Eyewitness testimony makes for great TV drama. Everyone gasps when the individual on the stand points directly at the suspect and yells, “They did it!” The suspect is found guilty and sent to prison.
Things are different in real life. Law enforcement may tell you that there was a witness to the crime so that you will confess. But eyewitness testimony isn’t as reliable as they would have you believe.
Our memories aren’t exact playbacks
People would like to think that they have an excellent memory and that everything happened exactly as they remember. The truth is that human memory is complex and fallible. Unlike a video recorder that plays a recording, our memories are reconstructed; each time we recall something, we rewrite it. Therefore, our memory is vulnerable to errors.
Several factors affect the accuracy of a person’s eyewitness account, including:
- Stress and trauma, particularly if the event was shocking or violent. High stress levels impair the brain’s ability to encode and recall details.
- Memories fade over time. The account may be less reliable if there is a significant gap between the actual event and the testimony. Important details can be forgotten or misremembered.
- If the witness was subject to suggestive questioning. Memories can be unintentionally reshaped by the words used in the question or how it’s asked.
- People have difficulty identifying individuals from a race that is different from their own. This is known as the cross-race effect and can severely limit an eyewitness account.
Eyewitness testimony has played a part in the false conviction of over 70% of people who were later exonerated by DNA testing. This leads many people to wonder about the actual number of people who spent their lives in prison or were executed based on misleading eyewitness accounts.
If you are accused of a crime based on someone’s eyewitness testimony, you should continue to exercise your right to be silent and your right to legal representation. You need someone who will build a strong defense against a witness account.
