| Summary |
"Erroneous eyewitnesses are the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Doyle analyzes the role of memory and echoes the warning of early psychologists that honesty is no guarantee of reliability and that a witness's certainty is no proof of accuracy. Jurors place remarkable implicit faith in eyewitness testimony even though they have no idea how accurate an eyewitness's memory may be. As the innocent go to prison their lives are shattered; as the criminal goes free, the public remains vulnerable. Doyle highlights real possibilities for improved identification, their challenges to the legal tradition, and argues that the promises of improved eyewitness reliability must be realized to maintain the system's credibility." |