PSYCH 3CC3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Eyewitness Identification, Australian Psychological Society, Innocence Project
Document Summary
Always has been the most powerful form of testimony (over 5000 years) But: not that accurate at all based on modern research. Our eyewitness testimony largely based on our own beliefs of what we think happened. Arthur whitfield released from prison in 2003: served 23 years of 63 year reape sentence, was innocent although two victims identified him as the rapist, freed by dna evidence. David hansen: charged with rape, kidknapping by victim, cleared by dna evidence. Marlon pendleton: rape conviction based on victim identification, overturned based on dna test. In the above cases: recurring pattern where victims were all white, and suspects" are black: a racial bias. Innocence project estimates 73% of false convictions based on mistaken eyewitness identification. Memory as an adaptation: we don"t have to remember everything. No memory before ~2 years of age. Ex: if there was a negative event, sometimes we purposely don"t remember the bad aspects of things.