Los Angeles County Criminal Lawyer Blog

A recent study conducted by the American Judicature Society suggests that photo lineups aren't accurate ways to identify suspects, ABC News reports.

This study comes at the same time that New Jersey court officials are changing the way they are treating eyewitnesses and creating pretrial hearings to determine whether they are being unduly influenced by police officers into pointing out the suspect officers want to arrest.

These are interesting issues to bring up because Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers have been noting for years that eyewitnesses, by and large, aren't credible or accurate in pointing out and describing the alleged actions of defendants facing criminal charges.

Whether accused of a sex offense in Pasadena or a theft charge in Encino, eyewitness testimony can be very persuasive to a jury. Yet, recent findings dispute the accuracy of a witness' testimony.

In New Jersey, the state's Supreme Court recently created new rules to make it easier for defendants to challenge unreliable witnesses in criminal cases. The judges ruled that whenever a defendant brings up questions about the witnesses' reliability, a hearing must be held.

During the hearing, a judge must consider a range of issues that could have affected the witness' situation. That includes whether a police officer might have influenced what the the person said, the lighting, how far away the person was from the suspect, whether the witness was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time, or other factors.

While the rules will apply only to New Jersey cases, The New York Times speculates that the New Jersey ruling could spread to other states as the Supreme Court is known for being a trendsetter for criminal rulings.

This would be good news for Los Angeles criminal defendants, especially in light of the study reported by ABC News. The station reports on the case of Giovanni Ramirez, the man first accused of being involved in the opening day beating of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium.

He was initially considered a suspect after a witness picked him out of a lineup and he was charged with a probation violation. But through the diligent work by his Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, Ramirez was never charged with beating the man after it was proven he wasn't involved.

But the man's name was dragged through the mud as media worldwide printed his name and photo as being involved by a faulty witness. Even though charges were never filed and the system worked, the man suffered greatly.

Let's hope California's justices are watching New Jersey and seeing the continual problems with eyewitness and police lineups that are causing problems in our justice system. A solution would enable defendants to get fair trials instead of fearing that inaccurate witnesses be allowed to influence jurors into guilty verdicts.