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It's a staple of courtroom dramas: The witness on the stand points to the defendant and swears he or she is the one who committed the crime. Turn out the lights, game over and case closed. A conviction seems all but assured. Although criminal cases often hinge on eyewitness testimony, the reality is that prosecutors and police are increasingly questioning what once was considered stock-in-trade. Guidelines for developing eyewitness testimony that were developed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which discourage the use of photo arrays and lineups, gradually are being adopted throughout the country, including by district attorneys in Massachusetts. Solomon M. Fulero, a professor, lawyer and psychologist who served on the National Institute for Justice working group that in 1999 issued guidelines on eyewitness testimony, said the "pointing ritual" that has carried such weight in courtrooms often belies faulty evidence gathering and even contamination of a witness's recollection. The NIJ guidelines recommend abandoning traditional suspect lineups and photo arrays in favor of a witness viewing possible suspects or photographs one at a time. The Justice Department also recommends a "double-blind showing," in which the officer overseeing the lineup or display of photos does not know who the actual suspect is, in order to avoid influencing responses.
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