The state Supreme Court settled an issue in New Jersey that is slowly being settled throughout the country: the need for a special jury instruction in a criminal case where the complaining witness and the defendant are of different races.
The justices ruled that despite a lack of “substantialagreement in the scientific community that cross racialrecognition impairment of eyewitnesses is significant enough towarrant a special jury instruction,” juries should be so chargedwhen an eyewitness’s cross racial identification is notcorroborated.
