With eyewitness evidence, what is there a danger of?
The jury placing too much emphasis on this evidence
What is in place to avoid the jury placing too much weight on identification evidence?
A judicial direction for the jury to use caution
Which code of practice sets out when an ID procedure will occur?
Code of practice D 3.12
When does code of practice D 3.12 say ID procedure will occur?
If the suspect disputes being the individual the witness claims they saw, then an identification procedure must occur.
What is the exception to the rule in D 3.12?
Where it is not practicable for Identification procedure to take place, and where it woud serve no purpose in proving or disproving that the suspect was actually involved in the crime.
Which is the leading case in identification?
R v Turnbull (1977)
What does Turnbull say?
That where the prosecutions case relies mainly on identification evidence, the judge needs to warn the jury of the special need for caution before convicting the accused in reliance on the correctness of the identification.
What 5 things does the judge need to warn the jury?
- the caution is necessary to avoid the risk on injustice
- a witness who is honest may be convinced that they are right even if they are wrong
- a witness who is convincing may be wrong.
- more than one witness may be wrong
- A witness who recognises the defendant, even when the witness knows the defendant very well, may be wrong.
Other than the Turnbull factors, what else must the jury be told to take into account?
The circumstances in which the identification occurred.
What are four of the circumstances the jury will be told to take into account?
- The length of time the accused was observed by the witness;
- The distance the witness was from the accused;
- The state of the light;
- The length of time elapsed between the original observation and the subsequent identification to the police.
