A new book on misidentification by eyewitnesses “breaks the mold” by describing in historical, legal, and novelistic form a century-old war between psychologists and the legal system, says psychology Prof. Saul Kassin of Williams College.
Kassin praises James M. Doyle’s “True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science, and the Struggle Against Misidentification,” just out from Palgrave MacMillan.
After recounting classic cases of misidentification that led to wrongful convictions, Doyle takes readers inside a National Institute of Justice research group assembled by former Attorney General Janet Reno to seek ways of correcting the problem. The institue eventually produced a guide that “fuelds the reforms being considered and adopted in several states,” Kassin says.
Doyle will speak on his findings along with another expert, Prof. Steven Penrod of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, April 6 at John Jay in New York City.