By Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia and a handful of other jurisdictions are changing the way they conduct law enforcement lineups, showing suspects one at a time instead of all at once in hopes of cutting down on mistaken witness identifications.
In conventional lineups, witnesses view groups of people or photographs at the same time. But many researchers believe this can lead witnesses to compare one person’s image to another and identify someone who looks “most like” the offender instead of “exactly like.”
“Misidentification is the absolute greatest source of mistaken conviction,” said Los Angeles psychologist Robert Shomer, who has testified as a witness identification expert in more than 400 trials over the past 30 years.
Mistaken witness identifications played a role in the convictions of nearly 80 percent of the 157 people nationwide who have been exonerated by DNA testing, said Jane Fox of the New York-based Innocence Project.
Now, the Virginia State Crime Commission has asked law enforcement agencies to adopt a lineup procedure in which witnesses are shown individual mug shots or suspects one at a time. Advocates of the technique say it can help reduce the tendency to compare and settle.
In 2001, New Jersey became the first state to adopt the technique. The North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission last year began advocating the method. And a handful of jurisdictions -- including Boston, Minneapolis and Santa Clara County in California -- also have adopted them.
In Virginia, the new guidelines also advocate having the lineup administered by an officer who does not know who the suspect is to eliminate the possibility the officer unintentionally influences a witness’ choice in a lineup.
“It’s almost impossible not to react when a person makes a choice,” said eyewitness identification expert Gary Wells, an Iowa State University psychology professor who helped develop the double-blind sequential method. “You know your guy is in position three ... and so if the witness starts showing interest in number two, then your natural reaction is to have a little bit of impatience.”
Other cities -- such as New York City, Seattle and Indianapolis -- have begun using a computer program to present witnesses with photos of potential suspects, avoiding any possible bias from detectives.
Some prosecutors argue the new methods are unnecessary and can lead to fewer correct identifications.
Robert Horan, the Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney and vice president of the National District Attorneys Association, said the practice of showing groups of photos to a witness is eventually put to the ultimate test: trial.
The witnesses have to testify under oath, Horan said. “I just don’t think people lie about things once they get on the stand,” he said.
Marvin Anderson disagreed. Anderson, 41, still remembers the fear he felt when a rape victim in 1982 singled him out of a police lineup as her attacker. The then-19-year-old was convicted largely based on the victim’s identification and received a 210-year prison sentence. Paroled in 1997, he became the first Virginian to be cleared of a crime by genetic testing and was officially exonerated in 2001.
“No matter how old I may live to be, those are years that I will never forget,” Anderson said of his time behind bars.
The Virginia General Assembly passed two identical bills this year that would require law enforcement agencies to have written policies for conducting lineups.
Bill sponsor Sen. Kenneth Stolle, the crime commission’s vice chairman, said the new guidelines are voluntary, but if any agency does not adopt the new procedures, the commission would push legislation to make them mandatory.
Virginia law enforcement officials are largely receptive to the change. “We need to do whatever it takes to make sure justice is fair to the people,” said John Jones, executive director of the Virginia Sheriffs Association.