CRI210H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Eyewitness Identification, Informant, Forensic Science
4 Aug 2022
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Wrongful convictions in canada: causes, consequences, and responses. Association in defence of the wrongly convicted. Range from very few cases each year to 20% of all convictions. Not one individual making single grave mistake several individual & systemic factors. Sole/major source of evidence single most important factor leading to wrongful convictions. Suggestive police interviewing police communicate info to eyewitnesses that influences & contaminates testimony. Unconscious transference witness confusion btw person seen in one situation & person seen in another. Malleability of confidence pliable nature of certainty of testimony. Most jurors unaware of unreliability may place unwarranted faith in accuracy. Not permitted to call upon experts to discuss weaknesses of eyewitness identification. Inadvertent human error, sloppiness, exaggeration, misinterpretation, bias. Believe defendant who confesses to crime regardless of contrary evidence. Voluntary false confessions freely given to police w/ little interrogation/pressure. Need to expiate guilt for real/imagined acts. Inability to distinguish btw fantasy & reality.
