Article on Unreliability of Eyewitness Testimony Available

The Federal Courts Law Review proudly announces the publication of
Why Judges Should Admit Expert Testimony on the Unreliability of Eyewitness
Testimony by Dr. Henry Fradella.
Dr. Fradella, a lawyer and professor of criminology, finds that there are at least 125 criminal cases in which post-conviction DNA evidence has exonerated persons who were mistakenly identified as the perpetrators of serious crimes. Dr. Fradella reviews the scientific literature pertaining to perception and memory and analyzes the complex factors that bear on a human being’s ability to remember what occurred during the commission of a crime and to then identify its perpetrator. He concludes
that these factors are certainly beyond the common knowledge of jurors and that educating them as to their significance is crucial to the jurors’ realistic assessment of the accuracy of the eyewitness testimony they have heard. He therefore urges the courts to abandon their refusal to admit expert witness testimony as to the scientific factors pertaining to the validity and accuracy of eyewitness identification and permit jurors to hear this vitally important information.

Dr. Fradella’s article can be found at http://www.fclr.org/2006fedctslrev3.htm