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

a-8-08.opn.html
section VI.B.9. See, e.g., C.A. Elizabeth Luus & Gary L. Wells, The Malleability
of Eyewitness Confidence: Co-Witness and Perseverance Effects, 79 J. Applied
Psychol. 714, 717-18 (1994).
Our focus at this point, though, is on system variables. To reiterate, we find
that feedback affects the reliability of an identification in that it can distort
memory, create a false sense of confidence, and alter a witness’ report of how
he or she viewed an event.
5. Multiple viewings
Viewing a suspect more than once during an investigation can affect the
reliability of the later identification. The problem, as the Special Master found,
is that successive views of the same person can make it difficult to know
whether the later identification stems from a memory of the original event or a
memory of the earlier identification procedure.
It is typical for eyewitnesses to look through mugshot books in search of a
suspect. Investigations may also involve multiple identification procedures.
Based on the record, there is no impact on the reliability of the second
identification procedure “when a picture of the suspect was not present in
photographs examined earlier.” Gunter Koehnken et al., Forensic Applications
of Line-Up Research, in Psychological Issues in Eyewitness Identification 205,
218 (Siegfried L. Sporer et al. eds., 1996).
Multiple identification procedures that involve more than one viewing of the
same suspect, though, can create a risk of “mugshot exposure” and “mugshot
commitment.” Mugshot exposure is when a witness initially views a set of
photos and makes no identification, but then selects someone -- who had been
depicted in the earlier photos -- at a later identification procedure. A metaanalysis
of multiple studies revealed that although 15% of witnesses mistakenly
identified an innocent person viewed in a lineup for the first time, that
percentage increased to 37% if the witness had seen the innocent person in a
prior mugshot. Kenneth A. Deffenbacher et al., Mugshot Exposure Effects:
Retroactive Interference, Mugshot Commitment, Source Confusion, and
Unconscious Transference, 30 Law & Hum. Behav. 287, 299 (2006).
Mugshot commitment occurs when a witness identifies a photo that is then
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