DNA testing has helped exonerate more than 200 people wrongfully convicted of criminal acts. The Wisconsin Innocence Project says of those 200 cases, more than 80 involved a victim of one race misidentifying a perpetrator of another race. While defense lawyers and prosecutors agree that something needs to be done about false eyewitness identifications, theyâ??re split on a proposal for a new courtroom procedure aimed at addressing the problem.
Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project says one way to tackle the issue is for judges to tell juries about the unreliability of cross-racial identifications, and consider that during eyewitness testimony. (10th item.)