EYEWITNESS MISTAKES AND WRONGFUL
CONVICTION DISCUSSION TO BE HELD AT OU

NORMAN – Have you ever wondered how well you would be able to remember details of a crime that you witnessed? Would you be able to give an accurate description of the perpetrator? “The Psychology of Eyewitness Misidentification and Wrongful Conviction: Why Witnesses Make Mistakes and Juries Believe Them” will be the focus of a free, public presentation at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, in 123 George Lynn Cross Hall on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.

Steve Clark, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, will be visiting OU in conjunction with the Presidential Dream Course “Psychology and Law” being taught by Scott Gronlund, professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Launched in 2004, the university’s Presidential Dream Course program, sponsored by the Office of the President, allows instructors to bring renowned speakers to campus in an effort to enrich the academic environment for students and the general public.

Clark received his doctoral degree in cognitive psychology from Indiana University in 1988 and his bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Illinois State University in 1981. His research interests include the issues of human learning and memory, with a special focus on the development and testing of comprehensive mathematical models. His most recently developed model, referred to as the “Witness” model, pertains to the memory and decision processes that underlie eyewitness identification. In testing the model, Clark investigates the decision processes involved in simultaneous and sequential lineups, how the composition of the lineup affects decision strategies and what factors produce false identifications.

“It has become glaringly apparent that witnesses can point someone out in a lineup, and say ‘that’s him’ with great confidence - and be wrong,” Clark said. “Legal scholars have argued that the most frequent cause of false convictions in the United States is the result of inaccurate memory and mistaken identification. The astonishing number of convictions that have recently been overturned because of DNA evidence is clear evidence that eyewitness can be very unreliable.”

For more information about Clark’s visit or accommodations on the basis of disability, contact Gronlund at (405) 325-4553 or sgronlund@ou.edu.