NCJ Number
129593
Date Published
1991
Length
298 pages
Annotation
This book is a collection of true stories based on the author's personal experiences as an expert witness.
Abstract
The material is drawn from trial transcripts, police reports, and newspaper accounts and from interviews with witnesses, defendants, defense and prosecuting attorneys, jurors, and family members. The book author is a psychologist and an expert in memory and the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, and her dramatic testimony has saved the lives of people who were condemned for crimes they did not commit. In a highly publicized case, a young Seattle restauranteur was having a drink with his girlfriend when he suddenly found himself under arrest for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl. His conviction was ultimately overturned, and another man was apprehended following a series of similar rapes. He sued the Port of Seattle Police Department, and the author agreed to testify. Even though the defendant died a week before he was to face his accusers in court, his estate won a multimillion dollar judgment. In another case, the author braved the controversy over child molestation and testified on behalf of a young day camp counselor accused of sexual abuse. The author revealed how innocent questions had taken on a sinister meaning as they passed from child to child and then to parents. The author describes her own dilemma when her personal feelings conflicted with professional ethics in the trial of a man suspected of being the sadistic concentration camp guard, Ivan the Terrible. She also explains why memory is not reliable and how erroneous memories can be implanted by questioners. References, photographs, and illustrations