Rethinking Child Eyewitness Testimony

Research examines the risks of wrongful conviction with child witnesses and ways to reduce these instances

- 

Though real-life investigations aren't just clear-cut evidence & perfect DNA matches, wrongful conviction risks are even greater when the only eyewitness still enjoys action figures and bedtime stories.

There is often a dramatic scene in crime shows where an eyewitness points to a suspect in a police lineup. This identification looks convincing on television, and it is also convincing in real-world investigations. But here's the problem: eyewitnesses can often be wrong. Their mistakes are a leading cause of wrongful convictions.

This risk is even greater when the eyewitness is a child.

Although children can correctly identify the perpetrator when they are present in the police lineup, they are more likely than adults to identify an innocent person when the perpetrator is not included in the police lineup.

For instance, in 1990, a three-year-old girl was abducted from her Mississippi home. Her body was found two days later in a nearby pond, showing signs of sexual assault and drowning. The only eyewitness to the child's abduction was her six-year-old sister. The sister picked a man named Levon Brooks from the police lineup — and this identification sealed his fate. Brooks was sentenced to life in prison. After 16 years behind bars, DNA evidence led to his exoneration.