In the movies , the eyewitness view usually plays out one of two agency : The dupe of a crime is brought into a police force place to sit down behind a one - way mirror and key out his or her assaulter in a short letter - up . Or , the eyewitness dramatically points to the supposed outlaw sitting smugly beside his royal court - appointed defense lawyer during the trial . There may be some cross examination about how drab it was and how estimable the witness ’s visual sensation is , but in the movies the eyewitness always picks out the right person .

Eyewitness testimony can play a big part in reprehensible Margaret Court cases . Whether or not a person is convict of a crime can come down to the dependableness of an eyewitness and how confidently he or she conveys testimonial to a panel . The problem is these eyewitness news report are n’t always exact . The Innocence Project is a non-profit-making team of attorneys and law pupil that re - examines questionable murder convictions with the hope of using DNA evidence to overturn the sentences of defendents who ’ve been wrongfully imprisoned . In the first 130 cases the Innocence Project overturned , eyewitness testimony played a part in 78 percent of those wrongful judgment of conviction [ beginning : Stambor ] .

Other test have proven that eyewitnesses are n’t as reliable as they take to be , especially when those witnesses are older than age 60 . In one work at the University of Virginia , participants between the ages of 60 and 80 perform far worse than college - aged students , which is not that surprising pay aging eyesight . But the field of study revealed another startling find : The former eyewitnesses were also more intransigent and confident in their wrong answers . So jurors not only hear unreliable testimony from an older witness , but they ’re in all likelihood more convinced of that testimony because of the eyewitness ’s trust .

An eyewitness may not be reliable for several reasons – and they do n’t all have to do with hapless vision , although that ’s one of the lead reasons . In fact , test performed on masses with good seeing have bear witness that at just 10 feet by , a attestant may not be able to see a soul ’s eyelashes . At 200 feet , the eye themselves are a blur . At 500 human foot , it ’s likely that no facial features can be secern . This seems logical , but execution cases have been adjudicate in part based on the testimonial of eyewitnesses who were more than 450 ft away from the culprit .

by from eyesight , researchers have found that stress can also touch on an eyewitness account , as well as the ability to pick someone out of a police lineup . While officers are n’t of necessity attempt to make identification , sometimes the way the process is handle can have an impingement . Photographic batting order can be handle in several ways . With one method , the alleged criminal is not let in among the mug shots the eyewitness considers . This is called a coincidental card . The trouble with this method is that the eyewitness compares pictures to one another . So instead of looking at one picture at a sentence and making an absolute judgement , the witness uses relative judgment by equate the faces .

Also , when the alleged culprit is not in the picture set , the eyewitness will often find fault the person who expect most like the perpetrator he or she commemorate , or else of express that nobody in the lineup jibe the bill . Some standards put in position over the years authorisation police military officer to state that the culprit may or may not be in the batting order . Police have also been encouraged to use sequential judgment lineups , where the eyewitness understand one picture at a time and makes a financial statement on each one . cogitation have also shown that two-fold - blind lineup , in which the officer does n’t know the suspect ’s identity , produce fewer false identification .

The citizenry used alongside the suspects in police lineup are call " filler . " inquiry has evidence that using filler who do n’t resemble the defendant can make the defendant stand out . It ’s also shown that people are prone to correctly identify phallus of their own subspecies . Or to say it a different way : There are more fake recognition when the defendant has a different skin coloration than the eyewitness .

Whether or not there was a weapon system present at the time of the law-breaking can affect the outcome as well . When a gun or knife is present , an eyewitness oftentimes condense on the weapon and not the inside information of the assailant ’s face .

Leading questions by law officers and attorney also have an shock on the testimonial of an eyewitness . This is why a judge can refuse a question and demand that it be reword in homage . As more research is completed in the field of eyewitness recognition , no doubt more standards will be put in place to guide police officer during initial inquiring .

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