Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness, and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial by Elizabeth F. LoftusMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A really good, but deeply depressing book on how memory and eyewitness testimony can ruin lives. Less a treatise on memory, this book is more an autobiography focusing on Dr. Loftus' work as an expert witness for defendants in criminal trials. I particularly appreciated the insight into why she did the work she did, how she chose the clients to testify for, and even her troubling refusal to participate in the Demjanjuk trial.
The depressing parts of this book are the descriptions of the absolute destruction of people's lives. And this damage isn't only inflicted on those who were falsely accused and/or convicted, but the victims themselves. In one case, children's mothers essentially convinced their children that they were sexually abused by a camp counselor. Now these children have to live their whole lives not only convinced that this horrible abuse happened, but the person they are sure committed the abuse got away with it. Another victim, this time of rape, was so convinced that her identification of her assailant was correct that when another man actually confessed to the crime she refused to believe him. This long-lasting victimization of those who were already victims is heart-breaking.
The other depressing part of this book is that, despite being written in 1991, it doesn't seem like much has changed. People are still falsely accused and convicted based solely on eyewitness accounts. Luckily, we now have DNA evidence that can help exonerate the falsely convicted, but the process is still insanely expensive both in dollars spent and lives ruined. Even with no active malfeasance on the part of police and prosecutors, people are sent to prison or, if found not guilty, must live the rest of their lives with that suspicion hanging over them. And the victims of the original crime never get the justice they deserve.
Because I read the paper edition of this book, I will include my highlights here:
That's the frightening part - the truly horrifying idea that our memories can be changed, inextricably altered, and that what we think we know, what we believe with all our hearts, is not necessarily the truth. p. 13
Truth and reality, when seen through the filter of our memories, are not objective facts but subjective, interpretative realities. p. 20
When the police have a suspect, they often show the witness a photo array and produce the actual lineup only if an identification is made. Almost invariable, only the person identified from the photo lineup also appears in the in-person lineup, and almost invariably the witness identifies the person he saw in the photos. This is called a "phot0-biased lineup," and the chances of a mistaken identification rise dramatically in such a situation. p. 26
"We are a society that, every fifty years or so, is afflicted by some paroxysm of virtue - an orgy of self-cleansing through which evil of one kind or another is cast out. From the witch-hunts of Salem to the communist hunts of the McCarthy era to the current shrill fixation on child abuse, there runs a common thread of moral hysteria." quote by Dorothy Rabinowitz p. 127
"Justice would less often miscarry if all who are to weigh evidence were more conscious of the treachery of human memory. Yes, it can be said that, while the court makes the fullest use of all the modern scientific methods when, for instance, a drop of dried blood is to be examined in a murder case, the same court is completely satisfied with the most unscientific and haphazard methods of common prejudice and ignorance when a mental product, especially the memory report of a witness, is to be examined." quote by Hugo Musterberg p. 156
Most people are unaware that new information can influence their original recollection of an event. They don't know that as we take new information in, it is gradually incorporated into our original memory. Believing that this metamorphosed memory is and always has been the real memory, the true, unalterable, indivisible copy of our primary experience all those months or years ago, we become fiercely committed to it. p. 168
What happened in those two months to change [the witness'] mind? He'd seen pictures of Mr. Haupt, he'd read descriptions of the suspect, and he knew that he was looking for a man with a pronounced bald spot. His original memory of a full head of hair was wiped out, erased, by this new information, and the bald spot nestled comfortably into his memory, becoming in his mind the real and original memory. p. 168
Like most people, jurors tend to believe there is a strong relationship between how confident a witness is and how accurate he or she is. p. 170
Fear turns inward; it eats your soul. Anger can be directed outward, toward others. p. 204
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