The new science of eyewitness memory | John Wixted

Eyewitness memory, often considered unreliable, may offer highly reliable insights when analyzed in its earliest, uncontaminated form. Psychologist John Wixted argues that initial identifications, made before memory contamination occurs, are crucial and often overlooked in legal proceedings. He cites cases like Ronald Cotton's, where a confident but ultimately false identification led to wrongful conviction, contrasting it with cases like Miguel Solorio's and Charles Don Flores's, where initial lineup rejections were ignored, leading to unjust imprisonment. Wixted advocates for prioritizing the first memory test in investigations, de-emphasizing later, contaminated identifications, and educating legal professionals about the latest memory science to prevent future wrongful convictions and exonerate those unjustly imprisoned.