The Anderson Case

Even things that a police officer does can effect the memory of a witness. The way a police officer handles a witness can affect the way their memory or the outcome of the identity of the suspect. In the Anderson case, police failed to conduct a proper photo spread lineup. As Clare (2012) stated all the photos should have similar lighting, size and shades of color (para. 1). In the Anderson case the photos were not similar, the majority were black and white. The man who was arrested, his photo was in color. A photo in color stands out more than one in black and white. Another issue is a witness should only see a photo of a suspect once, not multiple times (Clare, 2012, para. 8). When a witness repeatedly sees a photo of color, the face of the man in the photo is …show more content…
When police are conducting a lineup or a photo spread all suspects should look similar in features that the witness described in their statement. The individuals should have similar age, hair color or length, as well as other parts of their appearances. In the photo spread the background should not include the inmate number or the height scale during both the photo spread and the lineup (Wells et al. 1998, p.9). Lineups and photo spreads are a very important part in identifying a suspect, but when done incorrectly they can lead to wrongful convictions.
In the case of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton, a faulty procedure in the photo spread lead to Ronald Cotton spending over ten years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. One night Thompson felt something move in her room, she turned over and saw a man in her room. She knew there was nothing she could do to stop the crime from happening. She began to study his face in the event of the crime. After the crime occurred, she was finally able to escape. The woman reported the crime and the next day a man was taken into custody. During the photo spread, she quickly