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New Direction for Eyewitness Identification?

By Bill Theis

United States v. Shaun Brown, No. 05-4690 (December 19, 2006): Mr. Brown argued that the eyewitness identification of him by two police officers was tainted because, after they saw the alleged offender, a confederate gave them a name for the face, and they immediately consulted a mug shot of that person, confirming the information provided by the informer. Mr. Brown argued that this type of photo identification was impermissibly suggestive. In the end, the Court concluded that the officers were not like an ordinary citizen, who might be susceptible to the suggestive influence of a single photo. Instead, they were skeptical of what they had been told and consulted the photo to confirm or deny the information provided. Their interest was to verify the name given them for a face embedded in their memory...continue to full post

Full post as published by Seventh Circuit Blog on December 20, 2006 (boomark / email).