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of the eyewitness community,” as evidenced by meta-analytic reviews, primary
texts, and surveys of scientific experts, and “[a] review of these areas suggests
that it would be very difficult to sustain the position that many of the findings in
research on eyewitness memory lack general agreement within the scientific
community.” Malpass et al., The Need for Expert Psychological Testimony on
Eyewitness Identification, supra, at 15.
VII. Responses to Scientific Studies
Beyond the scientific community, law enforcement and reform agencies
across the nation have taken note of the scientific findings. In turn, they have
formed task forces and recommended or implemented new procedures to
improve the reliability of eyewitness identifications. See, e.g., Ad Hoc
Innocence Comm. to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process, Am. Bar
Ass’n, Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty (2006);
Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, supra; Nat’l Inst. of Justice, U.S. Dep’t of Justice,
Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement, supra.
New Jersey has been at the forefront of that effort. In 2001, under the
leadership of then-Attorney General John J. Farmer, Jr., New Jersey became
“the first state in the Nation to officially adopt the recommendations issued by
the Department of Justice” and issue guidelines for preparing and conducting
identification procedures. See Letter from Attorney General John J. Farmer,
Jr., to All County Prosecutors et al., at 1 (Apr. 18, 2001) (AG Farmer Letter),
available at http://www.state.nj.us/lps/dcj/agguide/photoid.pdf.
The Attorney General Guidelines “incorporate[d] more than 20 years of
scientific research on memory and interview techniques.” Ibid. The preamble
describes the document as a list of “best practices.” See Attorney General
Guidelines, supra, at 1. The list is divided into two broad categories: composing
photo or live lineups, and conducting identification procedures. Many, but not
all, of the practices measure up to current scientific standards. Although we
have discussed parts of the Guidelines in the preceding sections, we summarize
them as a whole for the sake of completeness.
The Guidelines applied the following “best practices” to live and photo
lineups: “Include only one suspect in each identification procedure”; select
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