Eyewitness Testimony Should It Be Deemed Reliable, Research Paper Example

Eyewitness testimonies are one way of putting a suspect at the scene of the crime. This highly depends on a third party witness, and can sometimes be unreliable (Loftus, 1996). The grave consequences for misleading a jury for a wrongful eyewitness testimony are to put an innocent man in prison, serving time for a crime he did not commit (Floyd & Sinclair, 2008). This may be the cause of some prejudice on the jury’s part, some confusion with issues, or even something like poor sight on the eyewitness’ part (Loftus, 1996). No matter what the case was, there are just some times where an eyewitness cannot be the only reliable source of evidence.

Scientific evidence shows that there is unreliability in connection with human sight and the memory (“Eyewitness Testimony Scrutinized, 2009). This is because our brain does not retain memory as well as we think, what we saw even minutes ago can change in our minds and cause us to forget some important details. This is very dangerous, especially when someone’s life depends on an individual’s memory. It has been proven that more than 230 people in the United States were wrongfully convicted due to misleading eyewitness testimonies, and their innocence was proven much later on through DNA exoneration (“Eyewitness Testimony Scrutinized, 2009).

During the year 2009, a judge had cleared a man, Timothy Cole of the aggravated sexual assault he was accused of, and which he was sent to prison for back in 1986 (Lithwick, 2009). This was done through DNA exoneration. The victim of the sexual assault had identified Cole three times in a police line-up, he was wrongfully convicted and was to serve his sentence. Cole died in prison during the year 1999, ten years before his name was cleared. The real rapist confessed to the crime in 1995, yet not enough time was given to clear Cole’s name and four years later, he passed away (Lithwick, 2009). This is an example of an unfortunate case where an innocent man served time due to wrongful eyewitness testimony. This way of placing a suspect in the scene of the crime should not be the primary source of evidence, and eyewitness testimonies should not be deemed reliable.

References

Loftus, E.F. (1996). Eyewitness testimony. Cambridge: Harvard Press.

Eyewitness Testimony Scrutinized (2009). American Constitution Society. Retrieved from http://www.acslaw.org/node/13035

Floyd, J. & Sinclair, B. (2008). DNA Exonerations question eyewitness Testimony. Criminal Jurisdiction. Retrieved from http://www.johntfloyd.com/blog/2008/10/30/dna-exonerations-question-eyewitness-testimony/

Lithwick, D. (2009). Have the Eyes Had it?: Is Our Eyewitness Identification System Sending Innocents to Jail? Slate. Retrieved From http://www.slate.com/id/2213579/