The Brief
- The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has laid out a blueprint for best practices when it comes to the use of eyewitness identification in criminal cases.
- Faulty eyewitness identification is considered the leading cause of wrongful convictions across the country.
- County Attorney Mary Moriarty says her office and local law enforcement were already using best practices, but the new written policy makes expectations clear to prosecutors as well as police.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – FOX 9 has obtained a copy of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office new policy on Eyewitness Identification Evidence. The 10-page policy is the first time County Attorney Mary Moriarty has put the office’s best practices into writing. Experts say faulty eyewitness identification is the leading cause of sending innocent people to prison.
Moriarty tells FOX 9 her team has learned from past mistakes, including the first-degree murder conviction of Marvin Haynes that was eventually tossed out. Haynes spent nearly 20 years in prison for a Minneapolis murder he did not commit.
The new 10-page policy
What we know:
The policy states that jurors generally lack a full understanding of the factors influencing the reliability of eyewitness identification evidence. And it is up to the state to make sure eyewitness identifications of a suspect are fully reliable.…