Even for identifying strangers, the idea that eyewitnesses are worthless is way overdone.
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Even for identifying strangers, the idea that eyewitnesses are worthless is way overdone. Witnessing includes such a huge variety of context, from a brief glimpse of a running shooter to an
hours-long encounter. Many of the exonerations involved police pressure and shoddy investigating. Only 52 people have been exonerated for sexual assault in this country in 30 yrs. Psych
studies use undergrads watching short videos — not much like crime victimization. The man who sexually assaulted me at gunpoint when I was 15 was acquitted because his lawyer claimed I was
“mixed up”. (story here) https://medium.com/@erinmckittrick/sometimes-being-believed-isnt-enough-290e06ea6f3 I had at least half an hour to memorize his face. There was another witness. And
some more who’d seen him in the neighborhood. I want people to stop blindly spouting the idea that eyewitnesses are always wrong because they are sometimes wrong — because it’s one more way
to dismiss what we say as not mattering. It’s the last thing people could say to Ford if they found her credible. She must be “mixed up”. What she says doesn’t matter.