The New Jersey Supreme Court has issued new guidelines for what juries are instructed about eyewitness identification. The instructions come almost a year after the court ruled that the current methods of identification resulted in a “troubling lack of reliability.”
A judge must now tell the jury that stress levels, distance, lighting and other factors can undermine an eyewitness’ ability to make a reliable identification. The instructions also warn that the time between the crime and the identification, as well as a police officer’s behavior, can influence the witness. In addition, in cases that involve cross-racial identifications, the court must tell jurors that “research has shown that people may have greater difficulty in accurately identifying members of a different race.”
The new instructions take effect on September 4th and are far more detailed than any other court in the country. Brandon L. Garrett, a professor of law at the University of Virginia, told the New York Times, “These instructions are far from perfect, but they are a remarkable road map for how you explain eyewitness memory to jurors.”
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