In an effort to pre­vent wrong­ful con­vic­tions and ensure accu­rate eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission has rec­om­mend­ed new pro­ce­dures for state law enforce­ment agen­cies. The com­mis­sion was formed by state Supreme Court Justice Beverly Lake and is com­prised of judges, police, pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys and oth­ers. Among the rec­om­men­da­tions were pol­i­cy changes requir­ing police to show eye­wit­ness­es line­up par­tic­i­pants one at a time in live line­ups or pho­tos, instead of reveal­ing them as a group, to ensure that the wit­ness­es eval­u­ate each per­son indi­vid­u­al­ly, instead of com­par­ing them. In addi­tion, the com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed that police offi­cers in charge of the line­up not know which par­tic­i­pant is the sus­pect to avoid the poten­tial of pres­sur­ing the wit­ness or pro­vid­ing help­ful hints. (Associated Press, September 13, 2003). See Innocence.

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