What does this tell us about the validity of eyewitness identification?
http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/~3/Xr4lMLA9NBA/la-fi-mask-20101209,0,6731334.story
What does this tell us about the validity of eyewitness identification?
http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/~3/Xr4lMLA9NBA/la-fi-mask-20101209,0,6731334.story
I personally am not surprised. As i mentioned in class i think this mask plays on the internal racist schema's that we have developed in our society. And my guess this isn't the first time they've arrested the wrong guy based off his race.
I agree that this is something that has probably been done before, and it is very likely the wrong person was arrested. Now that this is more aware to the public what are police going to do to take certain precautions against things like this? Requiring people who sell masks like this to keep very detailed records may be in order. This is not going to solve all the problems, but it may help for now until a better way to prevent this is figured out.
Eyewitness testimony is something else that may start to be questioned more and more. It was stated before the 1900s that eyewitness testimony is not trustworthy but we still continue to use it. Educating the jury and the judge on eyewitness testimonies is something that should be done in every case. I think that police people should inform eyewitnesses of the reliability of their testimony and also make sure to tell the witness that the person who actually did it may not be in the pictures presented to them. I think this could make people feel at ease and make them feel like they did not "have" to make a decision.