Eyewitness Identification In 'Murder On A Sunday Morning'

Eyewitness identification relies upon the eyewitness memory and the ability for him or her to retain that information and reporting it straight to the police. Memory is considered as evidence because information is being gathered and encoded in memory. Over time the storage holds in the encoded information in the brain until retrieval occurs so the brain can have access to the information. Although memory is not accurate, errors can occur throughout the process of encoding, storage, or retrieval. Even images and sound can deteriorate over time, which makes it hard to recall them back. The value of eyewitness evidence depends on how strong it is from the beginning and whether it is preserved or tested properly. If the evidence is weak then it cannot be processed as a valuable report from the crime because there can be various mistakes such as description errors or the accuracy of what happened in the crime scene. In the documentary “Murder on a Sunday Morning” (2002) the eyewitness identification in …show more content…
Studies show that high levels of arousal or stress can indicate false accuracy and throughout the court. In this case the eyewitness stated where his wife got shot and later corrected himself. This shows false accuracy. He was then shown a picture of a black shirt with a nautical logo on and he stated that it was a dark shirt that had no logo but then it did at first. James Stevens also clarified to Brenton Butler’s lawyer that he does not recall talking to an officer about the description of the individual who murdered his wife. The eyewitness in this case was confident on his statement but lack on being reasonable throughout the process of testifying it. This shows how Steven’s eyewitness evidence was not precise despite of how confident.

In the article “Descriptive Eyewitness Testimony: The Influence of Emotionality, Racial