Eyewitness Identification

Eyewitness Identification Assignment Before completing this assignment:

1. Watch the lecture on Eyewitness Identification. 2. Read the article assigned to this topic.

Congratulations! You have been hired by the court to serve as an expert on eyewitness identification! The knowledge you received from Dr. Henderson’s class and the article that you read will be very beneficial while you complete this important job. In most jurisdictions, experts are hired for and paid by either the defense or the prosecution, but in this unique jurisdiction, you have been hired by the court to be a neutral evaluator of the evidence. The court wants to know what was good and what was bad about this eyewitness evidence. Steps:

1. Go to https://www.innocenceproject.org 2. Click on “The Cases” at the top of the page 3. Click on “see all cases” and apply the filter “contributing cause- eyewitness

misidentification” (click box indicating eyewitness misidentification) 4. View the cases and pick one case to analyze

Choose one that contains enough information about the identification that you can evaluate the quality of that identification. It’s okay if you want to search for other resources with more information about the eyewitness testimony in that particular case. However, the case you choose must come from the Innocence Project database. Analysis of the Eyewitness Identification

1. Provide the name of the exoneree. 2. A link to the Innocence Project profile, as well as a link to any additional resources you

used. If you use non-electronic resources, provide a reference for them here. (Note that any outside resource should just be information about the case you choose. You are not required to find outside resources other than the information from the Innocence Project website).

3. A description of the crime of which the person was convicted, including a description of what you know about the estimator variables.

4. A description of the identification procedure, including a description of what you know about the system variables.

Note: make sure identify the estimator and system variables.

Application of Course Material

One key component of this assignment is to make a connection between the eyewitness identification and what you’ve learned about in class. Throughout this assignment, use course

material assigned to analyze the different system and estimator variables that likely influenced the eyewitness’s identification accuracy and/or confidence in the identification. Make sure to discuss how the presence (or absence) of these factors could have contributed to the mis- identification. That is, use course material to analyze the case.

Grading rubric for the paper: Points Analysis of the eyewitness identification (address questions above) 10 Application of course material- Did you use research about estimator variables and system variables to analyze the identification evidence in this case?

10

Grammar, punctuation, organization, citations (in text and reference list) 5 Total = 25 This assignment is to be submitted ONLINE to the corresponding assignment folder (under Activities tab). See the syllabus for my late policy. Pay careful attention to spelling, sentence construction, and punctuation. For full credit, this paper MUST be typed, double-spaced, roughly 2-3 pages in length, 12-point font, and 1-inch margins. Finding Academic Articles: PSU’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Reference Page: http://guides.library.pdx.edu/ccj

Citations:

All information that is not your own must be cited; quotes, summaries, and paraphrasing should be used effectively (see this website for help; https://www.pdx.edu/writing-center/guided-tour- step-one-understanding-an-assignment). The majority of your assignment should be written using your own thoughts, words, reactions, and writing (i.e. not direct quotes from resources). The Purdue Owl website is a helpful tool when considering how to cite information that is not your own (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/). You can also find information on citing sources at the PSU library website (http://library.pdx.edu/research/citing-sources/). Information on how to cite legal cases can be found here (http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/citing-court-decisions-in-apa-style.html).

Please know: The university uses electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. In this particular class, your assignments will be run through Turnitin to detect for any possible plagiarism from other sources.