Justices Weigh Judges’ Duties to Assess Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony

• Justices Weigh Judges’ Duties to Assess Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony

In oral arguments yesterday in Perry v. New Hampshire, the Supreme Court seemed unpersuaded that the Court should view problems with eyewitness testimony any differently than other types of evidence.  Below is Adam Liptak's article with a link to the oral arguments.

By ADAM LIPTAK— Though studies and lower court decisions have found that eyewitness testimony can be both unusually problematic and unusually persuasive, the Supreme Court on Wednesday did not seem inclined to rule that the Constitution requires judges to view such evidence with special skepticism. Ordinary trial procedures, several justices suggested, should be adequate to address the potential unreliability of eyewitness identifications.

The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t. By John Thompson

Earlier we posted about John Thompson and how his civil jury award of 14 million dollars was overturned by the Supreme Court.  Below is Mr. Thompson's open letter published in the New York Times.  We found it compelling and have reproduced it below.

• John Thompson NYT

I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I’ve been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished. Last month, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 to overturn a case I’d won against them and the district attorney who oversaw my case, ruling that they were not liable for the failure to turn over that evidence — which included proof that blood at the robbery scene wasn’t mine.

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John Thompson is the director of Resurrection After Exoneration, a support group for exonerated inmates.