Eyewitnesses will swear up and down that they saw a 25 year old white male in shorts and grey t-shirt.  Or that they saw a 35 year old black male, about 5’4, wearing jeans and a hoodie. They will swear that they absolutely saw those people commit a crime.

It turns out, however, that studies show that eyewitnesses often are mistaken, confuse people they see, have trouble processing information when events happen quickly, and are biased.

I was involved in a case about a year ago where the eyewitness – a Raleigh convenience store manager – swore that our client had committed and armed robbery.  He was so convinced that when our client entered to the convenience store three weeks after the robbery to buy a drink, he and his son tackled our client and held him until police came.

Our client – who had nothing to do with the crime and was no where near the scene of the crime when it happened – was asked by police, “Where were you at 2:20 pm 22 days ago?”

Like most people, he couldn’t remember exactly where he was, so he guessed, and he guessed wrong.

He ended up in the Wake County Jail for months awaiting trial. Finally, I located conclusive proof – medical records – that showed that he in fact had gone to the hospital on that day complaining of a fever.  He simply had forgotten where he was, and when he remembered, no one would listen to him.

Even when presented with the evidence that conclusively proved our client had nothing to do with the crime, the store owner insisted our client was one of the four men who robbed him.

The juryA jury may be either a grand jury or a petit jury. A grand jury is a jury that determines whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed a crime. The result is an indictmentAn indictment is a finding by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed a crime. An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An indictment, rather, is a method by which a prosecutor moves a case into Superior Court for resolution by plea or trial by jury. that sends the case into Superior Court, perhaps for a jury trial. A petit jury or simply a jury is the jury of 12 people who have been selected to hear and render a verdict in a case. of course believed the proof we provided, and our client went free.

But it was a lesson to me about how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be.

People like to think they can remember what happened, and juries like to believe witnesses who seem so sure.  But there’s good reason to doubt an eyewitness’ testimony.