However, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime. Only a single eyewitness said that he saw Hatchett attack the women in a park. During the trial, the eyewitness had testified and Andre Hatchett was charged with murder and was put in jail for 25 years. But 25 years into his sentence it was found that he was wrongly convicted and the eyewitness had testified for having a burglary charge dropped against him. An eyewitness was responsible for putting Hatchet in jail. Eyewitnesses are able to put
There is an ongoing debate weather eyewitness testimony’s are accurate enough to be presented in the courts. An eyewitness testimony is basically a statement from the person who was present at the scene of the crime. Where eyewitness testimony can help prove defended guilty, however, it can also lead to injustice and can result in false conviction, if the memory is false or misleading. Recent studies have concluded that memory is not always accurate enough to be used in court cases. There are several
In today’s legal system, a person’s life is put into the hands of eye-witnesses during court battles. Witnessing a crime or murder is often traumatizing and can cause psychological disorders. This can also affect emotions, memories, reactions, and communication. I believe that too much weight is put onto eye-witness accounts because of Loftus’s theory and the misinformation effect. Dr. Loftus stated in her theory that memory is not an unchanging, stable process but rather is a constantly changing
you to give a testimony and serve justice? You would be called an eyewitness, in legal terms the phrase ‘eyewitness testimony’ refers to an account given by people of an event that they have witnessed. The real question is how reliable is an eyewitness testimony? In Ida Fink’s Play “the Table” there are four witnesses with all different testimonies. The testimonies given in the play relates to today’s society in which an eyewitness statement can involve false memories. A false memory refers to the
Many individuals have been wrongly convicted over the years due to misidentifications. However, eyewitness identifications are considered some of the most powerful evidence against a suspect (California Innocence). So, how can something so vital bring an end to someone’s life. According to California Innocence Project, there are multiple reasons to why eyewitness identification are not always reliable. Some of these include: high stress environments and trauma, human memory, weapons focus, and suggestive
Exoneration According to The Innocence Project, 329 innocent people have been exonerated through DNA testing in the United States since 1989 (Innocenceproject.org). Most of those people were victims of wrongful convictions, which were made by eyewitness misidentifications or misconducting investigation procedures. Those wrongly accused people were imprisoned many years for the crimes that they did not commit. In addition, they encountered many issues and could be killed for any reasons during their time
Another factor for a wrongful conviction is false eyewitness identification testimony. Reasons the eyewitness may misidentify a suspect can be cause by memory or cross-race identification according Earl Smith and Angela Hattery. In Freddie Allen article, “Blacks are Still Majority of the Wrongfully Convicted”, in the spring of 1974, Michael Austin, an African American man, was a victim of a wrongful conviction caused by eyewitness misidentification. A grocery store employee named Austin a suspect
the case. For instance, some of the mistakes that bring about a wrongful conviction are eyewitness identification, making false statements or confessions, forensic science errors, perjured informant testimony, police error, prosecutorial error, and inadequate representation for the defense (Gould). In most cases, the main reason for wrongful conviction is eyewitness misidentification. With misidentification an innocent person, police stop investigating. This results in the real offender getting
outcome or reaction. This method can be done both intentionally and unintentionally. Lawyers usually go over eyewitness details many times before the actual trial. This “rehearsal” can make the eyewitness testimony more like a practiced script rather than a genuine account, leading to an intended incrimination or innocence depiction. This is the most widely controversial influence on eyewitness memories, highly supporting the doubtful opinions of their
The Due Process Model will not only be beneficial in reducing crime but also in making it easier for people who commit crimes to not stay in the revolving doors of the criminal justice system. This model emphasizes in making the criminal justice system fair for citizens and making it harder to possibly wrongfully convicting people who are innocent. By protecting the defendants rights the Due Process Model forces law enforcement agencies to conduct thorough investigations in every case in order to