Measure to end wrongful convictions clears Georgia Senate

A measure to eliminate wrongful convictions based on faulty eyewitness identifications passed unanimously in the Georgia Senate.

Senate Bill 94 would for the first time require all law enforcement agencies in the state to adopt "best practices" about how victims pick alleged criminals out of a lineup. The bill, which won approval on Thursday, essentially sets a minimum for those efforts, with the aim to reduce outside factors that inadvertently influence a witness' decision. They include:

• Ensuring someone who does not know the identity of the suspect conducts the lineup.
• Telling a witness that the suspect may be — and may not be — in the lineup.
• Making sure a lineup has "fillers" that generally resemble the witness' description of the suspect.

Eight Georgians since 1999 have been exonerated by DNA evidence after being misidentified by a victim or a witness and wrongfully convicted of a crime. It’s a problem that has rendered heart-wrenching tales, cost the state millions of dollars in compensation and raised questions about the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Advocates have been trying for years to help Georgia improve its record.

In 2008, after failed attempts to pass similar legislation, the Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council addressed the problem on its own and began to require law enforcement officers seeking management and supervisory certifications to get instruction on new eyewitness identification procedures.

But lawmakers have never put those requirements into law. The bill’s supporters are hoping that changes this year. Law enforcement advocates are on board, as are groups dedicated to clearing wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing,