Question

You are considered to be an expert in false memories, and a local district attorney has therefore requested your expertise on the following case:

On Tuesday, March 6, 2007, a bank was robbed in Slidell, LA. It was just after opening time, 9:04 a.m., and there were barely any customers, when a car arrived and parked in the side parking lot of the bank. Two men came out of the car and walked to the entrance. Both wore dark clothing. Upon entering the bank, they held out guns and asked for the manager. When the manager identified herself, the smaller of the two robbers ordered her to open the safe. Meanwhile, the other robber, a tall, and burley man, walked around holding his gun in his outstretched arm, and threatening the remaining employees and customers. The manager complied and the smaller robber collected all the money and valuables from the safe. After five minutes, the big robber asked if his companion was ready to go. When he was, the two ran back to their car, and drove away.

The district attorney has asked that you create a presentation about false memory and explain how it might influence this case. He asks that you specifically address the following: Using evidence from the case, and outside research, justify why eyewitness testimonies should or should not carry weight in criminal proceedings.

Answer 1

FALSE MEMORY:

Memory is defined as the capacity to encode, retain and retrieve informations. It is the ability to remember various people, events and situations that includes the past experiences, learned skills, abities, facts, etc.

It is not always the case where we retrieve informations from our memory that are accurate and true. At times, some of these informations in our memory could be altered or manipulated, a condition known as the false memory. This happens when the original source of the information is misinterpreted or misattributed.

Most of the effects of false memory is not very consequential. For example, a person might search for his mobile in his pocket remembering that he has kept it there, but in reality he had left the mobile in his house.

But in certain situations the effects of false memory is highly misleading. For example, in a court enquiry the eyewitness might misinterpret the actual events and produce false informations regarding the crime scene such as a accident, murde or a theft.

In situations like these, the informations provided by the eyewitness cannot be relied for making a decision. The common reasons behing providing such false informations by the eyewitness could be due to:

- Leading Questions: These are the questions that influences the respondent to answer in a certain way, and thus leading to the production of false or unreliable information.

For example, if the eyewitness is asked "Did you see two men with guns robbering the bank while you were passing by that side?", it is more likely that the respondent might say "Yes!".

Such mistakes should be avoided in eyewitness testimonies, where the person should only be asked questions like, "What did you see when you were passing by the bank?".

- Anxiety: When the person who is been enquired in a eyewitness testimony becomes highly anxious and tensed, the chances are more that the person might provide a wrong information.

In order to avoid such mistakes, the eyewitness should not be enquired in a very strict or a harsh manner, so that the informations obtained will be reliable.

- Reconstructive Memory: The tendency of the brain to automatically fill in any gaps in the sequence of a event, with something that is logical. For example, the eyewitness might make up a story if in case he had forgotten some of the aspects of the crime scene.

- Time: The informations stored in the memory could fade away as time passess. If the eyewitness is asked about the crime scenes after a week, he might probably forget some informations when compared to that of enquiring him the next day itself.

These are the most common types of mistakes that could occur in a eyewitness testimony. But, we cannot completely neglect the informations that are provided by the eyewitness, as it might contain some necessary details regarding the crime scene. So, the eyewitness testimony should be done in a proper way that it yields the most reliable and accurate informations which would be used in making a fair judgement.