With all the talk about eyewitness in class last Tuesday, it reminded me perfectly of a Dr. Phil episode I watched a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Phil talked about how often false eyewitness identifications are made, and he made his audience participate in an eyewitness account. He showed them a short clip of a crime, I can't remember exactly what it was, and then he put a lineup of possible offenders, and had the audience key in which person they thought committed the crime. Results showed that a high percentage was towards one of the suspects, when in reality, the offender wasn't even in that line up. He went into more detail of explaining how often this happens.
After this brief introduction, he brings in a woman, Loretta, who was brutally raped at age 15. The man convicted was Dean, who was 29 at the time. He was in prison for 14 years, until DNA evidence proved he was not Loretta's rapist.
To this day, Loretta still believes than Dean is the man who raped her. She can't believe that they let him out of prison, and despite all the DNA evidence proving it wasn't him, she still believes it was. Dr. Phil has an emotional interview with her, explaining all the DNA evidence is correct, and that Dean is innocent. In turn, Dr. Phil also has Dean come on the show, and he interviews him as well. He feels horrible for this woman, but at the same time, he lost 14 years of his life in prison for being falsely accused.
I couldn't find the full episodes for this anywhere, so I put a clip of Dean and Loretta's meeting for the first time. It's the link entitled "See Loretta and Dean's first encounter since she helped put him in prison in 1994."
Also, you can click around on this website as well and watch other little clips from the show. It's a really interesting story.
http://drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/5590/?id=5590&showID=1399
Above is a link to the video the audience watched. You will have to click the link by the video camera below the three pictures to be able to view the clip.
Under the clip it also talks about what we discussed in class last Tuesday about how DNA exoneration is great in the sense that it gets a lot of innocent people out of prison, but there are still a ton of innocent people in prison due to no DNA evidence to prove their innocence. Because of this, I think it is important that Dr. Phil is bringing up the issue of how poor eyewitness identification is so people are more aware and educated if they were to ever witness a crime.
I find this case very interesting. Although I'm sure there are many people in jail for things they didn't actually do, it's interesting to see Loretta and Dean meet. To be honest, I feel really bad for Dean. When Loretta says that she's scared of him, I can't even imagine what Dean is thinking. Although both situations are terrible, I don't think Loretta really realizes that Dean spent 14 years of his life in prison for something he didn't even do. It makes me really frustrated when things like this happen because our legal system should do a better job and finding the right person and rather than just end a case with what they have, continue it until they're totally sure.
I thought this story was very interesting. Watching the clip of Loretta meeting Dean for the first time since she put him in prison brings about several thoughts. First of all, Loretta seems so frightened by Dean that she is hardely even able to sit down next to him, even after DNA evidence proved he was not her rapist. This relates to what we learned in class about how our brain sometimes creates memories and leads us to believe that they are true. Loretta's confidence in Dean being her rapist probably grew everytime she replayed the scene in her mind for the 14 years that Dean was in prison. As for Dean, could you imagine seeing a girl as frightened as Loretta was in the clip and knowing that you never even laid a finger on her? It also has to be hard sitting next to the woman that put you in jail for 14 years yet you were innocent. DNA evidence proved Dean's innocence, and Loretta could still not come to terms that he was not the man that raped her.
Loretta has to live with the trauma of being raped for the rest of her life, but Dean will also be affected in the sense that his reputation has been hurt by the publicity of this case and he still has 14 years of prison time on his record when trying to find a job and building back up his credibility. As a father of three, Dean lost 14 valuable years with his children that he can never get back. 14 years of memories and watching them grow up were not possible for Dean because of flaws in the US criminal justice system. Just as we mentioned in class, DNA evidence is good in the sense that it frees innocent people from prison, but there are still people suffering and losing valuable years in prison because there is no DNA evidence to prove their innocence.
Wow, well for one that is very emotional. As I sat and watched the two different clips I really felt for both Loretta and Dean. How hard would that be for Loretta to sit next to the man she truly believes raped her. And on Dean's side, how hard would it be for him to sit there knowing is still has a stigma placed upon him for a brutal crime he did not commit. DNA proved that he did not rape Loretta. Dean spent 14 years of his life behind bars as an innocent man. I also could not imagine the trauma that Loretta still goes through. I mean being 15 and brutally raped is something that changes a person’s life forever. I could not image how she feels today knowing that her true rapist is still out there.
I am glad that Dr. Phil is bringing this issue up. After doing my project on the Innocence Project, I really got a sense of how many innocent people are in prison today for crimes they did not commit. I mean how does that portray our legal system...I think it shows that we have some major flaws. These are things that need to be addressed and taken more seriously. I really see now that eye-witness identification is often times very poor. This is what leads to situations like this.
I would like to address the stigma that Dean has to live with for the rest of his life as well as all the other innocent men and women out there who spent time for a crime they did not commit. Yes, even though he is out of prison, there are some people out there who have to doubt. After believing for 14 years that he was the man, most chances are that SOME feelings won't change toward him.
This all frustrates me because I feel that our legal system needs to step up. Something needs to be done to minimize and eliminate false imprisonment.