NCJ Number
122124
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 13 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1989) Pages: 333-339
Date Published
1989
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Sixteen eyewitnesses to a staged crime were videotaped while being questioned by lawyers in a real courthouse in an attempt to respond to lawyers' critiques of staged-crime, mock-jury studies.
Abstract
Experienced or inexperienced lawyers for the prosecution and defense questioned accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses. In an attempt to detect the accuracy of the witnesses based on their taped testimony, 178 University of Alberta undergraduates served as mock-jurors. Previous research was supported as the overall rate of belief was quite high (69 percent), and the subjects believed the testimony of accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses at about the same rate (68 percent versus 70 percent, respectively). The verdict was not influenced by the lawyers' experience. The confidence of the eyewitness related significantly to the jurors' belief in their testimony. Previous findings that lack of expertise of the questioners does not account for the failure to detect eyewitness accuracy are replicated by this data. 19 references. (Author abstract modified)