Eyewitness Testimony has been a controversial topic in court cases for as long as I can remember. Eyewitnesses to a crime can either make or break a case depending on what they can recall. A person can be convicted of a crime or not convicted of a crime depending on how reliable the eyewitness is and how much they can convey to a jury (Bryant, 2020). One of the most important things in regards to an eyewitness is their memory. Eyewitness memory is memory that involves remembering specific events, using episodic memory and elements of semantic memory, while also remembering the meanings associated with the events (Jenkins, 2018). Eyewitnesses have an incredible impact on which way a case goes and they have a difficult job to remember everything they saw in possibly a very short period of time. The testimony of an eyewitness is crucial and juries have the tendency to pay close attention to the details a witness is recalling (Jenkins, 2018). With this being said, if juries are relying on the specific details that an eyewitness is giving during a court case, are these eyewitness testimonies reliable or unreliable?
Much of the research suggests that eyewitness testimony is not always accurate (Bryant, 2020). There are certain things that are contributing factors as to why eyewitness testimony is not accurate. One factor would be age or age bias. It is suggested that the older a witness is, their memory could be declining, which in turn could cause them to not remember as many details and not be as reliable as a younger witness (Bryant, 2020). Another factor that could make the testimony unreliable is that research has shown that the type of event could be influential in the amount of information that the witness actually remembers, which could fault them on remembering details of the event (Bryant, 2020). Altering details can be problematic because if an eyewitness testimony squanders, then it may be dismissed from the case. Jurors can determine and conclude that the eyewitness is unreliable (Bryant, 2020). As stated before, a lot of eyewitness testimony can rely solely on memory. A testimony can lose its reliability if the eyewitness has been deemed to have low working memory. Therefore, a person who has a lower working memory will not have the ability to move information, such as details of a crime into their long-term memory, meaning they may not be able to recall an event that took place awhile before (Jenkins, 2018). Working memory can be controversial though, because someone who has a stronger working memory may be able to remember things better and store details in their long-term memory, which in turn would make them more reliable.
There are so many differences between what can make an eyewitness reliable and what may make them unreliable. There are theories that look towards attentional control. These suggest that some people have the ability to direct their attention to multiple objects or elements of an eyewitness event, which can make their eyewitness memory more accurate, whereas others do not (Jenkins, 2018). Therefore, it depends solely on the individual themselves and how dependable they are as an eyewitness. Many factors have to be looked at to determine reliability. It is amazing to me how little details of a crime can affect a person’s ability to actually remember the entire situation that occurred. If a weapon was used in the crime that an eyewitness saw, the weapon itself can actually affect what the eyewitness remembered specifically about the crime because they tend to focus more on the weapon and less on the criminal’s appearance (Bryant, 2020). It really makes you think whether or not these eyewitness testimonies should even be used, or who to actually believe and who not to believe. Where do we draw the line on which eyewitness testimonies to use and which ones not to use?
Supporting the unreliability of eyewitness testimony are two examples of case exonerations. In the first one, the Innocence project examined many cases where they used DNA to exonerate 130 cases. Out of the 130 cases, 78 convictions were based solely on eyewitness testimony (Bryant, 2020). Another one involved a man named Brandon Garrett from the University of Virginia School of Law who ended up analyzing 161 cases of eyewitness misidentification that ended up getting exonerated because of DNA (Ryan, 2015). If eyewitness testimony were actually reliable then all of those cases would not have been overturned. It really makes you think whether or not there are so many innocent people sitting in prisons to this day because of eyewitness testimony. What if there are people on death row that got convicted because of this as well? The system is so messed up right now, and it feels as though there should be guidelines for eyewitness testimony to be included in a case. There has to be something done so that innocent people stop going to prison. After all the reviewed articles, I would have to say that eyewitness testimony is completely unreliable, and should not be used as a means for conviction. There should be other ways to back it up in a court case, so that the jury does not rely solely on eyewitness testimony.
References
Bryant, C. W. (2010, October 13). Why are eyewitnesses unreliable? Retrieved from https://people.howstuffworks.com/eyewitnesses-unreliable.htm
Jenkins, L. (2019, February 15). Memory in the Real World: How Reliable is Eyewitness Testimony? Retrieved from https://www.psychreg.org/how-reliable-eyewitness-testimony/
Ryan, B. (2015, October 30). Eyewitness Testimony Is Unreliable… Or Is It? Retrieved from https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/10/30/eyewitness-testimony-is-unreliable-or-is-it
Your blog reminded me of a Forensic course I took last year as well as a Criminal Justice course. In my forensic class, the instructor would always make it fun, and we had to “play” games along with our routine course work. In an eyewitness game, we had to virtually play, we would have to try to retain as much info as possible on some random accident/event that was going on. Then we would have to recall everything they asked us. I remember I got most of it wrong. I was disappointed. It is not as easy as it looks. Eyewitness testimony can make things worse, but sometimes hints here and there can make a significant difference in a case. As you mentioned in the blog, there should be other ways to back up in a court case so that the jury does not rely solely on eyewitness testimony. In other words, an attempt to stop innocent people going to prison.