Eyewitness testimony

Eyewitness testimony is evidence about an event given by someone who claims to have perceived it directly. Its accuracy can be affected by perception, memory, and later questioning.

Reconstructive memory: The process by which memories are assembled from stored details, expectations, and later information. Witness accounts can change as people reconstruct an event rather than replaying a complete record.
Police lineup: A procedure in which a witness views a suspect among other people to determine whether anyone is recognizable. Lineup composition and instructions can affect the fairness of an identification.
Forensic evidence: Evidence examined through scientific methods to address questions in a legal investigation. Physical or biological traces can corroborate or contradict a witness's account.
Wrongful conviction: A conviction of a person who did not commit the crime or was not legally responsible for it. Erroneous eyewitness evidence has helped secure convictions later overturned.
Eyewitness memory: Memory for people, objects, and events perceived as a witness to an incident. The broader science of witness memory informs debates about reliability and courtroom safeguards.
Misinformation effect: The incorporation of misleading information into a person's memory of an event. Post-event details can alter what witnesses later believe they saw.
Show-up identification: A procedure in which a witness is shown a single detained suspect for identification. Unlike a lineup, a show-up presents one person and can imply that police suspect them.
Alibi: A claim or evidence that a person was elsewhere when an alleged event occurred. An alibi addresses presence at the scene rather than what a witness perceived there.
Innocence Project: A nonprofit legal organization that uses DNA testing and related advocacy to challenge wrongful convictions. Its exoneration work has documented the role of mistaken eyewitness identifications.
Estimator variables: Conditions affecting identification accuracy that are outside the control of the justice system. Viewing conditions such as distance, lighting, and stress can shape memory before police procedures begin.

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