The Accuracy Of Eyewitness Testimony

The accuracy of an eyewitness is the essential part for the jurors’ decision making regarding a particular case. The jurors depends on the eyewitness for an accurate statement of the testimony that is being presented. There are many wrong convictions throughout the legal systems and many factors that comes into play, but the eyewitness has the highest percentage for wrong misidentification. Therefore, research has been done to help improved the accuracy of the witness testimony. The three best solutions I decided to go with are binding lineup administrators, bias-reducing instructions to eyewitness, and confidence ratings.

The first is blind lineup administrators. According to the book blind lineup administrators is “the person who conducts the lineup or photo spread should not be aware of which member of the lineup or photo spread is the suspect” (Costanzo, M, & Kraussr, pg 152). Basically saying do not provide your own opinion to the eyewitness about a potential suspect that you think committed the crime. Instead allow the eyewitness to come into its own decision. Using the blind lineup administrators help alleviate ambiguous or predetermined decisions from outside source other than the eyewitness testimony. …show more content…
According to the book bias-reducing instructions to eyewitness is “to inform the eyewitness that the true criminal might not be in the lineup” (Costanzo, M, & Kraussr, pg 153). By doing this is not forcing the eyewitness to feel obligated to have to pick a suspect in the lineup. According to the book witness tends to believe that someone from the lineup is the suspect and it have to be one of them. Therefore, this technique of informing the eyewitness that the criminal might be in the lineup helps with take away the pressure of feeling obligated to have to pick someone. This is very important because this eliminates the pick bias; only allowing certainty for each