Death penalty for Troy Davis highlights problems with eyewitness accounts (Star-Ledger Editorial)

[struggle4progress]

Thursday, September 22, 2011, 3:05 PM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

Former President Jimmy Carter says the execution of death-row inmate Troy Davis shows that the nation’s death penalty is “unjust and outdated.” He hopes “this tragedy will spur us as a nation toward the total rejection of capital punishment.”

That’s unlikely to happen, given that, in most polls, a majority of Americans favor capital punishment.

But while Carter takes a big-picture view of the death penalty, there is another compelling reason Davis’ execution should be studied. It shows what legal experts have been saying for years: Eyewitness accounts are treated as the gold standard of evidence, but they’re highly suspect ...

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/09/death_penalty_for_troy_davis_h.html

[HockeyMom]

1. Well, which is more compelling eye witness testimony?

One rape victim versus 20+ witnesses who say the prep was somewhere else? That was what I was involved with. Eyewitness saying he was someplace else. In this case, DNA proved the 20+ eyewitness right. I know in so many cases there is no impartial DNA results.

[Tiggeroshii]

2. 9 eyewitness accounts(7 of which were recanted) put a man to death

But when there's video that the whole country saw of a cop murdering somebody the cop walks free. That's american justice for ya!

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Eyewitness "accounts" is what led a police officer to my door telling me I was a

person of interest because I live in the neighborhood where the crime happened and a woman of my appearance was seen in the area. After asking around, the police officer was told by someone that the description sounded like me. He got my picture and and showed it to people who then said, "Yeah, that could be the woman I saw."

Eyewitness accounts are fluid; easily changed. I have "memories" of family events I was never at because I have seen the photo albums and heard the old stories so many times. So yeah, when that cop told me I was the oly lead in his case I was :scared:.