The Justice Project, in con­junc­tion with The Justice Project Education Fund, has issued two com­pre­hen­sive pol­i­cy reviews designed to facil­i­tate com­mu­ni­ca­tion among local law enforce­ment agen­cies, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, prac­ti­tion­ers, and oth­ers who are con­cerned about the issues of eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and the elec­tron­ic record­ing of cus­to­di­al inter­ro­ga­tions. The reviews exam­ine each of these issues and iden­ti­fy pit­falls and ​“best prac­tices” with the lat­est research behind them. The reviews also offer mod­el leg­is­la­tion that law­mak­ers can use to address these con­cerns in their states.

The eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion review indi­cates that a small num­ber of changes to iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures can help improve the reli­a­bil­i­ty of these iden­ti­fi­ca­tions. Such changes include offer­ing wit­ness­es cau­tion­ary instruc­tions before show­ing them a line­up, using the appro­pri­ate types of peo­ple as line-up fillers, doc­u­ment­ing iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures, using a dou­ble-blind process in line­ups, and pre­sent­ing line­up par­tic­i­pants sequen­tial­ly instead of all at once.

The review con­cern­ing record­ing of inter­ro­ga­tions con­cludes that the virtue of this prac­tice lies not only in its abil­i­ty to help guard against false con­fes­sions, but also in its abil­i­ty to devel­op the strongest evi­dence pos­si­ble to help con­vict the guilty. The review rec­om­mends audio or video tap­ing of inter­ro­ga­tions so that there is a full and accu­rate account of the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing a con­fes­sion. The paper urges the tap­ing of all inter­ro­ga­tions involv­ing seri­ous felonies, and notes that it is espe­cial­ly impor­tant to record inter­ro­ga­tions involv­ing juve­niles, those with men­tal retar­da­tion, or those with men­tal ill­ness.

The Justice Project and The Justice Education Fund are non­par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tions ded­i­cat­ed to fight­ing injus­tice and to cre­at­ing a more humane and just world.
(The Justice Project & The Justice Project Education Fund, April 2, 2007). Read the reviews. See Resources.
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