Causes of miscarriages of justice

1) Eyewitness misidentification – 75% cases

2) Forensic blood analysis -
3) Police misconduct
4) Detective/fraudulent science -
5) False confessions
6) False witness testimony
7) Informants
8) DNA inclusions

Brandon Mayfield – US citizen, recent convert to Islam – connection to

the bombing at Alcala de Henares station outside of Madrid (191 killed.
- Released after fingerprint match with another suspect.

Phantom of Heilbronn – chasing a female cause of the female DNA

found at crime scene.
- Found out the DNA had been contaminated by a woman working
the at the factory making the cotton swabs.

 Innocence project – US org. dedicated to exonerating

wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing.
- Sonja Farak
- Ronald cotton – spent 10 years in jail for crimes he did not
commit. Exonerated in 1995. Due to flawed eyewitness
misidentifications. Convicted of both rapes and two counts of
burglary. Sentenced to life + 54 years.
Jennifer Thompson misidentifies the suspect. Stated that Ronald cotton,
was the suspect, but in fact it was another suspect Bobby Paul who was
the actual suspect.

Bystander intervention
Bystander apathy – not wanting to become involved in a crime or other
serious situations. Example – Catherine Genovese – attacked and murder
on the streets of Queens, New York. There were 38 witnesses which
were her neighbors, but none intervened.

Conditions needed for identification evidence

- Max distance is 15 meters from the event
- Min illumination is 15 lux. (luminance)

Estimator variables
- Date
- Time and distance
- Height and weight
- Personality
- Sex and age

To keep in mind
 - Confidence doesn't necessarily mean accuracy. Like the Ronald
cotton case, Jennifer Thompson identified the wrong person as the
perp even though she was confident.
- Actions may be remembered better than details
- Variables such as how far the witness was from the crime, what the
illumination was and how long the witness was exposed to the
event and the perpetrators can all have an effect on the accuracy of
witness testimony.
- People are generally not good at judging either time or distance –
we often overestimate the duration of short events, particularly if
the event is complex.
- We tend to be poor at dating events – forward telescoping means
we often assign a date that is too recent
- Estimates of height and weight are not accurate – we have a
tendency to underestimate above-average characteristics and
overestimate below-average characteristics. The witness' own
height and weight might be used as an anchor against which the
height or weight of others are estimated. This means it is a good
idea to ask for relative judgements, e.g. how tall was the
perpetrator in relation to the doorway?
- The gender of the witness may impact upon the evidence provided,
but its influence is by no means clear-cut.
- Age can have an effect. Over the age of 70, hearing, vision and
attention decline, and children will generally provide less
information and be less accurate than adults.
Co-witnessing – allowing witnesses to talk to one another, including
interviewing them together, will lead to considerable convergence in
their testimonies. Witnesses can form a memory of something happening
from listening and talking to another witness. So, consistency in
testimony is to be expected if the witnesses have had a chance to share
memories. Such consistency should not be seen as confirming the facts
reported.

CASE – ROBBERY (great Manchester police)

2 detectives – (DI)
- Detective Inspector Jake Bullet – voted. Follows his gut, and
relations with the streets help solve most cases.

- Detective Sergeant Lara Sund - highly experienced interviewer.

Does not like coming to a conclusion so fast, until she has found
sufficient evidence, have many theories which she tries to
disprove.
Witnesses
- Lila – 54 yr old woman. 5ft 2 inches tall. Weighs just under 8
stone. Confident describes her memory as being very good.
Memory for trivia – not great. States her ability to recall past
events and details about friends and family. (very overconfident)

- Seth – 35 yr old man. 5ft 8 inches tall. Weighs about 12 stone.

Unconfident. Not comfortable being put on spot. Thinks he does
not have a good memory. Relies on others when it comes to
recalling past events. (should make him as comfortable as possible,
asking him the right questions. Keynote – lacks confidence and
bad memory)
Timeline of the crime and police response
- 16:24 Wednesday afternoon – police receive a number of
emergency calls reporting a possible armed robbery in progress.
 3 calls from people working in the building adjacent to the
crime – hearing gun fire.
 1 call from a pedestrian passing the road – seeing an armed
masked man running past.
 1 call from a car driver narrowly avoiding a collision with a
speeding car.
- 16:26 – initial response unit is dispatched to the location reported
in the emergency calls.
- 16:32 – police receive a call from a mobile phone from 2
eyewitnesses, confirming that an armed robbery took place and
also that a young woman has been taken hostage – "Liz", friend of
the witness who was with them.
- 16:36 – initial response unit arrives at the scene. 2 eyewitnesses
who made the call are still there, robbers left, however. Cordoned
off the street where the crime took place.
- 16:48 – detective from CID, DI Jake, arrives at the crime scene has
a brief convo with the officers already there, then goes and talks to
the 2 witnesses, trying to obtain any info.

