reliability of eyewitness testimony theme
Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Discussed is whether and to what extent such testimony can be relied upon in order to pass judgment upon another person and punish them for a crime that they are alleged to have committed.
Notes
Research in the 20th century demonstrated various ways in which witnesses can deceive themselves and be unreliable despite being seemingly honest. Typically the situation in which this theme is featured is some variation on highlighting this, perhaps startling, revelation. I.e., we are shown that a witness is sincere in what they say and yet, in fact, wrong. At stake may be another person's life and liberty.
2 total · 1 major · 1 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| ahh1x04 | major | All of the witnesses were apparently sincere, but some may simply have convinced themselves that they saw what they wanted to have seen. The army man wanted to convict a sports car driver because such a driver had killed his three year old son. A young woman had changed her testimony in the novelist's favor after she came to credit the novelist with indirectly having saved her from putting up her baby for adoption. |
| ahh2x31 | minor | The viewer is made to ponder whether Isabel mistakenly identified Howard as her attacker. Although never exactly spelled out, one gathers that Howard was innocent of the charge. |