Oregon Innocence Project Co-Founder Calls for Eyewitness Identification Reform in the State

08.18.15

In an op-ed in the

Portland Tribune

on Friday, Oregon Innocence Project Co-Founder Aliza Kaplan urged police departments in the state to update their eyewitness identification protocol to avoid convicting the innocent.

Kaplan wrote that problematic eyewitness identification practices can lead to wrongful convictions, such as that of Samuel Lawson, who was released last year after spending nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Kaplan encouraged police departments in the state to adopt the eyewitness identification practices recommended by the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), which include double-blind lineups, informing the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the line-up and the verbatim documentation of the witness’s confidence in the identification at the time it was made.

“The OACP model policy is practicable to implement, and the Oregon Innocence Project stands ready to work with its partners in law enforcement statewide to see through its full adoption,” Kaplan wrote. “All of us share a responsibility to protect our society against miscarriages of justice.”

Read the full op-ed

here

.

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