If you or a loved one is facing criminal charges, you want to know the effect of an eyewitness account on your case. This knowledge helps you build a strong defense strategy that could have your charges dropped or your case reduced.
An eyewitness account could form concrete evidence in your criminal case, especially if the case has no physical or DNA evidence to present in court. These accounts could lay out the details of the crime, the persons involved, and the events. The accounts also help the law enforcers and jury understand your case's facts. This article explores more on the connection between eyewitness testimony and your case.
What is Eyewitness Testimony?
Eyewitness testimony is an account given by someone who has witnessed an event or crime firsthand. An eyewitness will present an account of the events of the crime they saw to help establish the case's facts. The weight of such testimony often depends on their ability to recall and convey what they observed accurately.
The eyewitness will reveal the details of the suspect involved, what crime occurred, and the time and place the crime occurred. They will also give information about other people in the vicinity and whether any weapon was used. It is believed that no one can lay out the details of something happening, like a person who was at the crime scene and saw all that happened.
Effects of Eyewitness Testimony in Your Criminal Case
Eyewitness testimony in a criminal case could be used to cast doubt on the prosecution's narrative about your involvement. This is because it could help establish an alibi to vouch for you, identify alternative suspects, and help you question the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses. It can also support claims of self-defense and help highlight your good character.
In California, eyewitness accounts could influence the direction your criminal case takes. Therefore, you want to use these testimonies to your advantage and build a strong defense. However, your lawyer must thoroughly prepare the eyewitness before the trial to ensure their accounts work favorably for you.
A well-prepared eyewitness can provide consistent and clear testimonies that will convince the jury on your behalf. However, a poorly prepared eyewitness could provide inconsistent testimonies, harming your case. You, therefore, want to work closely with your legal team to ensure all witnesses are credible and their accounts are reliable.
How Eyewitness Testimonies Help When Building Strong Defenses
Some of the effects of eyewitness testimonies in criminal cases include the following:
Establish an Alibi
You could use eyewitness testimony to establish an alibi, stating your whereabouts when the crime occurred, as a defense. Having someone who can confidently state they were with you when the crime occurred could help prove your innocence.
These testimonies could create reasonable doubt about your involvement in the crime. Whether it is your friend, family member, or colleague, their accounts could help prove you are not guilty by placing you far from the crime scene.
Also, having multiple witnesses confirm your whereabouts could strengthen your defense. If these witnesses independently confirm your alibi and their testimony is similar to yours, you could convince the judge that you are innocent and were not at the crime scene when the offense happened.
Identify Alternative Suspects
You could have your charges dismissed if eyewitnesses describe other people as suspects at the crime scene, suggesting that another person might be responsible for the offense and not you. This can shift the focus away from you and discredit the prosecution’s narrative.
In California, sketches and police lineups are often used to identify suspects. If a witness participating in the lineups or viewing the sketches gives testimonies showing the differences between you and the offender’s appearance, their confessions could weaken the prosecution’s case.
Question The Credibility Of Prosecution Witnesses
When a long time passes between the crime and your case's hearing, eyewitnesses can forget some events because human memory is imperfect. Witnesses might forget small details and have trouble recalling the events accurately.
Your lawyer will investigate their testimonies to find inconsistencies. This means questioning the witness's memory and looking closely at the conditions under which they saw the event.
Things like poor lighting, suggestions from the police, and the stress of the situation can show that the witnesses are not certain. When your attorney highlights these inconsistencies, it can help the jury see that the prosecution's witnesses might not be reliable, thus weakening the case against you.
For example, David, accused of murder, had his charges reduced after eyewitness testimonies created doubt in the prosecution’s witness. The judge reduced David’s charges from murder to manslaughter.
These instances demonstrate how questioning the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses and presenting alternative testimonies can affect criminal cases and have charges acquitted or reduced.
Provide Clarification of the Crime Events
When you witness a criminal event but do not know what led the culprit to commit the crime, you could misinterpret the whole situation. However, eyewitness testimony can help provide accurate information, offering a more precise picture of the situation.
They can testify and explain the situation step by step, describing interactions or behaviors that may have been misinterpreted. You could also find yourself in a not-too-straightforward situation where you appear to be the perpetrator but are not.
