.
Although the bill has bipartisan support and the Governor has said he will sign it if passed, the Columbus Dispatch reports that progress seems to be delayed by a legislative logjam.
The delay has frustrated supporters, including Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project.If you live in Ohio, sign up for Innocence Project email updates today to receive breaking news and actions relating to this issue in the weeks ahead.
"All parties, including prosecutors, police, Democrats and Republicans, worked for years to create a consensus bill. It's a shame it's being delayed at this point," Godsey said, noting that the bill would help prevent convictions of innocent people.
Read the full story here. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/5/10)
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Ohio Enacts Historic Reforms
Posted: April 5, 2010 3:11 pm
Innocence Project Policy Advocate Rebecca Brown said the new law would set an example for other states:
“In the months and years ahead, policymakers around the country will look at what Ohio has done and understand how they, too, can create a more fair, accurate and reliable criminal justice system,” Brown said.
View today’s press release on the bill.
Read the full text of the bill.
Tags: Ohio, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation, Access to DNA Testing
NJ Judge Calls for Overhaul of Eyewitness Identification Standards
Posted: June 21, 2010 3:19 pm
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, playing a role in 75% of the 254 DNA exoneration cases to date. The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the report in response to the 2004 reckless manslaughter and weapons possession conviction of Larry Henderson, who appealed based on faulty eyewitness identification procedures in his case. The Innocence Project, which doesn’t represent Henderson, was called in to present testimony on the science and law of eyewitness identification.
"Taken together, these findings represent a sea change in the treatment of eyewitness identification, both in the collection of evidence and in its presentation to juries,” Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said today.
Read the Innocence Project press release on the case.
Download the Special Master’s complete report.
Associated Press: N.J. Judge Recommends Change to Police Lineups
Newark Star-Ledger: N.J. Courts Need Stricter Standards for Eyewitness Testimony, Report Says
Tags: New Jersey, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Rhode Island Takes Aim at Misidentifications
Posted: June 30, 2010 5:55 pm
Eyewitness misidentification has contributed to 75 percent of the 255 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide, and decades of research has identified simple reforms to the eyewitness identification process that can substantially minimize the risks of misidentification.
By enacting this “modest bill,” Rhode Island will join other states in implementing improvements to traditional identification procedures – helping police apprehend the real perpetrators of crimes and protecting the innocent from wrongful prosecution. Police and prosecutors in major cities such as Boston, Dallas and Denver and smaller ones like Northampton, Mass. have already promulgated updated policies for their law enforcement officials.
Read the full op-ed here.
Learn about eyewitness misidentification and eyewitness identification reforms.
Learn about your state’s eyewitness identification policies here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Experts and Identification
Posted: July 13, 2010 5:50 pm
Rules vary nationwide on whether courts will allow expert testimony on the science of eyewitness identification, but sometimes experts are admitted and only allowed to offer limited testimony. The Innocence Project strongly supports the admission of eyewitness experts, for both prosecution and defense, to provide background for judges and juries on variables that affect the reliability of identifications.
A major ruling last month from a New Jersey judge could lead to critical changes in the way that state – and others – handle eyewitness identification evidence in court, including the admission of experts.
And an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week calls on Pennsylvania lawmakers to follow New Jersey’s footsteps in proactively addressing unreliable eyewitness evidence. Pennsylvania is one of a few states that prohibit all expert testimony on the science of human memory and eyewitness identification.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Rhode Island Panel Will Review Eyewitness Procedures
Posted: August 16, 2010 3:55 pm
The task force will hold biweekly meetings and will evaluate the way photo and live lineups are conducted and the importance of having a police officer with no connection to a case administer all lineups. The Innocence Project will provide research and input to the board during this research process. Professors who specialize in misidentification and memory and law enforcement officials from areas that have already have improved eyewitness identification procedures will also lend support to the task force.
Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.
Read the full story here.
