He found that sequential lineups resulted in a significant decrease in the false identification rate, with only a small drop in the correct identification rate. But in the 1980s, Wells started testing a new method: sequential lineups, in which possible suspects are viewed one at a time rather than all at once. In a traditional lineup, a witness views six to nine potential suspects (or their photographs) simultaneously. Much of the recent debate involves lineups - or, more commonly, photo arrays.
#BOWRAL INNOCENT WITNESS TRIAL#
"Eyewitness identification may be more reliable than we think." Lineups on trial Clark, PhD, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside. "What has been described as a success story of psychological research is not looking like it's quite so simple anymore," says Steven E. Now, however, some psychologists say some of those changes may have been premature. "I honestly believe there's no area of experimental psychology that has had a bigger effect on the legal system," Wells says. Other states are discussing similar instructions, Wells says. In 2011, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a landmark decision requiring judges to instruct jurors on the limits of eyewitness identification. Police departments across the country began making changes to lineup procedures, such as presenting possible suspects one at a time rather than all at once. In fact, eyewitness misidentification has played a role in more than 70 percent of wrongfully convicted individuals, according to the Innocence Project, an organization that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people.įollowing that flurry of DNA-fueled exonerations, law enforcement agencies started paying closer attention to the science of memory and identification, says Gary Wells, PhD, a psychologist at Iowa State University who has studied eyewitness identification since the 1970s. Beginning in the 1990s, forensic DNA testing has revealed hundreds of cases of wrongful convictions. Their story has become another classic example of the fragile nature of eyewitness testimony. In the years since Cotton was exonerated, he and Thompson-Cannino co-authored the 2010 bestselling book "Picking Cotton" about their experience, and have campaigned together to reform eyewitness identification procedures.
But the samples did match the DNA of another convict, Bobby Poole - who, it turned out, had told a fellow inmate he had committed the crime. Cotton was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison.Ī decade later, DNA testing revealed that Cotton was not a match to semen samples from Thompson-Cannino's assailant. Then, she picked Cotton from a live lineup. Later, in a photo lineup, she identified Ronald Cotton - a 22-year-old man who looked strikingly like her sketch and had previous run-ins with the law. After the assault, Thompson-Cannino, then a 22-year-old college student, helped police sketch artists create a composite picture of her attacker. One night in 1984, a stranger broke into Jennifer Thompson-Cannino's apartment and raped her.
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