Eyewitness testimony can clarify your actions and intentions during the ordeal. Witnesses can testify that your behavior, state of mind, or intentions were pure and not to harm anybody.
For example, Jane rescues a 10-year-old boy who is a victim as his parents have been murdered by unknown people who have fled the scene. However, Jane is accused of acting with malicious intent because she took the boy to her home after rescuing him. A witness could explain Jane’s motives or actions, which could help dismiss the allegations.
Support Your Self-Defense Claim
You could find yourself in a situation where your life is threatened and decide to fight back. This could lead to the death of your adversary, or they could suffer severe injuries. Eyewitnesses who witnessed the incident could testify in support of your self-defense claim. They can describe how you responded to a threat, emphasizing that you only reacted to an immediate danger.
Their testimony could illustrate that you acted out of necessity to protect yourself or others rather than with intent to harm. The eyewitness will describe your adversary’s actions that posed real and imminent danger to you or others.
If the eyewitness’ account aligns with your account, the judge could be convinced of your innocence and create reasonable doubt about the prosecution’s claims about your involvement in the crime.
Demonstrate Your Good Character
Eyewitness testimony highlighting your positive attributes and history can influence how the jury perceives you and impact their decision. Witnesses who know you well can provide powerful testimony about your peaceful disposition and how you have always conducted yourself in a lawful and nonviolent manner.
These witnesses, such as friends, family members, colleagues, or community leaders, can vouch for your honesty, integrity, and law-abiding nature. Their accounts can help paint a picture of you as a responsible and upstanding citizen.
This will help counter the negative image the prosecution may try to portray. Testimonies highlighting your lack of a criminal history or violent tendencies could also be persuasive.
Highlighting Procedural Errors and Bias
Procedural errors and biases in the criminal justice process can significantly affect the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Your lawyer's Identification and exposure of these issues can weaken the prosecution's case and strengthen your defense.
Eyewitnesses who experienced or observed improper police procedures can provide critical testimony. For example, if law enforcement uses suggestive methods during lineups or interrogations for your case, witnesses can testify to these practices. Such testimonies could demonstrate that the identification process was flawed and that you were wrongly identified.
Sometimes, when a witness goes through the identification process, they might feel pressured or influenced by the police. They could reveal these biases and external influences in court, discrediting the prosecution's narrative that you were involved in a crime.
If your lawyer can demonstrate that police procedures violated established protocols, this may result in the suppression of the tainted eyewitness testimony. California Evidence Code Section 352 allows for excluding evidence if it will result in undue prejudice, misleading the jury, or confusion compared to its probative value.
Psychological and Expert Testimony
Expert testimony, especially that of a psychologist, could help challenge the reliability of the prosecution’s eyewitness accounts in your case. Psychologists will explain human memory limitations, vulnerabilities, and perceptions to the jury.
This testimony can help the jury understand that eyewitness accounts are not always accurate and should be scrutinized. Stress and trauma can impact an eyewitness's ability to recall events accurately. The expert can provide insights into how high-stress situations, such as witnessing a crime, can impair memory.
The expert’s statement could help discredit the prosecution's eyewitness account by claiming it is flawed or unreliable, leading to a more favorable outcome for your case.
For example, Tabitha, a defendant accused of kidnapping a 5-year-old boy, was acquitted after multiple eyewitnesses provided consistent and corroborating testimony that supported her alibi. These testimonies created a reasonable doubt, leading to a not-guilty verdict.
Your lawyer can effectively challenge the prosecution's evidence by presenting a well-rounded defense that includes expert analysis.
How to Have A Favorable Effect from Eyewitness Testimonies
To ensure that the eyewitness testimonies presented favorably affect your case, you want to identify reliable eyewitnesses and ensure they are well-prepared. Your lawyer should look for people present at relevant times whose accounts align with your defense.
Once identified, your attorney prepares them thoroughly. This involves reviewing their statements multiple times to ensure consistency and accuracy. They will then conduct mock examinations to familiarize the witnesses with the courtroom environment and questioning techniques. Your lawyer should ensure that they can withstand cross-examination by the prosecution.
