Forest Shomberg, a Madison man who has served more than six years in prison for a sexual assault he said he didn't commit, was ordered released from prison Friday after a Dane County Circuit Judge overturned his conviction.
http://truthinjustice.org/shomberg2.htm
I would be extremely pissed if I had been in prison for 6 years for a crime I did not commit. It seems as though there was a lot in Shomberg's case that didn't make a lot of sense, like the judge refusing to admit his alibi. It is interesting how our mind does make up things, as is in the case of the line up identification and all its flaws. Forming composite sketches of people in our heads does make a lot of sense as a way for our mind to attempt to remember individuals. That study with the students identifying Shomberg was also interesting and definitely shows the faults in the system. I would be very interested in seeing what their new system of using the line-up is like and how it gets around false-positives.
Eye witness identification is very important when identifying suspects/victims. It's easy to say that line-ups are pretty weak when trying to identify the victim and can lead to wrongful accusations. This isn't the only man who has been serving time for crime he hasn't committed and there's probably more people who are doing the time because of this poor system. Although a victim must be chosen, more time should be invested for find the correct victim instead of police trying to be the heros and getting the case over with. It's pretty neat that Otto was in this article though and eye witness identification is really interesting to me!
I was apart of the email you sent out and by the descriptions of the man there was no way i could personally tell who it was. With mug shots of just torso's they had descriptive statements about height, tattoos, etc that could not be determined. This situation of false identification reminds me of which trials and other false aquisitions of being in the "heat of the moment" and not have any "real" accounts of what actually happend. most times the witnesses are fed what to say or what they thought they saw. very interesting.
This is kinda sad to know that stuff like this happens quite often in prison. People are sentenced to prison for something they never committed in doing due to an eyewitness's bad account of what happened. It is very important for eyewitness accounts to be taken right away. That way their memory of what they do have of the crime will hopefully be more accurate, even though it may not be. As stated in the article there are many things at the scene that can affect the way an eyewitness takes in information about the environment.
I think eye witness accounts can be very helpful in determining an attacker or criminal in a case, but only if it is done correctly. In order to prevent things like sending the wrong person to jail and letting the attacker run free there are things both the victim and the person questioning or searching for the person who committed the crime have to do. I think one of the biggest things is the questioner, who ever it may be, cannot suggest appearences or certain traits of what the victims attacker looked like; this has been shown to lead people to believe they saw things they did not see. I think this is a very sad case, especially something like being charged for sexual assault. This man lost six years of his life and probably is going to have a difficult time getting back on his feet for awhile.
When I read cases like this, I tend to get a little angry and could not even imagine if I were in this situation. I don't believe that an eyewitness alone is enough to put someone in jail. In my psych and law class I learned how badly eye witness identification can really be and thought it was crazy how much people rely on it. I also question the use of line ups as well. They can make a person think twice and feel as if they have to eliminate down to the person even when sometimes the actual perpetrator isn't even in the line up. I think that police need to take serious precaution when using eyewitnesses and lineups in solving cases. This case goes to show that an innocent person can be locked up for something they didn't even do... it is kind of scary knowing this because any one of us could be in that same situation and nothing can be done about it. This man lost precious time out of his like and he won't ever get it back. Also what makes me mad about situations like this is that they just let them go and basically are told "oops, our bad." These innocent people that are wrongly accused should get something back in return for the mistakes the police department made. Those are my thoughts and opinions on this subject. I am very interested in articles like this one but at the same time they sometimes make me upset.
As I read the other students comments before writing my own I realized that I have to agree with all of them. It is unbelieveable to see how much the brain can fill gaps and trick us into believing what we want instead of what the actual case of what happened played out. With eye witnesses it seems to always be a quest to find the similarities. It's unreal that when you sit people down that two completely different stories can be portrayed when both people saw the same thing, only from a possible different perspective. I believe that just because a drawing looks like a person, you cannot solely use that as the evidence to convict someone. This article made me question how many more of these stories are out there that will never be answered, mainly due to memory and eye witnesses.
The fact that this man spent six years in jail for a crime he did not commit is terrible! I am glad people are finally beginning to realize how faulty eye witness identification really is. This article also shows how flawed the judicial system can be. I think this new Touch DNA sounds very interesting, and can hopefully help to correct more wrong prosecutions and put the right people in prison.
It is funny how we think we can remember things in exact detail when we just see them for a short amount of time. In cognitive psychology we just got done talking about perception. We learned about several theories of perception. It is fairly obvious when looking at even just the basic studies we learn about, that human beings to not remember details well at all! The details we remember are highly susceptible to our own values, interests and purposes. What we perceive is not always accurate to what is actually there. It is silly to think that with all we know about perception that we seem to think we can remember a face from a dark alley, and we are "sure" enough about it to put someone behind bars for 6 years of their life.
I both love and hate America's justice system. We will punish a crime no matter what, but we will not think of the severity of the crime in hand. That and eye witness testimony is completely flawed sometimes. If there were multiple witnesses seeing him 30 blocks away from the attack site, INCLUDING his girlfriend, I have no idea how he could even be convicted. I hope this guy gets some kind of money or compensation in return for 6 years of isolation because people want justice without being careful about who they ruin.
Sometimes I wish people didn't rely on eye witnesses as much as they do- our mind is a very tricky and can play tricks on us and make us think we see/hear things we don't. Manipulation can also play a big role in that.
I'm glad this man was released but that's 6 years he's never going to get back- are they just gonna say "oh sorry" and that's it? Or are they actually going to do something for him?>
The new touch DNA sounds like an amazing thing, I hope it progresses
Perhaps I'm being a kiss-ass intern, but I think the MacLin Institute is really important, and what it does is really cool. I think its really sad that there are people that are stuck in jail on eyewitness identification for years and they are innocent. It really opened my eyes to take Kim's Psych and Law class last semester and realize how many things can and do go wrong in the legal system when a culprit is trying to be found. Even the underhanded things the cops do, that are just inadequate. I guess I was never given any reason to assume that they ever did anything but try to serve and protect so it never occured to me that they would be less than adequate in their jobs. It's always nice to hear these stories about those released, here's to hoping they can integrate back into society....
I can not imagine being in his shoes. Many people could have fit the description of the person being explained. We often overlook how powerless we really are. The legal system is not something I am too familiar with, but when I hear of stories like this, it is upsetting.
after having taken psych and law with kim, I found this article really interesting because I learned a lot about eyewitness identification in her class. I just wish that the law system could be quicker about figuring out and realizing the faults in eyewitness identification so that less people get sent to prison/jail for crimes they did not commit because of error within our memories.
I cannot imagine how terrible this would be. To spend 6 years in prison all because of an eyewitness identification. I think it is crazy how many people are convicted just on eyewitnesses, yet by looking at different information we see just how off those eyewitness memories can be! I'm glad that he was able to eventually be released, but it is terrible that he even had to go to prison in the first place!
This is one of the many unfortunate situations of "eye witness" convictions. There are some witnesses who protest without the shadow of a doubt. Like witnessing a murder up close and in person in broad daylight or directly across the street from the robbery. Situations like that. But before hand both the woman and the security guard clearly stated that it was dark and that they couldn't really see. For the security guard to come in later and say he got a second look after not filing that in his report I feel was unfair justification and should not have been allowed as evidence in the court.
I would definitely be heated not only on the day of my conviction based on the faulty evidence the judge allowed to be used to convict me, but also that I lost 6 years of my life away from my family for being falsely accused under horrible evidence.