USA - The Innocence Project has released a new report pointing to the problems with eyewitness identifications

The Innocence Project has released a new report pointing to the problems with eyewitness identifications in criminal cases and offering recommendations for making the system more reliable. The report, “Reevaluating Lineups: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and How to Reduce the Chance of a Misidentification,” states that over 175 people (including some who were sentenced to death) have been wrongfully convicted based, in part, on eyewitness misidentification and later proven innocent through DNA testing. But DNA testing is not a solution to the problem since it is only available in 5-10% of all criminal cases, according to the report. The findings in the report included: In 38% of the misidentification cases, multiple eyewitnesses misidentified the same innocent person. Fifty-three percent of the misidentification cases, where race is known, involved crossracial misidentifications. In 50% of the misidentification cases, eyewitness testimony was the central evidence used against the defendant (without other corroborating evidence like confessions, forensic science or informant testimony).