A new study con­cern­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­ce­dures in Texas has been released by the Justice Project. Their research found that only 12% of Texas law enforce­ment agen­cies have any writ­ten poli­cies or guide­lines for the con­duct of pho­to or live line­up pro­ce­dures. Furthermore, they dis­cov­ered that the few exist­ing writ­ten pro­ce­dures are often vague and incom­plete. Eighty-two per­cent of Texas’ 38 wrong­ful con­vic­tions exposed by DNA test­ing, which includes non-cap­i­tal cas­es, were based large­ly or exclu­sive­ly on incor­rect eyewitness identifications.

Overall, the study found that most juris­dic­tions in Texas fail to imple­ment wide­ly endorsed best prac­tices that have been proven to increase reli­a­bil­i­ty of eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. Only 7% or less of all Texas depart­ments have writ­ten poli­cies in line with such endorsed best prac­tices designed to min­i­mize eye­wit­ness error.

The Justice Project is a non-prof­it and non-par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tion that works to improve the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The full research report may be found here.

(The Justice Project, ​“Eyewitness Identification Procedure in Texas,” November 2008). See also Studies and Innocence.

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