Learn about eyewitness identification here.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Virginia Lawmaker: Improvements Needed for Identification Policies
Posted: September 10, 2010 4:05 pm
Several other states have conducted similar surveys recently, finding that many police departments lack written policies for eyewitness identification procedures. After a Rhode Island study found that 75 percent of state agencies lacked written identification procedures, the legislature created a task force to examine the issue statewide.
Read more about the Innocence Project recommendations to reform eyewitness identification and see what states are doing to address the problem.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Virginia Hopeful for Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: November 30, 2010 5:50 pm
House Bill 207 would require that lineup participants are presented sequentially (rather than all at once), a reform shown to decrease the rate at which innocent people are identified. Research has demonstrated that when viewing several subjects at once, witnesses tend to choose the person who looks the most like – but may not actually be – the perpetrator. The proposed law would also require lineups to be “double-blind” in which neither the administrator nor the eyewitness knows who the suspect is. This prevents the administrator of the lineup from providing inadvertent or intentional verbal or nonverbal cues to influence the eyewitness to pick the suspect.
Earlier this year, the Virginia Crime Commission surveyed law-enforcement agencies across the state and got responses from 127. According to their results, only 75 percent said they had written policies. And while most of the agencies reported using sequential presentation of lineups, only 25 percent said they used an independent administrator in lineups.
Garrett said he was concerned that so many departments still had no written policy. But, he said, "what I found even more troubling, was . . . the vast majority of those polices do not require double-blind administration and that's the single crucial reform."
"The double-blind aspect is really important. Even an administrator acting with the best of intentions, or even one that is blind, cannot avoid the problem that the eyewitness will naturally look to the police administrator for guidance and reassurance," he said. "An eyewitness may perceive cues and reinforcement even where it is not intended, so it is crucial that the eyewitness be told that the administrator has no idea which person is the suspect."
Departments that adopt only sequential lineups and not double-blind administration "may have actually made their lineup procedures less accurate and less reliable," he said.
The Virginia Crime Commission will vote on the bill December 8.
Read the full article.
Read about eyewitness misidentification and learn how to reform eyewitness identification procedures.
Image: Lineup in the John Jerome White case in Georgia.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Race and Misidentification
Posted: December 27, 2010 3:19 pm
Wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing demonstrate the danger of cross-racial misidentification. Three-quarters of the 265 DNA exoneration cases involved misidentification, and in more than half of the misidentification cases the perpetrator and eyewitness were of different racial backgrounds.
The two-part Post-Gazette series this week looks at cross-racial misidentification and a new method for developing composite sketches. Read the articles here and try your hand as an eyewitness in this interactive feature.
Tags: Ronald Cotton, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Rhode Island Task Force Offers a Path to Eyewitness Reform
Posted: January 12, 2011 10:38 am
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Dupree's Wrongful Conviction is Another Reminder to Fix the System
Posted: January 18, 2011 2:46 pm
"It’s been proven that the system needs to be fixed,” Mr. Watkins declared. The former defense attorney is urging the Texas Legislature to combat a “convict at all costs” mentality by enacting a precise protocol to curb the kind of zealous identification shortcuts taken against Mr. Dupree. State lawmakers are reported to be open to the idea. The Legislature faced up to the increase in DNA exonerations two years ago when it enacted the nation’s most generous compensation law, providing $80,000 for each year of freedom unjustly lost.
Texas, with its crowded death row, has hardly been the model of criminal justice. But the lessons of the Dupree case cry out for mandating long-term storage of DNA evidence nationwide, and reform of patently unjust identification methods. “It’s a joy to be free again,” Mr. Dupree said as a dozen other exonorees observed a new Texas tradition of gathering to greet the latest person proved innocent.
Read the full editorial.
Read more on Dupree’s case.
Learn about eyewitness misidentification and evidence preservation.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Evidence Preservation
New Slate Series on Eyewitness Misidentification
Posted: April 13, 2011 5:13 pm
Although the Thompson identified Cotton as the perpetrator on two separate occasions, he was also the only suspect to appear in both the photo array and the live lineup. Thompson was also reassured by law enforcement officials after her first identification that she “did great,” inevitably contributing to her second identification at the lineup. After selecting Thompson again, the officers again reinforced her misidentification by telling her it was “the same person [she] picked from the photos.”
