News
The debate over the death penalty in the United States was brought to the forefront last week with the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. A secondary issue to emerge from the debate is the need for eyewitness identification reform in police stations and courtrooms across the country. Media reports confirmed that seven of the nine …
Read MoreSeptember 29, 2011 Tags: Death Penalty, Eyewitness Identification, Troy Anthony Davis No Comments 
Last Thursday, two North Carolina men walked out of prison for the first time in a decade. Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson pled guilty to the murder of Walter Bowman in 2000 despite maintaining their innocence. Attorneys for the two men argue that Kagonyera and Wilcoxson pled guilty to avoid life sentences; they were sentenced …
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2011 Tags: North Carolina, North Carolina Innocence Commission No Comments
On Monday, September 19, the AJS Center for Forensic Science and Public Policy, in collaboration with the Innocence Project, the Police Foundation, and the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, released a study conducted over the past three years examining eyewitness identification procedures. The study analyzed over 850 lineups in four different police departments: Austin, TX; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, …
Read MoreSeptember 21, 2011 No Comments
In an article published today by Slate, Universtiy of Virginia Law Professor and author Brandon Garrett details the eyewitness identification procedures used when investigating the Troy Anthony Davis case. Garrett explains how the lineups were not double-blind and were suggestive to the witnesses. Furthermore, Garrett states that the photo lineups were not conducted until at …
Read MoreSeptember 20, 2011 Tags: Death Penalty, Eyewitness Identification, Troy Anthony Davis No Comments
David Ayers was released from prison Monday after spending over ten years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Ayers has been in jail since 2000 for the robbery and murder of 76 year old Dorothy Brown. At the time of the murder, Ayers was a resident and security guard in Ms. Brown’s …
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2011 Tags: DNA, exoneration, Ohio No Comments
On Sept 12, 2011, a Utah judge issued an order of factual innocence for Harry Miller, the second person exonerated under Utah’s exoneration statute, passed in 2009. Miller was convicted in 2003 of a robbery that had been committed three years earlier. At the time of the robbery, the victim stated that her attacker was …
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2011 Tags: exoneration, factual innocence, Utah No Comments
Troy Davis, a Georgia man convicted of the 1989 murder of a police officer, is scheduled to be executed nine days from today. His conviction rests entirely on the testimony of nine witnesses, seven of whom have since recanted, claiming they were coerced by the police. Of the two holdout witnesses, one, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, …
Read MoreSeptember 12, 2011 Tags: Death Penalty, due process, Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification No Comments
On Sunday, September 4, 2011, the Boston Globe profiled NEIP exoneree Dennis Maher. Maher was convicted of two separate attacks on women in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1984 and another in Ayer, Massachusetts. He received a life sentence for the attacks and was convinced he would …
Read MoreSeptember 7, 2011 Tags: Dennis Maher, Massachusetts No Comments
NEIP Board Member Stanley Fisher, a professor at Boston University School of Law, was quoted in an August 28th New York Times article discussing the fallibility of eyewitness identification. Since the Supreme Court last examined the issue of eyewitness identification in 1977, more than 2,000 studies relating to the fragility of memory have been published. …
Read MoreAugust 31, 2011 Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification, Reform No Comments
Relying on Scientific Research on Memory and Identification, Court Says
Standard Set by U.S. Supreme Court 30 Years Ago Must Be Revised
(Trenton, NJ – August 24, 2011) — Today the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a landmark decision requiring major changes in the way courts are required to evaluate identification evidence at trial and how …
Read MoreAugust 24, 2011 Tags: Eyewitness Identification, Eyewitness Misidentification No Comments
