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

a-8-08.opn.html
XII. Retroactivity Analysis ............................... 129
XIII. Conclusion ........................................... 132
XIV. Judgment ............................................. 134
Appendix A Remand Order ................................. 135
I. Introduction
In the thirty-four years since the United States Supreme Court announced a
test for the admission of eyewitness identification evidence, which New Jersey
adopted soon after, a vast body of scientific research about human memory has
emerged. That body of work casts doubt on some commonly held views relating
to memory. It also calls into question the vitality of the current legal framework
for analyzing the reliability of eyewitness identifications. See Manson v.
Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S. Ct. 2243, 53 L. Ed.2d 140 (1977); State v.
Madison, 109 N.J. 223 (1988).
In this case, defendant claims that an eyewitness mistakenly identified him as
an accomplice to a murder. Defendant argues that the identification was not
reliable because the officers investigating the case intervened during the
identification process and unduly influenced the eyewitness. After a pretrial
hearing, the trial court found that the officers’ behavior was not impermissibly
suggestive and admitted the evidence. The Appellate Division reversed. It held
that the officers’ actions were presumptively suggestive because they violated
guidelines issued by the Attorney General in 2001 for conducting identification
procedures.
After granting certification and hearing oral argument, we remanded the case
and appointed a Special Master to evaluate scientific and other evidence about
eyewitness identifications. The Special Master presided over a hearing that
probed testimony by seven experts and produced more than 2,000 pages of
transcripts along with hundreds of scientific studies. He later issued an
extensive and very fine report, much of which we adopt.
http://njlaw.rutgers.edu/collections/courts/supreme/a-8-08.opn.html[4/15/2013 6:04:23 PM]