Garret argues that best practices grounded in psychological research can reduce misidentifications.
Eyewitnesses should always be told the attacker might not be present in the lineup. Their initial confidence level should be documented (because, like in Ronald Cotton's case, by the time of trial it may change). The most crucial proposed reform is double-blind administration. The officer administering a photo or live lineup should not be aware who the suspect is, and the witness should be told the officer does not know.
Garrett warns that failure to reform the system can only help history repeat itself: “The same systemic failures will cause countless wrongful convictions in the future unless we make our criminal justice system more accurate.”
In a joint cooperation with the Innocence Project, Garrett also unveiled the first section of a new interactive feature on the causes of wrongful conviction on the Innocence Project website that includes additional information on eyewitness misidentification reform and the Cotton case.
Tags: Ronald Cotton, Eyewitness Identification
Reforms Pending In Connecticut
Posted: June 15, 2011 5:16 pm
In addition to mandatory recording of interrogations, the Connecticut legislature also passed a bill aiming to reduce wrongful convictions by creating an Eyewitness Identification Task Force to study issues surrounding eyewitness misidentification.
Read the full article.
Read the full text of the proposed bills: Interrogations / Identification
Read more about false confessions and the benefit of recording interrogations.
Tags: Connecticut, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification
Washington State Courts Debate Cross-Racial Identifications
Posted: June 20, 2011 4:50 pm
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
The Lineup Filler
Posted: October 17, 2011 4:08 pm
As the article shows, Weston’s approach to finding fillers is hardly an exact science.
“Every time I call him and I tell him I need light-skin Hispanic of that description, he always brings dark-skin,” a Bronx homicide detective, Luke Waters, testified earlier this year, according to a court transcript. “He wants to make money as quick as he can, and when he brings them in I don’t like them.”
Eyewitness misidentification has played a role in 75% of wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing to date, and among the procedural reforms supported by the Innocence Project are safeguards to ensure that fillers resemble the witness’ description of the perpetrator.
Read the full article.
Read more about identification reforms supported by the Innocence Project.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
Perry v. New Hampshire Ruling Ignored Eyewitness Misidentification Stats
Posted: January 19, 2012 12:45 pm
Tags: New Hampshire, Eyewitness Identification
New Orleans Judge Evaluates Prisoner's Claim of Innocence
Posted: January 24, 2012 2:20 pm
Tags: Louisiana, Eyewitness Identification, Booker Diggins
Hawaii Reviews Identification Reforms
Posted: February 28, 2012 1:30 pm
Tags: Hawaii, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
End wrongful convictions in New York
Posted: March 5, 2012 10:30 am
Tags: New York, Reforms, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification, DNA Databases
Wrongful convictions affect all New Yorkers
Posted: March 5, 2012 2:00 pm
Tags: Reforms, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, False Confessions, Eyewitness Misidentification, DNA Databases
New Jersey on the Way to Better Jury Instructions for Eyewitness Identifications
Posted: April 10, 2012 3:45 pm
Tags: New Jersey, Eyewitness Identification
Connecticut House Passes Eyewitness Identification Bill
Posted: May 4, 2012 11:00 am
Tags: Connecticut, Eyewitness Identification
New Jersey Leads the Way on Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: July 23, 2012 5:40 pm
by Karen Newirth, Eyewitness Identification Litigation Fellow
The New Jersey Supreme Court has done it again! In its landmark 2011 decision in State v. Henderson, New Jersey became the first jurisdiction in the country to reject the scientifically flawed test for evaluating eyewitness identification evidence set forth in the 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Manson v. Brathwaite and adopted by every state in the years since. Now, the court registers another first with the issuance of comprehensive jury instructions for cases involving eyewitness identification evidence. These instructions represent a true revolution by bringing science into the courtroom and making research findings concerning the many factors that affect the reliability of eyewitness identifications available to jurors.
