Do lineups still appear to be effective? Why or why not?

Lineups do not appear to be effective. The primary goal of lineups is to help in the
identification of suspects and, in so doing, ensuring that the culprits who have taken part in a
crime are brought to book. However, based on the case of Malcolm Alexander, lineups can result
in the wrongful imprisonment of innocent individuals. Benjamin Franklin is quoted to have said it is better to set free a hundred guilty individuals as opposed to making an innocent individual
suffer (CATO Institute, 2016). There are critical flaws in the procedure of identification of
primary suspects through lineups. Eyewitnesses could be influenced by police officers into
making conclusions about the suspects (Steblay & Wells, 2020). The state of Louisiana has
implemented a procedure that requires the use of double-blind lineups to eliminate the possibility
of eyewitnesses being swayed by police officers. Evidently, the possibility of lineups resulting in
the imprisonment of innocent individuals makes them be ineffective.
Is eyewitness identification still a proper investigation tool?
Eye witness remains an unreliable investigation tool. Eyewitnesses are limited by their
memory, and this could result in misidentification and misrepresentation of facts. Eyewitness
identification is overly subjective, and this makes it necessary to have other objective ways of
investigating crimes, such as the use of DNA (Del Carmen, & Hemmens, 2016).
What point in the article drew your interest the most?
The point that drew my interest the most is the research that states that eyewitness
memory is not a tape recording. Research dating back to the 1930s has indicated that eyewitness
identification has various weaknesses (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2018). However, little has

been done to come up with an objective way of investigating crimes and, in so doing, convicting
criminals.

References

Steblay, N. K., & Wells, G. L. (2020). Assessment of bias in police lineups. Psychology, Public
Policy, and Law, 26(4), 393.
Del Carmen, R. V., & Hemmens, C. (2016). Criminal procedure: Law and practice. Cengage
Learning.
CATO Institute. (2016, December 6). Blackstone’s ratio: Is it more important to protect
innocence or punish guilt? Cato Institute. https://www.cato.org/policing-in-
america/chapter-4/blackstones-ratio
The Pew Charitable Trusts. (2018, July 13). Police are changing Lineups to avoid false IDs. The
Pew Charitable Trusts | The Pew Charitable
Trusts. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-
analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/07/13/police-are-changing-lineups-to-avoid-false-ids