How are the laws surrounding CDL and alcohol different?

Speaker 1
00;00;00;01 – 00;00;01;04
Did you know eyewitness testimony is highly unreliable? This is Christina Williams with Just Criminal Law.
Speaker 2
00;00;09;16 – 00;00;11;05
And David Mann, legal storytelling specialist. Wow. That is interesting. You’d think that would be totally reliable. Somebody saw it, and then they’re saying they saw it.
Speaker 1
00;00;17;23 – 00;00;21;10
Well, an interesting fact is that now we’re in the day of DNA evidence and people are getting exonerated. That is, they’re being released from prison after being found guilty by a jury because DNA evidence is able to prove somebody else committed the crime. And of those people that are exonerated, 15% of them were put in prison by eyewitness testimony.
Speaker 2
00;00;48;13 – 00;00;49;04
Wow. So 15% of people who are put in prison shouldn’t have ever been there in the first place. And that’s all because of eyewitnesses that didn’t get it right?
Speaker 1
00;01;00;02 – 00;01;03;18
Right. 15% of people who are proved to be not guilty by DNA evidence are in prison solely based on eyewitness testimony. So, it happens all the time and it happens in very serious cases.
Speaker 2
00;01;15;22 – 00;01;17;22
So what about, I think you’re referring to eyewitnesses who were present and saw it with their eyes and now they’re talking about it. What about someone with a camera?
Speaker 1
00;01;25;16 – 00;01;29;09
Well, that’s an equally concerning area. And what is sometimes happening is prosecutors will rely on a witness to identify the accused on a video and then say he’s guilty. “Look, it’s Mr. Joe Smith on this video. And this person who is familiar with him or knows him, has identified him. And so, Joe Smith can get convicted again wrongly, based on a witness identifying him on video footage.
Speaker 2
00;02;05;23 – 00;02;07;23
Okay. So. I assume that when you have to cross-examine someone, you have to go through a whole series of questions and sort of get them into this. So what’s an example of how that might go?
Speaker 1
00;02;16;27 – 00;02;19;19
Sure. So say you’ve got Mr. Smith and he’s accused of burglary and there’s a ring camera that captures an image of a person that’s breaking into a house. And law enforcement is then put in a position where they need to try to identify this person. And say they have Mr. Smith’s neighbor get on the stand and say, “Yes, I’m familiar with Mr. Smith. And that is him on the ring camera.” Now, a defense attorney will potentially be able to impeach the reliability of this witness, by saying, “Now, you indicate that you and Mr. Smith were neighbors? How long ago were you neighbors? Are you still neighbors?” And the witness may testify, “Well, we were neighbors three years ago.” Oh, okay. And then the next question might be, “Well, did you guys attend barbeques together,” or “Did you ever do anything as neighbors?” “Well, no.” So just to be clear, you were never in the same room as Mr. Smith.” “Yes, that’s correct.” “So how did you know Mr. Smith was your neighbor.” “Well, I would see him in his car as we drove past each other.” “So you’ve never actually been within ten feet of Mr. Smith?” “Correct.” “And how long ago was it since you actually drove past Mr. Smith?” “Well, it’s been a few years ago.” And so right there, you’ve got a serious question about, “Does this neighbor really know or would this neighbor really be able to identify Mr. Smith in the ring camera footage?” And a jury might be scratching their head, saying “Yeah, I don’t know if I believe this person or not.”
Speaker 2
00;04;28;12 – 00;04;30;00
That’s really fascinating. So, even though it’s photographic evidence, it isn’t really irrefutable evidence because the person saying that it’s Mr. Smith doesn’t necessarily know what Mr. Smith looks like. So, this sounds like a job for an attorney to sort of bring this thing to light. How might someone get in touch with you to do this?
Speaker 1
00;04;51;17 – 00;04;53;10
We’ll include a link in the description where they can call, text, or chat with a member of my team, any time, day or night. Here at Just Criminal Law, we know you only get one shot at justice. So make yours count!