Two minutes

Psychologist studies eyewitness accounts in criminal cases

An ISU psychologist's groundbreaking research on eyewitness identifications and police lineups has media lining up to discuss his work. Gary Wells has talked about unreliability of eyewitness identifications (and ways to improve them) on CBS' 60 Minutes and The Oprah Winfrey Show and in Newsweek magazine.

Lineup miscues: Wells' research shows the reliability of eyewitness IDs of suspects in police lineups is influenced by how lineups are conducted. He recently urged the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a 1977 landmark case that permits eyewitness identifications obtained through suggestive law enforcement procedures.

Mistaken identity: Eyewitness errors are more prevalent than the Supreme Court could have surmised in 1977, Wells says. Of the 224 people in the U.S. convicted of crimes and later exonerated by DNA evidence, 77 percent were victims of mistaken eyewitness identification.

New research: Wells is working on a National Science Foundation study that investigates why eyewitnesses still choose to make an identification, even when they may not remember important details about the perpetrators. The study involves experimenting with police lineup procedures and analyzing criminal eyewitnesses in three cities.

Helping the police: Wells helped develop the first set of national guidelines for police on eyewitness evidence.

-- Tim Greene