Mistaken eyewitness identifications responsible for bad convictions, expert says

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

CBS/AP

(CBS) -- Mistaken eyewitness identifications are the principal reason for more than 75% of mistaken convictions, says Dr. Robert Shomer.

Shomer, an eyewitness expert on this weekends show "48 Hours: Presumed Guilty," has testified as an expert for more than 1000 eyewitness trials in twenty states.

In doing extensive scientific research on all the factors that influence eyewitness identification, Shomer has concluded that the level of identification accuracy is very low and the confidence of the eyewitness is only weakly related to the accuracy of their identification.

Shomer says there are many examples of cases that lack substantial, independent evidence connecting a person to a crime. The only proof that some cases have is mistaken eyewitness identifications.

He says some common misconceptions tied to eyewitness identification are:

1. All that is needed to make an accurate identification is enough time to see someone, enough light, and an absence of excessive distance.

2. The type of identification procedure used by the police is not very important because the image of the individual seen was stamped into the memory of the eyewitness.

3. If the eyewitness expresses their identification with certainty it must be accurate because they had no other reason to make the identification.

All of these points have been refuted by repeated scientific studies.

Flawed eyewitness identifications are mainly due to inadequate and suggestive identification procedures used by police all over the country, says Shomer. Police officers rarely receive formal training in valid identification procedures and there is a lack of written police department policies on how these procedures should be carried out.

Shomer believes it is important that the public is educated on eyewitness identification and the police procedures that surround it. Anyone can be identified but whether or not that identification is accurate depends on many factors.

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by democracy8 November 24, 2012 10:22 AM EST: Eyewitness ID is notoriously unreliable. Unless there is serious corroborating forensic evidence, I wouldn't rely on it.; Reply to this comment


by ludvig1-2009 November 23, 2012 10:29 PM EST: In Marin County, California, a lawyer was arrested for robbing a bank because he looked like the robber, even though someone else's fingerprints were on the holdup note. It took him 4 months to clear his name. On the other side of the Bay, another man was arrested for robbing a bank because he looked like the robber, but the police had to let him go when he showed video proof he was in Washington State at the time of the robbery. When I was in college getting my car fixed at a garage, another young man came up to me and told me I was his high school chemistry teacher. When I told him I wasn't he replied "Yes you are." Oddly enough I don't have a degree in chemistry, but I do have over 30 semester hours of chemistry, the last 19 hours being straight A. I guess chemistry guys all look alike.; Reply to this comment