Eye witness testimony is more heavily relied on in the United States court system than in several other countries. Most people think if something happened to them like rape or robbery, they would be able to pick that person out of a lineup. But what if that person isn't the same race as you? The cross race effect is a phenomenon that shows that people of a certain race have a much harder time distinguishing characteristics between people of another race. The crazy thing about it is, when we are babies, we DO have the ability to discriminate between people of another race. Babies 3-6 months have been tested and are able to see differences in not only another race, but in monkeys. Around 6-9 months, babies start to lose this identifying ability. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino(a white woman) was raped by a black male. She memorized everything she could about his face and had the police make a sketch of him. She was then asked to choose a man out of a lineup. She chose one named Ronald Cotton. She was absolutely sure he was the one who had raped her and no one was convincing her otherwise. Mr. Cotton was convicted based on Ms. Thompson-Cannino's eyewitness testimony. Mr. Cotton spent 11 years in prison before DNA evidence proved that he was innocent and it was actually a black male named Bobby Poole who had raped Ms. Thompson-Cannino. Here are the two men side by side:
To me and obviously to Ms. Thompson-Cannino, these two men look a lot alike. However, Mr. Cotton said that he thinks he and Mr. Poole share no similarities. Although Ms. Thompson-Cannino did make a very big mistake that took 11 years of Mr. Cotton's life away from him, is she really at fault? How much should eyewitness testimony be relied on, especially in cross race situations like this one? Ms. Thompson-Cannino and Mr. Cotton are actually friends now and they have a book together on the cross race effect entitled Picking Cotton.This story had a positive outcome. Of the first 279 people that were exonerated when DNA testing came about, 3/4 of them been convicted based on incorrect eyewitness testimony. 4/10 of those were cross race cases. In my opinion eyewitness testimony should not be so heavily relied on considering how inaccurate it can be.
(2012). Roth. Looking across the racial divide: How eyewitness testimony can cause problems. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/science/looking-across-the-racial-divide-how-eyewitness-testimony-can-cause-problems-279237/
I agree with you that we shouldn't rely so heavily on eye witness testimonies. I believe it is very hard for people of different races or even the same race to remember all the details of an individual's face, especially during a tramatic event. I shared in class about how in high school we did a little experiment on eye witness when studying forensics and it was almost impossible for us to recreate the person's characteristic's after studying the picture for about a minute without takig our eyes off of it. That's a lot of time considering most cases victim's may not even have that long to see the suspect and they may not even have a clear view. We had a clear shot of the person and it was still very hard. I don't think we should get rid of it completely though because it can be helpful in some cases, but I don't think it should be relied on.
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