When a witness at a trial points his finger at the defendant and says, “that’s her. I’ll never forget that face,” the trial is essentially over. Indeed, an identification is a thrilling moment during which a frisson of excitement runs through the courtroom. Its power is incalculable.
We know now from DNA exonerations that eyewitness identifications are often wrong. Yet, even in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence, some eyewitnesses cling to their view. That is not due to deliberate falsehood but to the witness’s failure to understand the frailty of memory and its capacity for dilution and manipulation. As Professor Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in the subject of human memory, puts it, “the most horrifying idea is that what we believe with all our hearts is not necessarily the truth.”
