In some cases where a person is accused of a serious crime, an eyewitness comes forward. Maybe someone has been accused of murder or manslaughter, for example, and an eyewitness places them at the scene of the crime. The witness watched the event take place and picks the person out of a lineup.
For a jury, this is often convincing testimony. The eyewitness appears to be authentically telling the truth and is entirely unrelated to the case, so there seems to be no reason for them to lie.
But even so, researchers have found that the majority of wrongful convictions are tied to eyewitness misidentifications. No matter how confident those eyewitnesses sound, DNA evidence may eventually prove that they were wrong. This can sometimes happen before a conviction, but it also may happen years later, demonstrating that the person was wrongfully imprisoned.
Why does this happen?
There are many different reasons why this can occur, such as:
- The eyewitness was too far from the crime scene to see clearly.
- The event was stressful or traumatic, affecting their ability to observe specific details.
- There were gaps in the eyewitness’s memory of the event.
- The alleged suspect looked similar to the actual perpetrator and was wrongfully identified.
Also, human memory can change over time. Even if an eyewitness believes that they correctly remember the events, if they have told the story to many people, including investigators, they could have altered their own memories. Human memory is not like a video camera, but is much more malleable.
It is important to keep these types of issues in mind when facing serious charges. Be sure you know exactly what legal defense options you have.
