Recent Reads: The Case for Eyewitness Identification Reform

The Case for Eyewitness Identification Reform

Professional Practice

William Collins, Author (American Bar Association)

According to the Innocence Project and the National Registry of Exonerations, eyewitness identification is a significant cause of wrongful convictions and has led to thousands of innocent people losing their freedom. Still today, evidence of eyewitness identifications in a criminal trial remains one of the least reliable, yet most convincing forms of evidence of guilt. Jurors rely heavily on eyewitness identifications. However, according to research, human beings are sorely mistaken as to how well we perceive and remember, especially other people’s faces. With this knowledge, it is abundantly clear that new safeguarding procedures need to be created and applied for eyewitness identifications to be considered reliable evidence. This book explains the history and current state of eyewitness identification procedures, the research that established eyewitness identifications as unreliable, and recommendations for the future, which will undoubtedly reduce the likelihood of misidentifications that lead to wrongful convictions. Improvements in science and technology also have helped reduce the likelihood of misidentifications, including DNA evidence, video surveillance, and location identifying technology in smartphones. However, these advances in technology will not benefit every criminal case. Thus, traditional procedures still may be needed to establish the suspect’s identity, especially early on in a case. Together with more scientific forms of evidence that prove identification and clear directives established in this book, the methods of identifying suspects accurately and reliably will no longer present a significant issue causing wrongful convictions.

Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers (Second Edition)

Professional Practice

Elizabeth Kelley, Editor (American Bar Association)

The quintessential professional practice guide for all defense attorneys for when they undoubtedly will represent a person who has a mental disability, disorder, or symptoms without a diagnosis. This second edition has been significantly updated since the first, with growing awareness and acceptance regarding mental health concerns of criminal defendants. Complete with 19 chapters, this practice guide addresses in detail all aspects of a criminal trial that may be affected differently while representing a criminal defendant who has a mental disorder or disability. Some of the more obvious “psycho-legal” topics include competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility (insanity defense), and expert testimony. However, less obvious topics with less available information have been greatly needed for attorneys, too. These topics are incorporated in this book and include how symptoms of a mental disorder may affect testing and neuroimaging, false confessions and Miranda waivers, working with families, seeking proper experts, jail and prison conditions, and post-conviction remedies. Not only are critical mental disorders described, the symptoms of the disorders also are explained in a way that illuminates how a defendant’s behavior may appear unusual to the defense attorney and others. The book also highlights the importance of mitigation, in the form of plea negotiations. Where competency is met, but the burden of the insanity defense is too high, a plea bargain may serve as the best outcome for a client with a mental disorder. This practice guide explains difficult topics easily, which will help all defense attorneys to provide the most meaningful advocacy for clients with mental disorders.

The Sing Sing Files

Nonfiction/Memoir

Dan Slepian, Author (Celadon Books)

The Sing Sing Files is the most extraordinary and eye-opening book I have read since becoming a criminal attorney and practicing law in New York City. Dan Slepian, an investigative journalist for NBC, wrote this book to represent the culmination of his 20-year investigation into wrongful convictions in New York State. Like most unique investigations, this one was born from something else. Many years ago, Slepian was simply assigned to ride along with detectives in the Bronx. Through that work, he realized that there were innocent people incarcerated at Sing Sing, a maximum-security prison in New York. Slepian began to devote much of his career and free time to freeing these men. Along the way, he documented everything. The level of injustice that occurred in these cases is extraordinary. Story after remarkable story is provided of the most unreliable identifications, coercion from law enforcement, ignored and destroyed alibis, wavering jurors changing their votes to guilty just to go home before a holiday, and people convicted of committing murders together with co-defendants they have never met before. Slepian’s book not only details the legal aspects of the cases, but also the devastating emotional impact on wrongfully convicted people, their families, and those who know the truth but face the incredibly uphill battle to free them. This book should be read not just by those involved in criminal law, but by all people because by understanding how these stories affect us all, we can create a better criminal justice system.

In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad

NonFiction/Memoir

Mickey Bergman and Ellis Henican, Authors (Center Street Books)

Mickey Bergman is the CEO of Global Reach, the VP of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, and a high-stakes hostage negotiator. Bergman and his team coined the term “fringe diplomacy,” which refers to nongovernmental professionals who negotiate the release of American political prisoners and hostages captured and wrongfully detained overseas, in countries such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. In his incredibly fascinating behind-the-scenes memoir, Bergman describes how his life took him from special-ops in the IDF to negotiating the release of wrongfully detained Americans. Most of the world gets to see the joyous moments when hostages are returned to America, but up until the telling of this astonishing story, most people have never known what occurs during the days, months, and sometimes years of negotiations that take place. It is a time filled with fear, deplorable conditions, bizarre court procedures, terrified families back home, and painstaking negotiations. Most thought it was the government negotiating for hostages this whole time, but now we know better. Through the concepts of fringe diplomacy and emotional intelligence, Bergman describes how he and his deceased predecessor and mentor Governor Bill Richardson, and their expanding team of professionals, have found success, even as they often remain uncredited publicly for the release of many Americans. For his work, Bergman has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and 2023, and after reading this book, he clearly is quite deserving of such an honor.