Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Crime & Federalism

Criminal Law

: Crime & Federalism

State v. Outing and Change Blindness: Will the Connecticut Supreme Court Respect Empirical Evidence?

There's an interesting case pending before the Connecticut Supreme Court.  The Court states the issues as follows: [T]he defendant sought to introduce expert testimony regarding, among other things, the following identification concepts:  (1) that witnesses who experience heightened levels of stress during a crime tend to make inaccurate identifications;  (2) that under the "weapons focus effect," witnesses tend to focus on a perpetrator's weapon as opposed to the perpetrator's facial features;  (3) that there is a weak correlation between a witness's confidence and the accuracy of an identification;  (4) that pursuant to the "disguise effect," a perpetrator's use of a disguise makes an accurate identification more difficult; and  (5) that when multiple witnesses discuss the crime with each other, the different versions become melded in such a way that the witnesses can no longer be certain of what they actually saw...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).