Opinion ID: 2592762
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Expert Testimony Effectively Educates the Jury About the Possibility of Mistaken Identification Without Unfairly Favoring the Defendant

Text: ¶ 19 Typically, an expert is called by a criminal defendant to explain how certain factors relevant to the identification in question could have produced a mistake. The expert may or may not be familiar with the facts of the case prior to the testimony, and in any case will not offer an opinion on whether the specific eyewitness identification is accurate or not. Instead, the relevant research is discussed in more general terms, thus allowing the jury to apply the information to whatever degree it sees fit. ¶ 20 Such testimony performs two beneficial functions. First, it teaches jurors about certain factorssuch as weapon focus and the weak correlation between confidence and accuracythat have a strong but counterintuitive impact on the reliability of an eyewitness. In other words, the testimony enables jurors to avoid certain common pitfalls, such as believing that a witness's statement of certainty is a reliable indicator of accuracy. [10] Second, it assists jurors by quantifying what most people already know. An expert may discuss, for example, the degree to which accuracy is affected by a disguise or a long lapse between the crime and the identification. Importantly, expert testimony does not unfairly favor the defendant by making the jury skeptical of all eyewitnesses. In fact, when a witness sees the perpetrator under favorable conditions, expert testimony actually makes jurors more likely to convict. [11] When expert testimony is used correctly, the end result is a jury that is better able to reach a just decision.