The Innocence Project previously hailed the draft instructions submitted for the court’s review, noting that they were scientifically-based, comprehensive, and consistent with both the letter and spirit of the Court’s decision in Henderson. As previously reported, the Innocence Project, joined by the Criminal Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Jersey, raised several concerns during the court’s open comment period. Chief among them was the concern that the proposed instructions did not explain to jurors how memory works, which we believe is a necessary precursor to understanding how conditions at the time of the crime or at the time of the identification procedure could affect the accuracy or reliability of a person’s memory. The Innocence Project also registered an objection to the proposed instructions’ failure to tell jurors that the instructions were based on scientific research because it is critical for jurors to understand that the instructions not only have the weight of law but also – and particularly because some are counter-intuitive – reflect more than thirty years of rigorous scientific research. The New Jersey Supreme Court added language to the final instructions that address both of these concerns.
The Innocence Project again hails the New Jersey Supreme Court for its visionary approach to the problem of eyewitness misidentification, the leading cause of wrongful convictions. The use of comprehensive jury instructions, together with other trial-based remedies (including, where relevant, the testimony of expert witnesses, limitations on the testimony of witnesses. and cautionary instructions) will reduce the risk of wrongful convictions based on eyewitness misidentification for New Jersey defendants. New Jersey – whose law enforcement agencies have been required to employ all of the scientifically-supported best practices for the collection of eyewitness identification evidence since 2001 – is the national leader in all aspects of eyewitness identification reform. The Innocence Project urges other state legislatures and judiciaries to adopt similar reforms to police procedures and the legal framework for the consideration of eyewitness identification evidence. It is through reforms like these that we can reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions predicated on eyewitness misidentification.
Tags: New Jersey, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification
A Short History of Police Lineup Reform
Posted: July 25, 2012 10:30 am
By Gary Wells, Professor of Psychology, Iowa State University
More than ever, legislators and law enforcement are realizing the importance of adopting lineup procedures that are based on solid scientific research. A groundswell of reform to eyewitness identification procedures swept the country last year—from New Jersey to Texas and police departments nationwide. Still, the change has been gradual. My own career is a testament of that.
I have been conducting experiments on eyewitness identification since 1975, while I was still a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State University. Along with a fellow student, we designed this simple experiment where we staged a theft repeatedly and had people try and pick the thief out from a lineup. Not only did they make a lot of mistakes, but sometimes they were quite certain that they were right when in fact they were wrong.
After the first DNA exonerations in the early 1990s, I began to see how relevant those cases were to my research. For the first time ever, we had a litmus test that would help establish that eyewitness misidentification is not just a hypothetical problem. Before that, the work that I and other scientists were doing was largely ignored by the justice system. Many people in the legal community took the position that—“No one is actually serving time in this country for a crime they did not commit. It just doesn’t happen.” So, the DNA exonerations had the impact of getting the legal system to start paying attention to the science that we were doing.
In this area of eyewitness science we had explored a number of important factors that contribute to mistaken identifications, such as the problem of cross-racial identifications and the ways in which a culprit’s use of a weapon reduces memory for the culprit’s face. But among the most useful discoveries were finding that ways in which lineups are conducted affects the reliability of identifications that are made. This includes the instructions that witnesses are given before viewing a lineup, the quality of the fillers (non-suspect lineup members) used in the lineup, and the potential influence of a lineup administrator who can inadvertently influence the witness’s identification decision.
A number of jurisdictions began to take note of these findings and make reforms to how they conducted lineups. Other jurisdictions, however, showed some reluctance to make changes based on laboratory experiments that used simulated crimes. Accordingly, we launched an experiment with police departments in San Diego, Tucson, Austin and Charlotte using laptop computers to administer lineups in actual cases to test one of our main ideas, namely that sequential lineups (witnesses view each lineup member one at a time) would produce fewer mistaken identifications than would the traditional simultaneous lineup (lineup members viewed as a group). Unlike our lab studies, we could not be sure whether the suspected person in the lineup was in fact the culprit. But, each lineup included only one suspected person and the remaining members were known-innocent fillers. Hence, whenever a witness identified a filler, we could score that as a mistake. The Innocence Project was an important partner in this research.
