Cognitive Key Question

• Cognitive Key Question?

  “Is eyewitness testimony too unreliable to use in court?”
• An eyewitness testimony is evidence given under oath in a court of law by an individual who claims to have witnessed the facts under dispute - it is a written/oral statement from the victim that is collected during criminal investigations
• Jurors tend to rely on eye witness testimonies to reach a verdict (especially when there is a lack of forensic evidence)
• Witness Statements: at the scene/immediately after or interview at police station/witness house
• 3 Types of EWT: Witness statements, artist impression and, identity parades
• Artist Impression: Drawn or computer generated from witnesses’ description
• Identity Parades: Line-up, a witness identifies from the line of suspects, found witnesses ended up just choosing faces they didn’t like instead
• False EWT decreases the general public safety and increases crime, loss of trust in police and legal systems and the victims will feel unsafe and perhaps guilty for the wrong conviction
• False EWT: The wrongfully convicted relationships and mental health may deteriorate as they lose years of their life and discrimination even after their innocence is proved
• False EWT: It costs £35,000 annually per person in prison - this money is wasted when it's spent on someone who shouldn’t be in prison; the wrongfully convicted can demand up to £1 million in compensation (a big financial spend that could have been used for better purposes)
• The home office now requires additional evidence for EWT to convict someone in a UK court
• 75% of wrongful convictions involved EWT (UK) - up to 100 innocent people could be wrongfully convicted annually
• 69% of wrongful convictions involved EWT (USA)
• In 48% of wrongful conviction cases the real perpetrator re-offends
• 1989 First DNA exoneration (freed due to DNA evidence proving innocence) - for Gary Dotson from the USA
• Socially sensitive research as the victims have been through horrifying ordeals and want/deserve justice, they need to know the perpetrator of the crime has been punished