Judges and Jurists Have Great Faith in the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony. Psychologists, However, Would Have Us Believe Eyewitnesses Have Little to offer the Criminal Justice System

INTRODUCTION
It has been found that when an eyewitness testimony is provided as evidence in a criminal court case, it is more likely to result in a conviction (Visher, 1987), in fact, 77,000 people per year are charged with crimes solely based on eyewitness evidence (Goldstein, Chance & Schneller, 1989). A study conducted by Loftus (1974) found an alarming 54% swing from a non-guilty verdict, to that of guilty within the same case simply through the introduction of an eyewitness testimony. …