Mistaken Eyewitness Testimony - 1568 Words

An eyewitness testimony is a proceeding whereby the witness of a crime will stand in court and recall the events which they perceived and is involved in the identification of the perpetrator (Laney Loftus, n.d.). Eyewitnesses testimonies have become a staple for many legal proceedings and is often taken as hard evidence for a crime which someone has committed. However, there has been a staggering number of innocent people who have been convicted of a crime based on eyewitness testimonies. This is what led to the creation of the Innocence Project whose mission is to use DNA evidence to free wrongly convicted individuals (About - Innocence Project, n.d.). This essay will explore some of the reasons behind mistaken eyewitness testimonies,†¦show more content†¦However, factors such as interactions with other witnesses and the influence of media outlets cannot be accounted for. In addition, the small sample size of 13 participants means the results are not as reliable and cannot be generalised to the population at large. One possible factor which may influence the results is that witnesses were within close proximity to the events which transpired which can influence memory as well as not being applicable to many crimes whereby the witnesses only see part of the crime or a shadow of the perpetrator. An alternative explanation would be that flashbulb memory was at work here. A flashbulb memory is a detailed snapshot of an event which evoked feelings of shock or surprise or were otherwise emotionally arousing (Brown and Kulik, 1977). Events which have negative emotions attached to them seem to be processed in a detail-attentive and conservative manner (Bless et al., 1996; Storbeck Clore, 2005; Bohn and Bernsten, 2007). The age of a witness also seems to influence the formation of flashbulb memories. In a study by Cohen, Conway and Maylor (1993) most of the younger participants experienced flashbulb memory compared to less than half the older participants. They concluded that the main factor which influenced the formation of flashbulb memories for older participants was rehearsal of the events whereas in youngerShow MoreRelatedFalse Witness Credibility : Mistaken Eyewitness Identification1231 Words   |  5 PagesCourtney Wu Professor Harris ENC 1102 1 Dec. 2016 Research Project for False Witness Credibility: Mistaken Eyewitness Identification On May 3, 1982, in Norfolk, Virginia at circuit court, 29-year old Julius Earl Ruffin was convicted of a rape he did not commit and was sentenced to five life sentences in prison. The case rested on Ann Meng, the victim who accused Ruffin as her assailant. 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The experiment is outlined as follows: a participant is given a list of words that are highly relative in nature at a rate of about one word every 2 seconds. At the finish of the given list, the participant