Criminal Procedure video lecture, surveying the constitutional, statutory, and policy-based limits on the use of identification procedures such as in-person lineups and photo arrays.
Well worth listening to, for law students or the public. The frequent (>90%?) lack of judicial warrants means that the accused often are seized on the basis of very little particularity.
I am glad you brought up the politically correct but absolutely true knowledge of cross racially identifications. My agency had a policy of showing an "eight pack" of photos. One was our suspect, the other seven were not. We got the photos from the DPS of driver's license photos. We gave the witness a spiel that went something like this. You are about to be shown a group of photos. The suspect may or may not be among them. Please look at each photo carefully before making any decision. Do not guess. Do not say, "I think it is number ___, or number ___looks like the person. If you cannot identify the person, say so. If you can, put your initials by the photo of the person you identify. All copies go into the report to the prosecutor and are provided to the defense per Brady. The days of 7 refrigerators and one black man are long over. Eyewitness identifications are the weakest part of the evidence chain. One of my favorite interview techniques was to show the like up photos to the suspect and ask him or her if they could identify anyone in the photos. they would usually say yes. I asked them which one. They would point themselves out. I would say, "That's funny three other people picked you out too. The look on their face of utter defeat was priceless.