Initial statement
- Suspects drove up and jumped out of the car? Car description –
large silver car. Number plate – NG58 VXW? Looked new and
expensive? So newly bought? Red light in the back window and 4
doors. Audi?
 - After jumping out of the car, what happened? 4 suspects, 3 robbed
the bank while 1 stayed in the car as the getaway driver. Ran
towards the security van, grabbed two guards and had forced them
onto the ground.

ROBBER DESCRIPTION
- 2 of them wearing balaclava masks,
- 3rd one had a hood on, fought with one of the guards. His face was
clearly seen by Lila, really aggressive
- curly shoulder length black hair? 5ft 3/4inches, quite dark skinned.
Early 20's, possibly 22? Spanish /Italian/ Asian (Indian).
- All looked quite stocky, not fat, like they have worked out a lot,
like bouncers.
- Wore dark jackets that had hoods, all wore army trousers,
camouflage? Army fatigues
- Two aimed their guns at the guards, while the other grabbed a case,
the case had a chain, so they had to break the chain with some sort
of tool. Lila would be able to identify the third robber
- One of them was different? Childlike? Woman?
- 4th guy (the driver) got out of the car, started firing in the sir and
shouting. – Tall white male, hard looking, short dark hair.
(CAUCASIAN MALE). He grabbed the kidnapped victim 'Liz'.
Probably 30's and a lot stockier, and a lot taller, 6ft 3/4? no mask.
Short hair like a soldier, soldier's crew cut? Lila again is willing to
identify this man. Not sure about Seth. Seth says he was wearing
sunglasses, dark lenses, and silver frames? Cap?
DI JAKE BULLETS EVIDENCE
A large silver Audi, new and expensive looking, screeched round the corner and
the number plate was definitely NG58 VXW. After that, four guys jump out of the
car, all wearing army fatigues and dark jackets, and they start firing guns in the
air. Three of them run to the security van and the driver ran towards you,
threatening you with a shot gun, grabs Liz and drags her back to the car. The
other three fight with the guards, use a tool to cut the chain attaching a case to
one of the guards and then steal it. The driver is a Caucasian male in his thirties,
6 feet 3 or 4 inches, dressed like a soldier and with dark hair in a crew cut. The
guy who steals the case is an Asian male, in his twenties, 5 feet 3 inches, stocky
with long, dark curly hair? All were armed with shotguns

DS Sund
LILA'S STATEMENT

- Number plate NG58 VXW

- Shouting and 3 men with guns attacking the guards. One of the
robber had a fight with a guard, he did not have a mask on.
- All of them wore dark jackets and army trousers.
- One of them ran towards and fired his gun.
- Before that, the unmasked guy forced the guard onto the ground
and had a case attached to his wrist by a chain, so started cutting
through it to get the case. Guessing it carried money
So, the fourth member of the group did not arrive at the start of the scene
but in between, pulled up. 2 of them were stealing the case and one
grabbed and shouted at Liz. Lila is not sure whether the car was already
there, or just pulled up.
Unmasked robber - fighting with the guard. May have been wearing a
hat, like a riot hat with a big plastic screen, almost like a crash helmet.
Got knocked when fighting the guard.
Height – 5ft 9.
The driver – quite tall, older than the other guy, probably in the 30's,
early 30's. had a camouflage outfit. Looked like a soldier – not just his
clothes, but his short hair and tough looking face, quite muscly, maybe
as tall as 6ft 4, but measuring it to the van he would come up to 5 ft 9.

SETH
- Liz might have been calling the police, and the man, shouted and
threatened her. So, the man who attacked the guard is the man who
grabbed Liz., 3 ran to the van and the fourth was the driver
One had a tool, like big pliers.
Car – large executive types, silver and vert flash looking. Audi, A6
maybe?
Driver – man who grabbed Liz. Sunglasses, dark, with silver frame.
Cap?
The one fighting the guard, unmasked robber – dark hair, darkish skin.
Early to mid-30's, Caucasian, middle eastern appearances possibly
Mediterranean. Average height, average build, slim.
One of the masked, looked little rounder, possibly a female?

WEEK 3
SEEING AND NOT SEEING. \
- PERCEPTION - refers to how the mind interprets the information
is received by our sense's aka sight, hearing.

- ATTENTION – processes involved in noticing different things

around us. Focusing on just part of our environment.
 - MEMORY – allows us to encode, store and later retrieve the info
that has been perceived and attended to.

Inattentive blindness - not being able to see things that are actually there,
which can be the result of having to think hard about one thing, and so not
noticing something else.

