I never…well, rarely…miss "60 Minutes".  Really looking forward to watching this piece.

Not only are eyewitnesses unreliable, Lesley, but they also embellish things, as you know. And the reporter, in many states, can be held liable for what comes out of the source’s mouth. TV & radio reporters are vulnerable, therefore, in live situations. Thus, it’s a good idea to debrief the source before he/she goes on-air.

Regardless, these eyewitness errors are Exhibit A for why the death penalty should not be legal: too many mistakes.

While witnesses can be invaluable, they do not have the professional training to see the many things that a police officer or a reporter would see, particularly the details. In order not to appear stupid when peppered with questions, these sources will often skew facts or fill in holes in their stories.

It has been shown that with the passing of time an eyewitness account becomes less and less reliable. Why? They tend to "fill in the blanks" for things that are not logical. Also, as time passes and they obtain more facts about the event from other sources, they tend to weave it into their own perception of what exactly happened. Your most credible testimony will come from obtaining an eyewitness account immediately following the event. 

In the medical office where I work, the first question we ask is "have you been here before?"  People will swear we’re wrong when we check and tell them that "actually, you HAVE been here".  They can’t believe it. Amazes me every time and it’s made me think about witnesses and testimony.

This is a great subject to cover and I am really looking forward to seeing it. Kudos to CBS for putting a spotlight on an important issue that goes (for the most part) ignored and minimized.

One of my high school English teachers, who also was the debating coach, staged an incident for the class.  Without the class knowing, he asked two male students to start an argument in the class, let it grow into a fist-fight and then he would jump in and  break the boys apart and escort them from the class.  In about 5 minutes the teacher returned and then asked the class to get out our journals and write a brief essay of what had happened.  He led us to believe that the Vice Principal or School Counselor had made the request.

Of the remaining 22 or so students, no one got it exactly right.  Many did not hear the actual words that led to the argument so they guessed.  Who threw the first punch?  What did our teacher actually say to break up the fight?   Amazing answers.

Naturally, as a journalist for the school paper, I wrote a story of the incident.  My teacher later told me he did not find fault with my story but that he wished I had consulted him first.  You see, this teacher was a rebel and had already crossed the line a few times with the school administration.  But he was correct that I should have consulted him first.  I should have asked him his reasons for pulling the stunt and did he and the boys have a rehearsal and questions like that.  As for him receiving some sort of reprimand from the Principal, I was already thinking like a journalist and did not let that possibility even cross my mind.

Ms Stahl, I hope in your report on Sunday you bring us up to date on the very high incidence of mistakes made when the one doing the ID is not of the same race — or ethnic origin — as the one being ID’d. Though this has been known to be true for decades, people are still in prison due to eye witness testimony alone. 

My sisters and I argued for months about a café we stopped at on the way to a function out of town. We all enjoyed our meal and thought we remembered the name so we could stop there again. No matter what directory assistance we went to no restaurant by the names we remembered could be found. About six months later we happened to go back and laughed when we discovered we not only did we all have the name of the establishment wrong we had it pegged as being in another town.

Our focus was on the destination we were headed to and our current conversation not the lunch we ate. This incident makes we wonder how many people might be falsely accused or convicted because the main focus of a witnesses was on something besides the event they ended up testifying about.

An old technique by professors in law school is to have a man rush into the classroom, fire a gun and then leave quickly.  Not one student gets the facts correctly. 

So,

"Seeing should not be believing"

"Don’t believe everything you hear"

"Consider the source"

 What and where is reality? We are all living in just our own? Yeah…pretty much

I just saw the segment at 60 minutes and it was fascinating made me think a lot oabout what I see and don’t see.

 Great show..

Dorothy from grammology

grammology.com

Lesley …

Your segment tonight on 60 minutes was beyond eye-opening and has me still thinking about it hours later.  The particular sad story provoked emotions for you - for me - for us all.  A fine job!!

It is common knowledge that trauma such as this affects a persons memory and experience and is also predetermined by any early life trauma; such as sexual or physical abuses, mental or emotional abuses, or major accidents or other life-threatening experiences.

We are all subjected to some forms of trauma, in my opinion.  The degree to which we are traumatized also determines the degree of memory lapses, or malfuntions of detail memorization.  

I actually made a conscious effort, while watching a movie with such traumatic content, to remember the face and appearance of the perpetrator.  When it came right down to pulling up those memories, I could not do it.  My brain took in more details during the movie, which also affected the outcome of my memory.  Which in fact, clouded my memory of the perpetrator.  (strange…)

I think, in reality, if I had done this little test several days later I may have been more successful, provided I did not think about the matter during the lapsed period of time.  In other words, it may have made a difference in my memory recall if I did not feel tense, or subject to a kind of pass or fail test afterward.

The brain is such an amazing system!  I cannot imagine not being able to bring a recall up if my brain were it to be properly trained, to do so.  Perhaps there needs to be a method of searching for better recall from our bodies’ computer.  Verry Intrksting!

People vary in their ability to recognize people. The actual suspect should always be in the line-up because their could be a close resemblance. It’s like my case of being mistaken for a young Ty Power. In a Jack Benny episode, nobody remembered him……his barber, the people he waited on, nobody remembered him. He decides to rob a bank. Suddenly he had an unforgettable face. That’s him!! I would recognize that face anywhere.