Professor of Psychology at owa State University
Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University and an expert in eyewitness identification
PROFILE
Gary L. Wells
Guest
FROM Gary L. Wells
To the Point
DNA Testing and the Exoneration of the Innocent Since 1989, some 200 criminal convicts have been exonerated by DNA testing, some within days of execution. In 75 percent of those cases, the major flaw was eyewitness identification. Many of those exonerated were the result of the work of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin Cardozo Law School at New York’s Yeshiva University. Prosecutors all over the country are paying attention and, faced with hard evidence of wrongful convictions, 20 states and some 500 local jurisdictions are redoubling their efforts to guarantee justice for all. We look at eyewitness identification and police interrogations that lead to confessions.
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