Sharper Eyewitnessing
Bill would tighten procedures for IDing suspects, help avoid sending innocent to jail

Editorial, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (free subscription required), December 21, 2007

All seven of the Georgia inmates exonerated by DNA over the past eight years — including a Meriwether County man freed 11 days ago — were put in prison because of mistaken eyewitness identifications.

A bill in the Legislature could help reduce such miscarriages of justice. A bipartisan study committee led by state Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) has produced a bill that contains two mandates:

By 2009, Georgia law enforcement agencies must develop written procedures on how to administer eyewitness identifications.

By 2011, eyewitness identification procedures must be conducted by an officer trained in those best practices.

The bill deserves passage. A survey of law enforcement agencies by the Georgia Innocence Project — a nonprofit that investigates allegations of wrongful convictions — revealed that 85 percent lack standards and procedures for eyewitness identification. Nationwide, more than 75 percent of the 208 people exonerated so far by DNA evidence were convicted because of mistaken identity, says Aimee Maxwell, executive director of the Georgia Innocence Project.

In a presentation Tuesday to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, Benfield and her arguments for stricter protocols on eyewitness identifications were enthusiastically received.

"It is vital as a state that in doing justice, we don't wrongfully convict an innocent person," said state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta.)

The most recent innocent person to walk out of a Georgia prison was John White, released Dec. 10 after DNA testing proved that he had not committed the rape for which he had served more than 12 years. The Georgia Innocence Project sought the DNA testing, believing that White could be innocent of the crime.

Two days after his release, White testified before Benfield's committee, telling them that despite this wrongful incarceration, he still has faith in the criminal justice system.

However, White's case ought to shake the faith of all Georgians in the reliability of eyewitness identifications, particularly where there is no corroborating evidence.

White was arrested six weeks after the Aug. 11, 1979, rape of a 74-year-old woman. The victim — who was not wearing her prescription eyeglasses during the brutal attack — picked White out of a photo lineup and later picked him out of a live lineup as well.

Amazingly, the DNA evidence has now led police to another man standing to White's left in that lineup, James Edward Parham. Parham happened to be at the police station that fateful day on another charge and police recruited him for the lineup.

Here is a striking case where a witness, faced with her actual assailant, failed to recognize him and picked the wrong person. That mistake shattered the life of more than John White; because Parham was not brought to justice, he went on to rape another Meriwether County woman six years after the attack that doomed White to prison. Released after serving 20 years for that crime, Parham is once again in jail on charges of rape, aggravated assault, burglary and robbery in the 28-year-old crime for which White was wrongfully convicted.

— Maureen Downey , for the editorial board