Witness

Changes in the Accuracy of Witness’ Testimonies Introduction Based on information gathered after an event, memory of said event (while this is applicable to just about any event in everyday life, the focus in this case is a crime) almost always differs from person to person based on differing perspectives, confidence levels, and unconscious reconstruction of the memory. In this report, reasoning as to why errors are made when eyewitnesses recall how a crime happened and possibly the perpetrator of the offence are discussed, as well as a few methods of how to lessen the chances of mistakes using a few ideas from Richard A. Wise’s “Method” that even now are being used as common protocol. Near the end, there are also a few ways to get a more…

Psychologist’s claim that the human memory is not reliable and it’s because of this that there have been circumstances that have affected the accuracy of the Eye Witness Testimony. Many factors that have been found to affect the EWT some include emotional stress, misleading information and post-event discussion. One source shows an experiment by Loftus and Palmer (1974) who researched the theory that misleading questions could affect the EWT. They showed participants a video of a car crash and…

The videos clearly show and explain how the eye witness statement can have an impact on the investigation as well as false information being entered into court, which can lead to false conviction. In the first video, almost every interviewee had a different answer, the only thing that was repeated was; “He had a black jacket, wool hat, and he was all”. When the interviewer asked about the hair colour, the interviewees came up with a bunch of different answers. I think this is a perfect example…

In the film ‘The Witness’ we explore numerous ideas in which validates John Donne’s observation which leads us into trusting the statement that is “No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.” Every individual is a puzzle piece which fits flawlessly into a much bigger picture. In this Instance it is an Amish community. Peter Weir expressed his opinion on what belonging means to us as humans through his film which works in sync with the…

Witness testimonies are often unreliable due to the nature of human memory. For this discussion, 'testimony ' will be used loosely to represent a statement, written or spoken, made by any person claiming to have seen or experienced anything relating to their respective case. The chosen scope for this discussion is cases of sexual assault because very often in such cases the only evidence presented is a testimony, either by the victim or a witness. Aside from the aforementioned, DNA evidence has…

still being argued by some (Strier, 1999). A study by Stolle, Robbennolt, and Wiener (1996) suggested that the perception of trial fairness was dependent on balance, such that when both sides had a consultant or neither side had a consultant the trial procedure was seen as fair. Research Review A Confidence-Credibility Model of Expert Witness Persuasion In this study, Cramer, Decoster, Harris, Fletcher, and Brodsky (2011) propose that the extent of the persuasion power of expert witness is…

Expert witness testimonies must be scientific, technical, and specifically relevant that will acknowledge the trier of fact to define evidence and determine the fact of the issue. Evidence obtained by expert witness’s must be based off of sufficient facts produced by applicable, reliable, principles and methods. In response to Daubert v. Merrill Daw Pharmaceuticals ( 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and other cases applying the Daubert standard. Under the Daubert standard the expert’s theory must be…

The standards that are used by courts to determine who is qualified to be an expert witness are first and foremost familiarity and competency in the subject matter. The witness must possess education and knowledge of the subject, as well as practical experience and training in the subject. While there is no absolute law as to the extent of the amount of knowledge and experience is needed to qualify as an expert witness, it is encouraged that at a minimum he or she is able to put their…

Stakeholders When it comes to witness intimidation, there are several stake holders to take into account. These stakeholder can be greatly affected by the act of witness intimidation and the come from varying fields. These field span from social to legal with perspectives that vary as well. In no particular order, the first of the stakeholders include victim-witness units and crime victim advocacy groups (Debel, 2006). For these two stakeholders the main purpose of them is to be there for…

Preston, who was better known as the dog handler, released an unreliable testimony stating that his scent tracking dog had recalled Dillon’s scent and connected it with the crime scene. This scent tracking dog, also connected the T-shirt worn by the perpetrator to Dillon. Next a driver, with an a legally blind eye, identified Dillon as seen in court as the man he had remembered picking up near the crime scene on beach. There was a contradiction seen here in his testimony, hence another reason…