Testimony

Throughout the history of the United States’ judicial system, eyewitness testimonies — accounts of a crime or accident that involves a witness narrating their firsthand experience of the incident to a court — have been used as primary evidence for courts to indict a defendant since biological evidence may not always be available or easily analyzed (Myers 350). One of the major problems with these testimonies is that it requires perfect recollection of the events so that the courts can piece…

How reliable is eyewitness testimony? In what ways should the criminal justice system take more notice of the problems that have been identified? This essay will explore the argument of how reliable eyewitness testimony is and will also consider the ways the criminal justice system should take more notice of problems already identified. Eyewitness testimony is when a witness comes forward within the courtroom to give their account of what occurred in relation to the trial which is based upon…

Adam Liptak wrote an article in The New York Times about reliability of witnesses testimonies and judges discretion to include or exclude such testimonies in the court. This article came in light after the Supreme Court ruling on the same issue at hand. The Court and multiple studies all suggest how “unusually problematic and unusually persuasive” eyewitness testimonies are (Liptak, 2011, para. 1). In Barion Perry's case, the members of the court did not seem moved to challenge the…

When one thinks of memory, they usually think of past events that happened or something that they had learned. Although one can recall certain memories, can they recall every single detail? This semester, we were asked to recall the events of a day that happened six weeks prior to the beginning of class. While some students could explain some details of what they had done that day, not all could be certain. Details may not seem to be that important when telling a story from a childhood…

Both victims and witnesses are important players in international criminal proceedings. Historically, victims were not involved in the criminal justice process. Victim participation has to be limited and restricted in regards to investigation and prosecution. Impact statements now exist in the United States, which grants either immediate victims or victims of the family the ability to speak before the jury, the judge, or the convicted defendant. They are able to express themselves; giving them…

The prosecution’s case was that it was not an accident and presented a case which involved four components of evidence: medical, reconstruction of the vehicle pathway, testimony from Farquharson’s close friend Mr King and the accused dam-side behaviour (Farquharson). Firstly, medical evidence centred on the uncommonness and questionability of the condition that Farquharson had presented with cough…

require eyewitness testimony from people at to scene of the crime to help convict the person being tried. However, most trials don’t happen immediately after the crime and it could take up to a year or even longer. That could lead to many inaccuracies in those testimonies because “the content of our memories can easily change over time” (Chabris and Simons). In a situation where if too much of the memories change over the long wait for the trial, the eyewitness testimonies might have the main…

During trail, Warna’s testimony was one of the most important piece of evidence. Because of her analysis explanation, it was said to believe that Ms. Molly Wright was beaten by an object (weapon) with force. According to her testimony, she stated that the blood stains on Hill’s clothing matched the blood DNA from Molly Wright, which was the factor that determined the sentencing and if Mr. Hill was guilty or innocent, which in this case he was guilty. In court, Mr. Hill listed a number of reasons…

The film Twelve Angry Men (1957) exhibited the power of an eyewitness, the characteristics of the defendant, and the power of group influence that affects the jury. Throughout the film, the reliability of the eyewitness was questioned. There were two eyewitnesses in the movie, the old man, who lives in the apartment below of the crime scene, and the old woman, who lives across the street. According to the film, there is a possibility that the eyewitnesses misinformed the jury about the crime…

Psychological research shows eyewitness testimony, detailing events observed during the commission of a crime, has a high probability of containing significant memory errors. In response to these findings, the question is should witness testimony still be admissible in a court of law? Obviously, the answer to this question is an important one, and, is debatable depending on who you ask. Consequently, what we know is many innocent people are falsely imprisoned due to eyewitness…