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Comment by kbos87 | Hacker News Reader

I was asked to provide an eyewitness identification for a crime I witnessed being committed and reported to the police. I had about a minute-long conversation with one of the perpetrators.

When the detective came to my home with a black and white photo lineup, she had a series of photos of people who looked very similar to one another. She explained that lineups were intentionally set up with people who look alike, to ensure that I was dead sure of who I was identifying. Long story short, I declined to make an identification because even after talking to someone and looking straight at him for a full minute, I wasn’t sure enough to become an eyewitness and potentially be wrong about it.

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I recently went to a presentation by the Arizona Justice Project [0], an organization that works to free the wrongfully convicted. They said something about how the best way to do a lineup is to present photos one at a time, with no prompting whatsoever.

The Department of Justice has various pages about lineups, this one seems informative: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-...

[0] http://www.azjusticeproject.org/

Psychology videos of change blindness and inattention blindness are fun. For instance, Simons and Levin's "door" study swaps conversation partners in the midst of their getting directions. Swaps of similar people are less likely to be noticed, but sometimes even very dissimilar (different gender and race and height) swaps aren't. Though to be fair, there's often a misdirection task and/or object.

This evening there was someone seemingly "stalking" around on the subway. Perhaps plainclothes, or crook, or artist, or just someone a bit unusual. Getting off, and pondering the ethics of mentioning it, I realized it was a non issue, as I couldn't give a useful description of someone I'd been puzzled by for several minutes. Later, walking down the street, looking at someone, looking away and generating a description, and then looking back to check it... it's clearly not a skill I've developed.

It's worth noting that almost all photo lineups include only the suspect and a bunch of photos they keep around. They generally aren't asking you to choose between a group of possible suspects; they're using the other photos to make sure that you're positive. You should try to make an effort, because even an incorrect identification provides some amount of deniability for the suspect.

No you absolutely should not. If you aren't sure, say so. Best guess is not the way to do this. Fingering their one suspect among a bunch of photos they keep around who looks maybe a bit like the person you saw? Happens all the time, innocent people go to jail. And yeah, especially if they're from a race with homogenous hair colour and that race is one you don't share.

Every time they have the wrong suspect. There are 10 photos. 1 in 10 chance of fingering that wrong suspect and providing false evidence contributing to wrongful prosecution.

I actually don't understand why you would even suggest that this is a good idea.

Is there something here I'm missing?

You should say you're not sure obviously, but tell them that you think it might be person 3.

Additionally, police almost always do a second and sometimes third lineup with other pictures if there's a positive identification.

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