State v. Henderson and the New Model Jury Charges - New Jersey ...

a-8-08.opn.html
The consequences are clear: a non-blind lineup procedure can affect the
reliability of a lineup because even the best-intentioned, non-blind
administrator can act in a way that inadvertently sways an eyewitness trying to
identify a suspect. An ideal lineup administrator, therefore, is someone who is
not investigating the particular case and does not know who the suspect is.
The State understandably notes that police departments, no matter their size,
have limited resources, and those limits can make it impractical to administer
lineups double-blind in all cases. An alternative technique, which Dr. Wells
referred to as the “envelope method,” helps address that challenge. It relies on
single-blind administration: an officer who knows the suspect’s identity places
single lineup photographs into different envelopes, shuffles them, and presents
them to the witness. The officer/administrator then refrains from looking at the
envelopes or pictures while the witness makes an identification. This “blinding”
technique is cost-effective and can be used when resource constraints make it
impractical to perform double-blind administration.
We find that the failure to perform blind lineup procedures can increase the
likelihood of misidentification.
2
. Pre-identification Instructions
Identification procedures should begin with instructions to the witness
that the suspect may or may not be in the lineup or array and that the witness
should not feel compelled to make an identification. There is a broad consensus
for that conclusion. The Attorney General Guidelines currently include the
instruction; the Special Master considers it “uncontroversial”; and the State
agrees that “[w]itness instructions are regarded as one of the most useful
techniques for enhancing the reliability of identifications” (quoting the Special
Master).
Pre-lineup instructions help reduce the relative judgment phenomenon
described in section III. Without an appropriate warning, witnesses may
misidentify innocent suspects who look more like the perpetrator than other
lineup members.
http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/collections/courts/supreme/a-8-08.opn.html[4/15/2013 6:04:23 PM]