Eyewitness identification testimony under scrutiny
Eight men in Georgia have served time in prison after being misidentified by a victim or witness before being cleared years later by post-conviction DNA testing.
Eyewitness identification experts say these Georgia cases and more than 200 others like them nationwide should serve as reminders for courts hearing challenges to the reliability of eyewitnesses. A new national debate — sparked by a recent landmark decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court and by the recent execution of Georgia’s Troy Anthony Davis — is prompting courts to revisit the issue. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in its first eyewitness identification case in almost 35 years.
Over the past three decades, a vast body of scientific research about human memory has emerged through more than 2,000 social science studies and experiments, revealing a troubling lack of reliability in eyewitness identifications. The Innocence Project also notes that of the first 275 DNA exonerations, more than 75 percent involved eyewitnesses who identified the wrong person.
“What they have found is that memory is extremely malleable and extremely fragile,” said University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett, author of “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong.”
In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at the reliability of witness ID. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
