Three of the eyewitnesses reported that the detective told them that they had picked the same person other people had, though the detective himself denied having made such statements.
#Eyewitnesses may be focused on their own trial#
The witnesses’ trial testimony reveals a simple explanation for these high-confidence errors: All of the eyewitnesses received confirmatory feedback following their identification of Grant. Another stated that the killer’s face was “burned into memory immediately.” Reinforcing what eyewitnesses ‘remember’ One reported that he had identified Grant without doubt or hesitation.
Nevertheless, these subtle behavioral cues affect eyewitnesses’ decisions by making them more likely to choose the suspect.īut if the six eyewitnesses chose Lydell Grant from the lineup only because they were cued to do so by the case detective, why were they so confident in their identifications? According to the trial transcript, most of the eyewitnesses testified to having been positive when they picked Grant out of the lineup. Such behaviors are often inadvertent neither lineup administrators nor eyewitnesses may be consciously aware that they’re happening.
Compared to administrators conducting double-blind lineups, these informed administrators are more likely to ask witnesses about the suspect and smile when witnesses are looking at the suspect rather than at another person in the lineup. Psychological experiments have shown that lineup administrators who know who the suspect is end up cuing witnesses toward that person. Of course, he knew that Lydell Grant was the one under suspicion. The transcript from Lydell Grant’s trial revealed that the homicide detective in charge of investigating the case administered the lineup to the eyewitnesses. Just as double-blind clinical trials in medical studies are intended to prevent patients’ and doctors’ expectations from affecting outcomes of the clinical trial, double-blind lineups aim to prevent witnesses’ and administrators’ expectations from influencing the outcomes of the identification procedure. Scientific best practices for conducting eyewitness lineups require that the person administering the lineup not know who the police suspect. Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News/Chicago History Museum via Getty Images Conducting a lineup with the suspect in mind Police lineups have evolved over time, but some states still need to catch up.
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