Mistaken Eyewitness Identification

The reliability of eyewitness identification has attracted concern from legal professions in England for a number of years, particularly following the acknowledgment of the erroneous identifications responsible for convicting Adolf Beck in 1904. The case was followed by the Establishment of the Court of Appeal in England and Wales (Bromby, MacMillan & McKellar, 2007). Mistaken eyewitness identification testimony was central to the convictions of innocents who were later exonerated by forensic DNA testing (Gary L. Wells). Although through studies information has been acquired about how to decrease the likelihood of mistaken identifications, many courts around the world still conduct identification using approaches largely unsupported by scientific