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Alianah Timmons, who has also taken several criminology classes, is graduating from the University of Southern Maine in May with a bachelor of art degree in psychology. Kristen Gleason is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern Maine. These are their views and do not express those of the University of Maine System or the University of Southern Maine. Gleason is a member of the Maine chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, which brings together scholars across the country to address public challenges and their policy implications. Members’ columns appear in the BDN every other week.
In the United States, over 3,000 people were wrongfully convicted for crimes they did not commit and were later exonerated and declared innocent. Still, many more in prison claim their innocence and are waiting for their cases to be heard again.
The biggest cause of wrongful convictions is false eyewitness identification and testimony. Nationally, 75 percent of exonerations had eyewitness misidentifications as a cause of wrongful conviction. This means that eyewitnesses, often unintentionally, identify the wrong suspect and testify with false information. It is important to raise awareness of the high rates of wrongful convictions in our country and to address the potential harm of unreliable eyewitness testimony.
One study estimated that about 6 percent of those currently in a general state prison population may be wrongfully convicted. In the United States, this means that approximately 60,000 people may be imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.
Research shows many negative outcomes for people who have been wrongfully convicted, even after they have been exonerated. These negative outcomes can include, stigma, decreased physical and mental health, loss of identity, changes in their relationships, and negative effects on finances and employment.
In other words, this population often encounters many adjustment difficulties after leaving prison. About half of wrongfully convicted and exonerated people have experienced depression or anxiety, and about a third or more have experienced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These negative outcomes affect every area of life, making it difficult to adjust to life after prison.
The criminal justice system needs to think seriously about how to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions. After analyzing past exoneration cases, one researcher found that a majority of wrongful conviction cases included false accusations, official misconduct, undisclosed and coerced eyewitness testimony, or knowingly false testimony.
Because anything that happens after witnessing a crime can affect someone’s memory of it, later events and information can shape or distort eyewitness accounts. Eyewitness identifications are the most accurate when they are made within a few seconds and given without any feedback from the police investigators.
Police departments and lawmakers can enact changes to prevent errors from unreliable eyewitnesses. Researcher-backed recommendations to reduce false convictions include changing police procedures. For example, researchers recommend that police lineups should be conducted in a way that shows each potential suspect to the eyewitness one at a time (sequential lineups), rather than all at once. Other recommended changes include preventing the official who administers the lineup procedure from knowing the identity of the primary suspect, avoiding any suggestions that could influence the identification, and recording an eyewitness’s confidence statement right after the identification is made.
Recently, there has been some recognition of this issue in Maine. For example, in a 2023 interview, a Bangor police representative described the challenges of eyewitness testimony, stating that in many cases, “people get facts wrong.” The Bangor Police Department launched their app in December 2023, which allows people to anonymously submit information to police, such as pictures and videos. This removes the potential unreliability of eyewitnesses. However, more needs to be done across the state of Maine.
A recent national report analyzing eyewitness testimony policy across states found that Maine has yet to revise the legal eyewitness testimony framework or to adopt other statutes to regulate eyewitness identifications. This leaves Maine eyewitness procedures susceptible to error.
Wrongly convicted people deserve justice just as much as victims do. Closing a case with the wrong suspect does not do anyone justice. We urge the Maine Attorney General’s Office and all of our Maine law enforcement departments to review and adopt the research-based practices to prevent further wrongful convictions in the state.
