Posts tagged psychology  Supreme Court Watch: Perry v. New
Hampshire  I can’t see his face, but he looks guilty to me.
Photo: Patrick Opp­mann, CNN.  Today, lit­i­gants will argue a
case in front of the United States Supreme Court that may
for­ever change the way in which eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mony is
weighed in crim­i­nal proceedings.  The case, Perry v. New
Hamp­shire, is a nar­row case on its face. What con­sti­tutes a
sug­ges­tive eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion that would vio­late
a defendant’s 14th Amend­ment right to due process? Is see­ing a
sus­pect in hand­cuffs, even if the obser­va­tion is
inad­ver­tent, unnec­es­sar­ily prej­u­di­cial? Or do police
have to be actively engaged in mak­ing a sus­pect look guilty to
taint the eye­wit­ness identification?  If those issues alone
were impor­tant, the case would not have attracted the
atten­tion that it has. If those issues alone were under
con­sid­er­a­tion, the Supreme Court would never have granted
cer­tio­rari. How­ever, the buzz is that the Supreme Co