Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appears resistant to increasing constitutional safeguards against the use of some eyewitness testimony at criminal trials.
Yet there’s mounting evidence that eyewitness identification plays a crucial role in cases in which people were wrongly convicted.
The justices heard arguments Wednesday in a case that deals with a narrow slice of the issue of eyewitness identification.
Judges already can bar testimony when the police do something to influence a witness to identify a suspect.
The case is from New Hampshire and involves a man who was convicted of theft based on eyewitness testimony. He wants the court to extend the power of judges to exclude testimony when identifications are made under any suggestive circumstances, even when the police are not involved.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press