A recent survey by the Georgia Innocence Project found that 83 percent of 296 police departments surveyed had no written protocol in place governing how to conduct lineups.
Barry, who would be better described as the head of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School, or perhaps the leading legal authority on the use of DNA to free innocent people wrongly convicted on flawed eyewitness identifications, stated that “The criminal justice system has to become more scientific in areas where we can prevent errors.” The Georgia study comes after 6 men were freed after years in jail when DNA was used to prove their innocence.
The absence of written protocol for conducting identifications is shocking, given how DNA has proven beyond any doubt whatsoever that eyewitness identifications are fraught with error. On the other hand, given how cops are reluctant to adopt, and even more reluctant to actually employ, scientific protocols that might get in the way to their nailing the bad guy to the wall, it comes as no surprise at all.
There is no longer any question that the traditional line-up, not to mention show-up, photo-array, whatever, is about as useful a tool as the 5 point fingerprint. What was pronounced to be fool-proof is now just a show for fools. It’s good to see Georgia doing something to change it, and particularly good to see someone as knowledgeable and dedicated as Barry Scheck called to testify. Now if only the rest of the country followed suit, perhaps we could put this sorry chapter of conclusive police work to rest.
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I’ve been following the story, too. The previous hearing had state law enforcement insisting that witnesses just don’t misidentify people and claiming that regulating eyewitness id’s would hurt their ability to investigate. Fortunately, there’s a lot of great scientific evidence being presented as well as personal experiences. However, I’m not too optimistic that the eventual bill will pass given the state of affairs in Georgia these days. Still, this type of information needs to be in legislatures all over the country.
Well, you gotta admit that forcing police to use scientifically valid protocols will certainly hurt their ability to “investigate”, as the term is loosely used by police. Imagine all the time it would save if they could just show a pic of the perp to the witness and say, “that’s him, right?”
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