Change blindness - used to describe a situation in which someone fails to

notice that a key element of their surroundings (including the identity of the
person right in front of them) has changed.
1st image – the ceiling, one of the streetlights and the moon.
2nd image - street next to the tree, one of the signs, a pile of sand on the
right
3rd image – a beige building, and a white and black building on the right
side back
- Increased violence results in higher levels of stress leading to
providing less info on the perp, impacting the memory negatively.

- Central and peripheral information – when witnessing a crime our

attention may be drawn to central actions at the expense of
descriptive details.

- The presence of a weapon might cause witnesses to focus on it at

the expense of other aspects of the crime, including the appearance
of the perpetrator.

FALSE MEMORY
DRM Paradigm – Deese-Roediger-McDermott
 Using schemas has a potential to distort memories

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

- LEADING QUESTIONS – strongly suggesting

what response is expected or/and assume details that
have not been provided by the witness. Seen
problematic by psychologists and lawyers as it leads
to the suggestibility phenomenon.
- OPEN QUESTIONS* – seeking open ended
responses from the witness, that do not limit, focus,
or direct the witness's response except in the most
general way.
- FACILITATORS* – nonsuggestive verbal or no
verbal prompts that encourage the witness to continue
recalling. Such as 'okay', and 'hmm' encourage the
witness to continue their account.
- FOCUSED QUESTIONS – ones that focus the
witness's attention on specific details or aspects of the
event that the witness has previously described. May
be open ended or cued invitations to recall a specific
info.
 - OPTION POSING QUESTIONS – generally limit
the response the witness can give to specific options
and usually focus on aspects of the event that the
witness has not already described.

WEEK 4
DI BULLET INTERVIEWS
LILA –
 We found the getaway car just 30 minutes after the crime
took place, a Silver Audi A8, number plate NG58 VXW.
 Liz was still inside and okay, but was very shaken, and we
could not get anything useful from her.
 The car was abandoned in Manor Green, there is a lot of
warehouses in that area, including one we know to be used
by a gang of ex-soldiers, who now make a living from
various petty crimes, and the occasional armed robbery.
 They have all got previous form, particularly their leader,
who is a big, bald guy known as The Sergeant. A couple of
the crew are of Indian origin, including Fat Baz, who is a
short, overweight guy that we have banged up for bar fights
on several occasions.
 These guys are pros, and they run their scores like a military
operation. They are definitely the ones I like for this armed
robbery; it has their MO all over it. I am now going to
interview the witnesses.
 - I am going to interview you separately and your interviews will be
recorded, so try to keep to the facts.

- Based on your initial statements we have made very good progress

with our investigations and have we have got some very interesting
lines of inquiry.
- We now need your help to make sure we have the evidence we
need to catch these guys and put them away for a long time.

- We do not have any other evidence, so we really need you to come

through for us. Lila, we will start with you.

- You gave us some great information at the crime scene Lila, so I

just need to get it all down in a formal statement.

- Let us start with an easy one, you said you saw a large silver Audi
tear round the corner into the street you were in.

- What did you notice about the car and can you tell me what
happened? – (leading question?)

His questions are very leading. Making Lila agree with

whatever answer he is providing in the questions that is
been asked to her.
SETH
Di bullet in this interview also asks leading questions, to
which Seth vehemently agrees to. Agreeing to the info
that has been providing to him through the questions.
Although the case needs to be sped up, DI did not really
give much time to the witness to tell him their account.

DI Bullets evidence so far only relies on the accounts

provided by Lila and he asked too many leading questions
instead of open questions. He is leading the witness and
not allowing the witness to actually speak of the account
on their own and as I was listening to the interview, it
seems like he was rushing the interview. It also seems that
the evidence that was noted down from Lila's statements
is the only evidence. In the case of Seth, he was almost
dismissive, in the sense that the questions asked to Seth
were almost all leading questions and Seth just agreed to
every information that was put out there in front of him,
not letting Seth talk about the account from his
perspective, which might also bring out missed out
evidence, also ignoring Seth's final comment about one of
the offenders, something unusual, which Seth could have
talked about more, if DI Bullet would have given him
time to talk about it rather than rushing it.

