Georgia Should Adopt Change in ID Methods

Editorial, The Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, December 13, 2005

Sequential presentation and double blinding. Sounds like the jargon of marketing or medical research. Actually the words refer to ways of helping victims or witnesses of crimes identify suspects more accurately from photos or lineups.

Five prison inmates in Georgia and 159 more across the nation have been freed because DNA analysis after their convictions (sometimes many years after) showed they were innocent of those crimes.

Most of them, like Robert Clark, freed last week from prison after serving 24 years for a rape he did not commit, were convicted largely on the testimony of a victim who identified him from police photos and a lineup.

The Innocence Project, an organization that helped free Clark and others across the nation, feels that the way photos and lineups of suspects have traditionally been brought before witnesses is a factor in many false identifications.

In Clark's case, the victim identified Clark as her rapist (whom she had initially told police was considerably taller) on the basis of picking his picture from a selection of six on a single sheet, and then viewing a live lineup including him. In both cases, a police detective handling the case, who suspected Clark, was in the room with her.

According to the Innocence Project, the detective may have consciously or unconsciously given cues or signs of approval when she focused on Clark. And picking from an array of six photos lined up operates like a multiple choice, with the victim comparing the pictures with each other to see which most looks like the person he or she remembers.

The remedies are "double blinding" - having lineup and photo viewing administered by someone who does not know which is the suspect - and "sequential presentation" - showing the photos one at a time, so the witness is more likely to compare each one to his or her memory, and not to the other photos.

New Jersey adopted these procedures four years ago. Other jurisdictions have moved to such procedures. Clark's case makes it look as though Georgia should.

Some law enforcement officials say the system has worked right for a long time as it is. But 164 lives heavily damaged by mistaken incarceration may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Because a system is "accepted widely" and has "resulted in successful prosecutions," as one Georgia police spokesman told the Associated Press, does not mean that it has resulted in justice being done. Nor has it reduced the danger to the lives of the public when murderers and rapists are left free to continue their crimes while the innocent are convicted in their stead.