Thursday, February 15, 2007

Reforming eyewitness programmes

Sometimes it feels that in the urge to punish bad guys, the legal system is willing to ignore inconvenient truths. Miscarriages of justice due to bad science and poor police procedures are legion. But sometimes there is good news. New Mexico is proposing to reform the use of eye-witnesses.

The problem is, eye-witnesses just aren't reliable: "Mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions." So New Mexico's proposed bill which will reform the use of eye-witness testimony is simply good news for innocent people.

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