Committee on Scientific Approaches to Understanding and Maximizing the Validity and Reliability of Eyewitness Identification in Law Enforcement and the Courts

Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification

Committee on Science, Technology, and Law

Policy and Global Affairs

Committee on Law and Justice

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern- ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineer- ing, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was funded by a grant between the National Academy of Sciences and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or rec- ommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not nec- essarily reflect the views of the organization that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number13: 978-0-309-31059-8 International Standard Book Number10: 0-309-31059-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955458

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COMMITTEE ON SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING AND MAXIMIZING THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION IN LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE COURTS

Co-Chairs THOMAS D. ALBRIGHT (NAS), Professor and Director, Vision Center Laboratory and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research, Salk Institute for Biological Studies JED S. RAKOFF, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

Members WILLIAM G. BROOKS III, Chief of Police, Norwood (MA) Police Department JOE S. CECIL, Project Director, Division of Research, Federal Judicial Center WINRICH FREIWALD, Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University BRANDON L. GARRETT, Roy L. and Rosamond Woodruff Morgan Professor of Law, University of Virginia Law School KAREN KAFADAR, Commonwealth Professor and Chair of Statistics, University of Virginia A.J. KRAMER, Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia SCOTT McNAMARA, Oneida County (NY) District Attorney CHARLES ALEXANDER MORGAN III, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine ELIZABETH A. PHELPS, Silver Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, New York University DANIEL J. SIMONS, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois ANTHONY D. WAGNER, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Co-Director, Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, Stanford University; Director, Stanford Memory Laboratory JOANNE YAFFE, Professor of Social Work and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of Utah

Staff ANNE-MARIE MAZZA, Study Director and Director, Committee on Science, Technology, and Law ARLENE F. LEE, Director, Committee on Law and Justice STEVEN KENDALL, Program Officer, Committee on Science, Technology, and Law KAROLINA KONARZEWSKA, Program Coordinator, Committee on Science, Technology, and Law ANJALI SHASTRI, Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow SARAH WYNN, Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND LAW

Co-Chairs DAVID BALTIMORE (NAS/IOM), President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology DAVID S. TATEL, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Members THOMAS D. ALBRIGHT (NAS), Professor and Director, Vision Center Laboratory and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research, Salk Institute for Biological Studies ANN ARVIN (IOM), Lucile Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology; Vice Provost and Dean of Research, Stanford University BARBARA E. BIERER, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School CLAUDE CANIZARES (NAS), Vice President and the Bruno Rossi Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ARTURO CASADEVALL (IOM), Leo and Julia Forchheimer Professor of Microbiology and Immunology; Chair, Department of Biology and Immunology; and Professor of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine JOE S. CECIL, Project Director, Program on Scientific and Technical Evidence, Division of Researc