Evolution, the Bible, and the 3.5 Million Dollar Violin - my article

[Jeffonthenet]

http://www.innocenceproject.org/understa...cation.php

Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in nearly 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

While eyewitness testimony can be persuasive evidence before a judge or jury, 30 years of strong social science research has proven that eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Research shows that the human mind is not like a tape recorder; we neither record events exactly as we see them, nor recall them like a tape that has been rewound. Instead, witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated.

Depends on how many eyewitnesses you have and how reliable these people are, and how close they were to the person they saw. I agree that it might need to be critically evaluated in some or all instances. But that doesn't make it worthless.