Jennifer Thompson & Ronald Cotton in the Picking Cotton: 60 Minutes Special
Eyewitness testimony is a big part of my criminal cases but it can be flawed. Procedures dealing with eyewitness, photo lineups, and in-person lineups have changed over the years because old procedures have been found to be flawed.
1. Should witnesses or victims be believed without testing and without investigation in criminal cases? Explain.
2. Do witnesses and victims ever lie in criminal cases?
3. In medical studies involving the testing of medicine a double-blind method of testing medicine is used in which the participants taking the medicine are not told if they are taking real medicine or a placebo. Doctors administering the drugs are also not told which whether the medicine they are administering is real or a placebo.
o Why do you believe the double-blind method is used in medicine?
o Do you believe this procedure should be used with eyewitness identification in criminal cases? Why?
4. Based on events in 2018, do you believe Americans understand the issues surrounding due processes and criminal justice? Explain.
5. Do social media movements help or hurt due process and accuracy in our criminal justice system? Explain.