Pa. investigators take aim at eyewitness errors
Some of those who claimed to have seen the shooter described him as being heavier and taller than James Dennis, the man who was convicted.
Some of those who claimed to have seen the shooter described him as being heavier and taller than James Dennis, the man who was convicted.
While legal battles raged, Dennis spent more than 20 years on death row. Then, in 2013, a federal judge overturned his conviction in the 1991 slaying of a high school student for her earrings at a Philadelphia subway station.
In issuing the ruling, Judge Anita B. Brody described the eyewitness identifications of Dennis as "shaky."
Historically, false identifications have been a bane of criminal investigations. Now, for the first time, Pennsylvania's law enforcement officers will have statewide guidelines aimed at preventing them.
"The point of all of this is very simple. That is, to convict only the guilty, protect the innocent, and stand up for the rights of the victims," said Thomas P. Hogan, Chester County's district attorney.
Hogan, who is chairman of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association's Best Practices Committee, announced the protocols at a news conference Tuesday with local and state law enforcement officials at the Chester County Justice Center in West Chester. The committee, formed in 2014, developed the guidelines.
The group recommended that officers present witnesses with photo arrays, showing multiple photographs of potential suspects, instead of one by one. To guard against subconscious bias, they recommended that an officer not involved in the case administer the photographic lineup. The guidelines also call for investigators to keep careful records of the suspect-identification process; keep witnesses separate; and use standard, neutral language when talking to them.
The guidelines represent an attempt to keep up with evolving science and identify what works best for witnesses, who are key in many criminal cases. They also are meant to standardize witness procedures across the state's 1,117 law enforcement agencies.
Eyewitness misidentification is the biggest factor in convictions of people later exonerated by DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project, a national nonprofit dedicated to clearing the wrongly convicted.
The guidelines are recommendations, and their usage will be up to each county's district attorney. Kevin R. Steele, Montgomery County's district attorney, and John Adams, Berks County's district attorney and an officer in the District Attorneys Association, were at Tuesday's announcement and said both counties are joining Chester County and others across the state in participating.
Decades of social-science research has shown that eyewitness accounts often are unreliable due to factors such as witnesses' stress levels during an incident, racial disparities, a lack of distinctive markings on a suspect, and the amount of lighting at a crime scene.
A 2014 report by the National Research Council recommended that agencies train law enforcement officers about the science of memory and practices to minimize the warping of memories. It said officers should ask open-ended questions; minimize interactions among witnesses; document witnesses' level of confidence in their identifications; and limit chances to subconsciously influence witnesses, especially during police lineups.
Hogan on Tuesday talked through the steps of the witness-identification process by telling a hypothetical story about armed robberies. A "witness" described the "suspect" as a white male around 6 feet tall, 170 to 180 pounds, with a shaved head.
It so happens that Hogan fits that description.
A Chester County detective created a photo array based on the description, which included a photo of Hogan as well as those of the actors Bruce Willis, Patrick Stewart, and Jason Statham.
To develop the guidelines, the Best Practices Committee consulted with local police departments, the Pennsylvania State Police, chiefs of police associations, criminal defense organizations, academic institutions, and officials in other states.
In the coming months, the committee will look at the use of body cameras, officer-involved shootings, and the recording of interrogations.
610-313-8207 @MichaelleBond