Also, you want to gather as much supporting evidence as possible to corroborate the defense eyewitness accounts. You could present physical evidence, other witness testimonies, or surveillance footage. This is because the more corroborative evidence you have, the stronger your defense will be.
As for the prosecution’s eyewitness, you want to focus on identifying inconsistencies in their testimonies. Your lawyer should question the conditions under which they observed the events, such as poor lighting, stress, or distance. These factors affect the reliability of their testimonies and cast doubt on their accounts.
Factors That Could Cause An Eyewitness To Make Mistakes
Even with so much preparation and a mock examination, eyewitnesses could still make mistakes during a trial, which could impact your case negatively. Some of the factors include the following:
Anxiety or Stress
You are likely not to recall the events of a crime accurately if you are stressed or anxious. The arousal experienced during the happenings of violent crime could distort your memories. This is because such situations elevate your anxiety levels, making it difficult to perceive things as they are happening.
Therefore, if an eyewitness is under such conditions, they cannot give accurate information about the events that took place even though they were present when the offense occurred.
Use of a Weapon
The presence of a dangerous weapon during a crime could distort the eyewitness’s ability to recall the details of the ordeal accurately. When a gun is involved, the focus is almost always fixed on the weapon instead of the perpetrator.
This means that the eyewitness did not focus on the details of the culprit, such as the face or the clothing. They can give detailed information on the weapon but fail to describe the culprit’s face. This could make them identify the wrong person as the perpetrator in a criminal case.
Confidence Level
An eyewitness’s confidence level in their testimony can influence how their account is perceived in court. A confident eyewitness could give false information, making it seem valid. In contrast, a shy eyewitness could give their account with less confidence, casting doubt on their credibility, yet it is the truth.
However, not all eyewitnesses with less confidence are shy people. Some are confident, but their confidence is affected by various factors, such as feedback from the police or testimonies from others. This could make a well-meaning witness give false testimony because they were suppressed.
Racial Identification
In most cases, you could have difficulty identifying individuals of a different race, as they always look alike. Therefore, in a crime involving a person from a different race, there could be a high risk of an eyewitness making a mistaken identity mistake in cases where they witness.
This often occurs because people are more familiar with facial features distinct from their race, so recognizing and recalling such features is hard. An eyewitness could identify you as the culprit just because you have facial features familiar to the perpetrator, which could lead to a wrongful conviction.
Choosing Perpetrator While Under Pressure
Everyone is pressured to ensure the perpetrator is brought to justice in a criminal case. However, this pressure is unfavorable, as it could lead an eyewitness to identify the wrong suspect.
Law enforcers could unintentionally rush a witness to make a decision during a lineup, making them make selections to please them. This could result in misidentification because the eyewitnesses think they must make a choice.
Influence of the Criminal Event’s Facts
Eyewitnesses at a crime scene often discuss the facts of the criminal events with other eyewitnesses. Everyone could have a different account of the ordeal. Therefore, when eyewitnesses start talking about what happened, it could lead to distorted accounts or the integration of various information. This could result in the inclusion of new details in their account, even if they need to be corrected.
Therefore, the statement conveyed in a hearing may not be the truth.
Multiple Culprits
When a crime involves multiple culprits, eyewitnesses could struggle to distinguish the perpetrators, especially if the ordeal was fast-moving. This can lead to confusion and mistakes in identifying who did what during the crime.
Eyewitnesses Interaction With Different People
If an eyewitness interacts with many people, their account of a criminal event could be distorted when they discuss the happenings with those people. However, if they interact with a few people, especially those involved in the case, they could give a more accurate account of the crime.
Find A Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me
Eyewitness testimonies are among the most reliable evidence in criminal cases. However, there have been cases where innocent people have been convicted unfairly due to mistaken identity.
If you are facing criminal charges, you want to hire a competent attorney to help you build strong defenses in a case of misleading eyewitness testimony. Your lawyer will help prepare witnesses to testify that you are not the perpetrator in court.
At the Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer, our experienced lawyers defend various criminal charges across LA. We are ready to fight for your rights and represent you in court. Call us today at 310-502-1314 to schedule a consultation and discuss how we can assist you in building a solid defense.
