Identifying the Culprit Assessing Eyewitness Identification (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 Eyewitness Identification Procedures
2 Eyewitness Identification Procedures
Pages 21-30
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From page 21... ...
Data on the number of eyewitness identification procedures are not systematically or uniformly collected. While the exact number of eyewitness 1 Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Crime in the United States 2012: Persons Arrested," available at: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/ persons-arrested/persons-arrested.
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From page 22... ...
; Metropolitan Police -- District of Columbia, General Order -- Procedures for Obtaining Pretrial Eyewitness Identification, April 18, 2013; New York State District Attorneys Association Best Practice Committee, New York State Photo Identification Guidelines, October 2010; Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, Lineup and Showup Procedures (Eyewitness Identification) , November 2011; and Innocence Project of Texas, Eyewitness Identification Reform, available at: http://www.ipoftexas.org/eyewitness-id.
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From page 23... ...
The guide set forth rigorous criteria and basic procedures to promote accuracy in eyewitness evidence.8 However, after the guide was released, most police departments in the United States did not adopt these procedures. Today, many police departments use computer systems to access image databases and assemble photo arrays.
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From page 24... ...
. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, for example, does not endorse either simultaneous or sequential procedures in its Procedures for Obtaining Pretrial Eyewitness Identification.9 The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York in 2010 adopted recommended policies for New York State and endorsed the simultaneous method.10 On the other hand, in North Carolina, legislation was passed that requires that lineup photographs be presented sequentially,11 and in Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court Study Group on Eyewitness Identification recommended sequential procedures as best practice for Massachusetts Police Departments.12 The committee was presented with information regarding improvement efforts from states including New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, New York, and Massachusetts.
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From page 25... ...
Live lineups are used in some jurisdictions, but they are not the predominant method used by law enforcement.16 The use of these police identification procedures is limited for a variety of reasons. First, in certain circumstances, legal counsel may be required at a lineup, thereby making it less attractive to police and prosecutors.
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From page 26... ...
In an eyewitness identification setting, double-blinding can be used to prevent a lineup administrator from either intentionally or unintentionally influencing a wit ness. In these cases, neither the eyewitness nor the administrator knows which persons in a photo array or live lineup are the suspected culprits and which are the fillers.d,e In eyewitness identification procedures, as in science, the purpose of double-blinding is to prevent the conscious or subconscious expectations of the administrator from influencing the witness or research outcomes.
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From page 27... ...
Case law limits the time and distance from a crime during which such a procedure will pass legal standards. In response to such case law, police typically restrict showups to a two-hour time period after the commis
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From page 28... ...
Courts consider showups highly suggestive, and prosecutors urge the police to exercise caution when conducting them. CONFIRMATORY PHOTOGRAPH Police will, on occasion, display a single photograph to a witness in an effort to confirm the identity of a perpetrator.
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From page 29... ...
have the potential to introduce biases of the sort that blind lineup procedures are designed to avoid. NON-POLICE IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURES In some cases, the victims or witnesses, or both, identify suspects without involving the police.
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From page 30... ...
Inconsistent and nonstandard practices might easily add noise to the eyewitness identification process, contaminate the witness, and bias the outcome of an identification procedure. 20 he T design of a live lineup is subject to more practical constraints than a photo array.
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