ALBANY – The New York State Bar Association’s House of Delegates has approved a task force’s recommendations on reducing wrongful convictions that supporters hope will be a template for legislation that changes how criminal defendants are questioned, identified by eyewitnesses and prosecuted.
The state bar leaders approved the findings of the task force on wrongful convictions Saturday without opposition in an Albany meeting. Recommendations include videotaping all eyewitnesses as they make identifications, and all defendants’ statements to law enforcement officials, if possible.
Read The Task Force on Wrongful Conviction’s Final Report .
The task force’s chairman, New York City Criminal Court Judge Barry Kamins, told the delegates that whenever an innocent person is convicted, the entire criminal justice system suffers.
“It is difficult to imagine what individuals must endure mentally, physically and emotionally after being incarcerated for months and years for crimes they did not commit,” Judge Kamins said. “In addition, every time an innocent person is arrested, convicted and sent to jail, law enforcement officials and prosecutors are distracted from locating the real perpetrator – who may never be brought to justice.”
• Conduct photo array identifications and lineups by law enforcement personnel who do not know who the suspect is.
• Tell eyewitnesses that the person administering a lineup does not know who the suspect is, lowering the chances a witness will seek cues from the administrator.
• Use no more than one suspect per lineup.
• Video and sound record suspect identifications by eyewitnesses so judges and juries can assess the degree of certainty of the identifications.
• Record all station-house interrogations of suspects.
• Develop protocols for testing, storing and preserving evidence by police departments and prosecutors.
• Permit expert testimony in criminal cases about scientific research surrounding identification procedures, including the reliability of human memory.
• Have judges instruct jurors on issues related to the reliability of eyewitness identification.
• Allow the wrongfully convicted to prove their innocence even after pleading guilty.
• Establish an independent commission to minimize the incidence of wrongful convictions.
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