Recently I had a friend come to me with a stressful situation. Her grandfather, someone who she loved dearly and completely trusted, had been accused of raping a young woman. My friend swore by everything up and down that he could have never done anything so malicious. The only convicting evidence against her grandfather was the eyewitness testimony of the alleged victim.
From everything I heard about the case from that point, it was obvious that this young woman had been victimized and sexually assaulted. She did have to suffer through a horrible experience that many of us shudder to imagine. But I do not believe that my friend's grandfather was the man who assaulted her.
Many people do not realize the faults in eyewitness testimonies, and yet these testimonies often hold the power to completely turn the judge and jury in a court of law.
Based on a study conducted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it is estimated that one in every 25 people sentenced to death is innocent. Since 1973, 144 innocent people on death row have been exonerated from their sentence through new DNA inspections. The House Police Department states that 80 percent of exonerated men were put behind bars because of a false eyewitness testimony.
False eyewitness testimonies are not limited to lying to the court under oath. Actually, it's much more common for an eyewitness to have a lapse in memory than to lie in the courtroom.
For example, the time between the act of the crime and the testimony in the courtroom can span from weeks to months or even years. Psychologist Jack P. Lipton found in his study that after a one week period, memory recall had an 18 percent difference in the amount of the event that could be recalled. This 18 percent could include the color and model of a car or the face of the person harming them.
Other fallacies in testimonies also occur due to the bias of investigators who subtly push victims into believing a certain person is guilty because the police already suspect that person.
Despite all of the errors that could easily occur in eyewitness testimonies, they still are paramount to assigning of guilt in a courtroom. According to a study conducted by psychologist Cindy Laub, jury members are more influenced by the testimony of a witness than the association of weapons, drugs, violence, or disguising in a crime.
It's importance to raise awareness on this subject to keep innocent men and women out of prison. It's important to realize that people make mistakes, even seemingly confident eyewitnesses. Perhaps through raising awareness, we can also instill changes in the court system from the beginning, such as to not allow biased investigators to interview a possible victim. Something this simple could alleviate biases influencing the witness to make a wrong conviction and testimony. Something this simple could save lives.
