Court-Martial Trial Practice BlogMy first GCM involved eyewitness identification and a motion to suppress based on an improperly suggestive show-up when the client was arrested. He was handcuffed in the back of the police car and the armed robbery victim was brought to the police car and asked ”is that him” or words to that effect. Since then […]
Search Results for: eye witness
Eyewitness identification for the defense and trial counsel
Let’s take a look at United States v. Criswell, a case decided by the Army adverse to the appellant, and now pending review at CAAF, on the following issue. No. 18-0091/AR. U.S. v. Andrew J. Criswell. CCA 20150530. On consideration of the petition for grant of review of the decision of the United States Army Court of Criminal […]
Improvements in eyewitness identification
What the witness sees and remembers is a function of many factors specific to that witness and the crime scene: the witnesses ability to see without glasses, the absence of any lighting at night. What complicates matters is the deliberate or unintentional police actions (and actions of others – see ‘memory conformity’ issues). The American […]
Eyewitness testimony resource?
A Survey of Federal and State Standards for the Admission of Expert Testimony on the Reliability of Eyewitnesses George Vallas Independent 2011 American Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 39, No. 1, Fall 2011 Abstract: Eyewitness testimony is indispensible to the proper functioning of the criminal justice system. However, as Justice Frankfurter famously observed: “The vagaries […]
The Perils of Eyewitness Testimony
Eyewitness Memory for People and Events (Chapter 25) Gary L. Wells Iowa State University, Department of Psychology Elizabeth F. Loftus University of California, Irvine – Department of Psychology and Social Behavior January 16, 2013 Handbook of Psychology, Vol. 11, 2013, Forensic Psychology, Chapter 25, R.K. Otto and & I.B. Weiner (Eds), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley […]
More on eyewitnesses
Slate has a piece, The Catch-22 of Eyewitness ID, Juries trust the memory of witnesses even when they shouldn’t. h/t How Appealing.
More on eyewitness testimony reforms
I’ve posted already about the Oregon case – Oregon v. Lawson. Here is a piece from the excellent Concurring Opinions blog about eyewitness testimony. I would like to underscore Brandon’s point about reform efforts that are currently underway. While for the most part, the criminal justice process is stuck in a bad place (thanks to […]
Eyewitness testimony and identification
The CAAF recently decided United States v. Baker, an Article 62 appeal of an MJ’s ruling suppressing an identification. There is quite a bit of legitimate research indicating that even 12 bishops might give an erroneous identification of a suspect either in witness interviews or through an out of court identification (photo or lineup). For […]
Eyewitness identification
Prof. Colin Miller has a timely and excellent discussion of eyewitness identification issues.
Eyewitness accounts and testimony
MAJ Hasan’s UCMJ Article 32 hearing and likely court-martial is drawing and will continue to draw lots of attention — of course, duh. But just as we have seen in other high profile cases there are opportunities for what I call teachable moments. Here are two from the item posted by CAAFLog about the witness […]