2016 Oct Q1 “The law fails to adequately address the grave risks associated with
eyewitness evidence.”
Discuss.
2017 ZAB Q3 “Research and experience amply illustrate the risks of wrongful
conviction associated with eyewitness identification evidence, and yet
the law fails to adequately address these risks despite the relative ease
with which it could do so.” Discuss.
2017 Oct 4. Do the courts provide sufficient protection against the dangers of
identification evidence? Discuss in relation to EITHER or BOTH:
(a) eyewitness identification;
(b) expert forensic evidence (eg fingerprints).
2019 ZB Q1 Does the law offer sufficient protection against the potential unreliability
of identification evidence?
2020 ZB Q3 “Neither the legislature nor the courts have attached sufficient weight to
the risk of unreliability in eyewitness identification. The reforms required
have long been clear and could easily be achieved in accordance with
the objectives of the law of evidence.” Discuss.
Q: Are defendants in criminal trials sufficiently protected against the use of
identification evidence?
, Intro
The prosecution in criminal trial use eyewitness testimony as “major” form of
evidence in more than 20% of cases to prove that it was the defendant who
committed the offence in question (Ruth Brandon and Christie Davies). In fact,
despite being long recognised, the current research also shows that 75% of false
convictions are caused by inaccurate eyewitness statement (Keith A. Findley). This
means more than 100 innocent people could be wrongfully convicted each year in
UK because of these false eyewitnesses.
Problem
The problems mainly arises when “witness thinks he has a good memory for faces,
when in fact he has a poor one, there is no way of detecting the failing” (Lord
Devlin). For over a century psychologist undertaken many researches on
eyewitness identification in attempting to understand factors that moderate
identification accuracy, and to improve the techniques used to collect identification
evidence (Munsterberg). Base on psychological literature, mistaken eyewitness
often confident in giving evidence, but such confidence is not correlated with
accuracy (Cutler and Penrod). Despite that there are other factors such cross-racial
identifications (Brandon L. Garrett), extreme stress (Morgan III) or presence of a
weapon which experienced by victim of a violent attack (Nancy M. Steblay), all
those particularly problematic in terms of accuracy.
Safeguards
Indeed, English Criminal Justice System long moved on to focus on the merits of
various safeguards to minimise the risk of wrongful conviction, and which fall broadly
into two categories: those that target the investigation and those that target the trial.
Code D
The evidence of pre-trail identification would be admitted at trial to support in-court
identification of defendant. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) is
the major safeguard that target the investigation and sets out various strict
procedures that may use by police to obtain identification evidence, and it
establishes a clear hierarchy among those procedures, particularly under Code D. It
is useful to convince of Code D procedures being divided into two circumstance;
suspect unknown to witness and suspect know to witness.
Suspect unknown
In circumstance, where suspect’s identity is not known, witness may be shown
photographs in accordance with Para 3 Annex E. Although in one hand, it could be
argued that viewing number of photographs may confuse in witness’s memory of
accuse face and interferes her ability to make subsequent identification. In other
hand, where there is more than one eyewitness, it could be argued that showing
photographs to one witness at any one time, and each witness given as much
privacy as practicable and not allowed to communicate with another eyewitness,
may ensure that witness’ memory are not distorted by any interaction (Andrew
Roberts).
Suspect known
In circumstance, where suspect’s identity is known to witness and available to police
either by immediate or with reasonable short time, police may arrange video
identification, identification parade or group identification, whichever is more
eyewitness evidence.”
Discuss.
2017 ZAB Q3 “Research and experience amply illustrate the risks of wrongful
conviction associated with eyewitness identification evidence, and yet
the law fails to adequately address these risks despite the relative ease
with which it could do so.” Discuss.
2017 Oct 4. Do the courts provide sufficient protection against the dangers of
identification evidence? Discuss in relation to EITHER or BOTH:
(a) eyewitness identification;
(b) expert forensic evidence (eg fingerprints).
2019 ZB Q1 Does the law offer sufficient protection against the potential unreliability
of identification evidence?
2020 ZB Q3 “Neither the legislature nor the courts have attached sufficient weight to
the risk of unreliability in eyewitness identification. The reforms required
have long been clear and could easily be achieved in accordance with
the objectives of the law of evidence.” Discuss.
Q: Are defendants in criminal trials sufficiently protected against the use of
identification evidence?
, Intro
The prosecution in criminal trial use eyewitness testimony as “major” form of
evidence in more than 20% of cases to prove that it was the defendant who
committed the offence in question (Ruth Brandon and Christie Davies). In fact,
despite being long recognised, the current research also shows that 75% of false
convictions are caused by inaccurate eyewitness statement (Keith A. Findley). This
means more than 100 innocent people could be wrongfully convicted each year in
UK because of these false eyewitnesses.
Problem
The problems mainly arises when “witness thinks he has a good memory for faces,
when in fact he has a poor one, there is no way of detecting the failing” (Lord
Devlin). For over a century psychologist undertaken many researches on
eyewitness identification in attempting to understand factors that moderate
identification accuracy, and to improve the techniques used to collect identification
evidence (Munsterberg). Base on psychological literature, mistaken eyewitness
often confident in giving evidence, but such confidence is not correlated with
accuracy (Cutler and Penrod). Despite that there are other factors such cross-racial
identifications (Brandon L. Garrett), extreme stress (Morgan III) or presence of a
weapon which experienced by victim of a violent attack (Nancy M. Steblay), all
those particularly problematic in terms of accuracy.
Safeguards
Indeed, English Criminal Justice System long moved on to focus on the merits of
various safeguards to minimise the risk of wrongful conviction, and which fall broadly
into two categories: those that target the investigation and those that target the trial.
Code D
The evidence of pre-trail identification would be admitted at trial to support in-court
identification of defendant. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) is
the major safeguard that target the investigation and sets out various strict
procedures that may use by police to obtain identification evidence, and it
establishes a clear hierarchy among those procedures, particularly under Code D. It
is useful to convince of Code D procedures being divided into two circumstance;
suspect unknown to witness and suspect know to witness.
Suspect unknown
In circumstance, where suspect’s identity is not known, witness may be shown
photographs in accordance with Para 3 Annex E. Although in one hand, it could be
argued that viewing number of photographs may confuse in witness’s memory of
accuse face and interferes her ability to make subsequent identification. In other
hand, where there is more than one eyewitness, it could be argued that showing
photographs to one witness at any one time, and each witness given as much
privacy as practicable and not allowed to communicate with another eyewitness,
may ensure that witness’ memory are not distorted by any interaction (Andrew
Roberts).
Suspect known
In circumstance, where suspect’s identity is known to witness and available to police
either by immediate or with reasonable short time, police may arrange video
identification, identification parade or group identification, whichever is more
