Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Eyewitness identification: Line-ups on trial

Nature volume 453, pages 442–444 (2008)Cite this article

A major, but flawed, study of identity parades, or line-ups, has set science and the police at odds. Laura Spinney investigates.

In 1981, 22-year-old Jerry Miller was arrested and charged with the kidnap, rape and robbery of a woman in downtown Chicago. After two eyewitnesses to the crime picked him out of a line-up, and the victim identified him at his trial, he was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison. In March 2007, however, semen on the victim's clothes was subjected to DNA testing and found not to belong to him. His conviction was quashed a month later. He had spent more than 24 years in jail.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Mecklenburg, S. H. Report to the Legislature of the State of Illinois: The Illinois Pilot Program on Sequential Double-Blind Identification Procedures (Illinois State Police, Illinois, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Schachter, D. L. et al. Law Hum. Behav. 32, 3–5 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Valentine, T., Darling, S. & Memon, A. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 21, 933–949 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Devlin, P. Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the Departmental Committee on Evidence of Identification in Criminal Case (HMSO, London, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Laura Spinney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Laura Spinney is a freelance writer based in London and Paris.

Related links

Related links

Related external links

Gary Wells' web site

The Innocence Project

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Spinney, L. Eyewitness identification: Line-ups on trial. Nature 453, 442–444 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453442a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/453442a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing