“Us folks” in Texas are known for many things both good and bad. Unfortunately, one area where Texas leads the nation is in the number of DNA exonerations. Mistaken identity had been implicated in 82% of these wrongful convictions.
Hope for improvement appears on the horizon in the form of Senate Bill no. 117, filed by Senator Rodney Ellis on November 10. His bill incorporates what are called the “best practices” relating to eyewitness identification of a suspect through photo arrays or live lineups. The best practices include giving notice to the eye witness that the suspect may or may not be included and that the investigation will continue no matter the outcome of the identification process, inclusion of individuals that closely match the description of the witness, documentation of the identification process, and blind administration. Blind administration means that the officer conducting the procedure is either not connected with the particular case or has no way to tell whether the witness is viewing the suspect or filler person. Therefore the officer cannot consciously or unconsciously give the witness subtle cues or hints. S.B. 117 also calls for each law enforcement agency to adopt written policies that conform to these practices.
This bill is just at the beginning of the legislative process, but it deserves our full support at each step along the way. A case is not really solved when an arrest is made or conviction returned on a suggestive or sloppy identification and no one is served when the wrong person goes to jail. Texas should lead the nation in professionalism and the sound administration of justice instead of the correction of wrongful convictions years after the fact.