A new Wikipedia page examines problems with eyewitness identification and catalogs suggested reforms to prevent misidentification by witnesses in criminal cases. Good stuff, with terrific linked citations, to boot. H/T Eyewitness ID blog.
MORE: The Defense Perspective, a blawg by Bryan attorney Stephen Gustitis, has more on the topic of eyewitness ID.
I LOVE the idea of having "known false" suspects in the lineup. I actually saw an episode on Monk where a "random" police officer was selected. Ironically that officer was the culprit - but normally he would be very low on the list. It would be preferred that if government employees were used that it would be office staff or people very extremely unlikely to commit crimes. Of course we could select people for lineups in the same manner we do jury duty. This would be considered "jury light" since the duty would be more like a fashion show. One could put this on the resume if one wanted to become a model: I was a regular player in police suspect lineups.
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