Context reinstatement
Psychologists have found that people are usually able to
remember more information if they are in the same place as
when they learned or first encountered that information. it
appears to improve the amount and accuracy of the evidence
supplied by a witness quite robustly. This is because your
surroundings can act to trigger memories, particularly if you are
remembering an event that was shaped by your surroundings –
such as a crime.
The positive effects of context reinstatement would suggest that
all witnesses should be interviewed at the crime scene.
many problems with this, including that the witness may not feel
safe; it would be hard to record the interview; and surroundings
often change, e.g. lighting changes, people and objects move. 
to overcome these problems, it is advised that the police officer
asks the witness to 'mentally reinstate the context of the crime';
that is, to picture the place where the crime occurred as clearly
as possible in their mind. Mentally reinstating context seems to
be a very effective way of getting witnesses to remember more
information.
COGNITIVE INTERVIEW
Developed for the interview with cooperative interviewees, be
they witness, victim, or suspect, and basically it's a collection of
tools, on a tool belt, that are trained to the police, and all help to
aid certain areas of memory.
The CI contains 4 techniques for improving the info
remembered by a witness –
 Report everything
 Reinstate context
 Change order
 Change perspective

DS SUND INTERVIEWS
LILA
- We found the getaway car just 30 minutes after the crime
took place, a silver Audi A8, number plate November-Golf-
5-8, Victor-X-ray-Whiskey. Liz was still inside and OK but
was very shaken and not in a state where she could really
help us.

- The car was abandoned in Manor Green, there is a lot of

warehouses round there, and lots of empty buildings.

- Currently our case is dependent on the testimony of two

eyewitnesses. So, it is important that we get as much
 information from them as possible, and at the same time it
is important that we do not contaminate their memories.

- The witness is waiting for me so I'm going to interview her

now.
Hi Lila, it is nice to see you again, thanks for coming. How are
you today?

SETH

DS Sund established a good relaxed environment for both the witnesses.

She was professional, calm, and unhurried in her approach. There was
no leading question, she allowed the witnesses to picture themselves at
the scene and the describe the scene, giving them the time to remember
the account and answer, ultimately bringing out more new information
and specific details. In conclusion, DS Sund's style of interviewing was
a lot more structured and consistent, used open questions and focused on
specific details of the accounts and encouraged the witnesses to make
mental recreation of the incident, allowing the witnesses to tell the
account in detail, gaining more evidence and details that were initially
missed.

WEEK 5

Making and recognizing faces

1970- photofit
E-FIT and EFIT-V
Prosopagnosia – face blindness, can't recognize faces.
Facial recognition bias – contact hypothesis

WEEK 6
3 Factors that may influence identification accuracy in live, video and
photo-based identification are –
 The instructions given to the eyewitness – telling the witness
that the perp may or may not be present.

 Specific procedure used to show the faces, example, whether

the faces are seen altogether or one after the other.

 The structure of the identification parade – including how

similar the faces in the parade are to one another.

SEQUENTIAL PRESENTATION – VIPER, Video Identification

Parade Electronic Recording (UK)
Verbal overshadowing – overwriting or overshadowing the original
visual memory by a verbal memory.
Unconscious transference – refers to the situation where a witness may
misidentify a suspect (innocent) because they had seen the innocent
suspect before but not as the perp of the crime.
DI BULLET'S INVESTIGATION SO FAR
Prime suspects – the Sergeant and Fat Baz
Driver – 6ft4, Caucasian male, tough looking bald guy in his 30s.
Unmasked robber – 5ft3 male, Indian ethnicity, overweight, in his
20s, long black curly hair.

 Received 32 calls from people regarding info on these

men.
He conducts 2 identification parades, each consisting 9 photos.

Instructions – DI Bullet did give leading question to both Lila and Seth,
and they were told that the perp was in the identification line up. The DI
praised Lila from the beginning and sort of pressured her into choosing
the 'right' suspects, after all, she was the star witness. Seth was also
manipulated into identifying the 'right' offender. Both witnesses took
less than 2 minutes to identify the offender from the line-up
Procedure – a simultaneous line up was used for both,
Structure – it was fair in the case of Fat Baz, as DI Bullet had to look
hard for foils, so the suspect that most resembled the original description
was chosen.
Verbal overshadowing – Lila and Seth both have described the suspects
before. However, with the photofit pictures in mind and DI Bullet
leading them through the process, they could have been driven to the
pick the only two people that resembled the photo.
Unconscious transference - I do not think there was any unconscious
transference; where could they have seen the suspects before, and both
witnesses do not remember seeing the suspects before.

DS SUND's INVESTIGATION SO FAR

Used the EFIT-V composite system.
  Seth produced the two composites
 Uses a VIPER parade with Lila and Seth.
 After identifying the two suspects, worried that the only
evidence is that from the witnesses, but with the lack of an
alibi and positive identification of the two main suspects, it is
enough to continue the investigation on these suspects.

DS Sund gave clear instructions around the process of the line-up and
what would happen and did not ask any leading questions to the
witnesses. I think she used the best method for the line-up (VIPER),
allowing the witnesses to be sure of whom they identified. The fact that
DS Sund followed up on the leads and narrowed down on the potential
suspects, making sure that they knew each other and had a link to the
crime makes this identification more solid than DI Bullet's.

WEEK 7