Are eyewitnesses accurate?


tip:   to Crime & Consequences, who gives a Hat tip to Howard Bashman at How Appealing for his post reporting on an audio segment on NPR's "Day to Day"
discussing the reliability of eyewitness identification in criminal
trials.  The segment, from Slate.com writer Dahlia Lithwick, dicusses
research from
Gary Wells
and Deah Quinlivan.  Wells is a psychology professor from Iowa State
University.  According to Lithwick, Wells' study shows that of the more
than 230 people in the United States who were wrongfully
convicted and later exonerated by DNA evidence, approximately 77
percent involved cases of mistaken eyewitness identification.  This is
more than any other factor.  Wells and Quinlivan's
study Law and Human Behavior. was published in last month's

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