The results of the study, released last year, corresponded well to what we had learned from the controlled laboratory research—that the rate of misidentification drops when witnesses view a sequential lineup. A key component was that the officer administering the lineup did not know which lineup member is being investigated by police.
The Innocence Project has been critical to bridging the gap between practices and procedures that are used by law enforcement and the social science recommendations. That’s a gap that social scientists alone cannot fully bridge, and the Innocence Project has been an incredible broker in that process.
Once law enforcement investigators are exposed to the research, they are quite receptive to it. The more lineups they’ve done in their career, the more they can appreciate the idea that there are limitations to eyewitness evidence, which they’ve observed in their own professional experience. Once they know there’s a problem, they’re eager to find a solution.
Read more about the field study.
Read more about the recent widespread reforms to eyewitness identification procedures.
Read more about Gary Wells’ research.
Tags: Eyewitness Identification
Editorial Urges States to Follow NJ in Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: July 30, 2012 1:50 pm
South Carolina exoneree Perry Mitchell spent nearly 15 years behind bars for a rape he didn’t commit, largely due to an eyewitness misidentification, before DNA testing proved his innocence and set him free in 1998. Now, an editorial in the Sun News questions if things would have gone differently if the trial court had been required to give jury instructions about eyewitness identification testimony like those recently issued by the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Beginning in September, jurors in any New Jersey case that includes eyewitness testimony will be informed about the many factors that can undercut the ability of an eyewitness to make an accurate identification.
Warning jurors to take some extra time with the evidence rather than trusting it implicitly is a worthy goal. Currently, while S.C. judges can and do offer some instructions to juries on state laws that affect cases, jurors will hear no similar instruction in Palmetto courtrooms. Jurors are on their own and whatever information they already happen to have about the reliability of evidence.
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New Jersey has shown us the way. We may no longer be able to be first in this reform, but we sure shouldn’t be last. Let’s get ahead of the curve and help build momentum for the change across the nation. Justice demands it.
Read the full editorial.
Read more about Mitchell’s case.
Tags: South Carolina, Eyewitness Identification
LAPD Resist Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: August 28, 2012 10:20 am
Though a Los Angeles Police Department investigation has exposed police misconduct during lineup procedures, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck remains opposed to adopting identification reforms. According to the Los Angeles Times, one recorded identification procedure reveals police Detective John Zambos continually encouraging a witness to select the suspect in the fourth slot.
“I kept seeing you go to four…And you kept returning to four,” Zambos said, according to a transcript reviewed by The Times. “Was [there] a reason why you kept comparing everybody to No. 4?”
The detectives then showed the witness a separate photo of the man in the fourth position. Eventually, she selected him as the killer.
Decades of social science research has shown that when the detective conducting the lineup knows the identity of the suspect, they are more prone to provide clues to the witness—either intentionally, as in this instance, or unintentionally. However, many law enforcement agencies nationwide have failed to update their procedures to incorporate scientific research. Some have no written guidelines for procedures at all.
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions later overturned through DNA testing. An increasing number of cities and states—from Denver to Boston, and from Texas to Virginia—have adopted comprehensive eyewitness identification reforms to address the problem.
Read the full article.
Read more about eyewitness identification reform.
Tags: California, Eyewitness Identification
California Exonerations Prove Need for Eyewitness Identification Reform
Posted: January 8, 2013 5:45 pm
Tags: California, Eyewitness Identification
New York Governor Proposes Criminal Justice Reforms in State of the State Address
Posted: January 9, 2013 5:50 pm
Tags: New York, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification, False Confessions, Eyewitness Misidentification
New York Times Urges Gov. Cuomo to Stay the Course and Mandate Criminal Justice Reforms
Posted: January 28, 2013 5:50 pm
Tags: New York, False Confessions, Eyewitness Identification