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The short explanation of this alert was:

The West Virginia Legislature is considering a very important bill that could significantly decrease the likelihood of wrongful convictions. We need your help to ensure that it is passed!

Senate Bill 82, also known as the "Eyewitness Identification Reform Act," would update West Virginia's photo and live line up protocols with a number of best practices recommended by the National Institute of Justice.

Mistaken eyewitness identification is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in the US, and inaccurate identifications have sent at least 40 innocent people to death row. Subtle, practical changes in procedures, such as presenting the suspects sequentially -- one at a time -- and the use of a "blind" administrator who does not know which person is the suspect, greatly enhance the accuracy and power of identifications. Another subtle change -- the careful documentation of the identification procedure -- decreases possible manipulation of witness certainty. Often, a witness's initial confidence in an identification is rather low and provisional, but reinforcing statements and inadvertent behaviors from authorities can exaggerate that certainty -- sometimes greatly -- by the time the witness testifies at trial. A witness "certainty statement" prior to any such feedback helps the jury to accurately assess the eyewitness evidence.

In addition, a reform not included in the current draft of the legislation, that involving the effective use of non-suspect fillers, or individuals that are not suspected of crimes but included in a lineup and presented to an eyewitness, is an important reform that West Virginia should also consider in order to update the state's eyewitness procedures with the most current research and best practices in the area of eyewitness memory science.

West Virginia's Eyewitness Identification Reform Act was introduced by Senator Jon Blair Hunter on January 13 and is now being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Please let your State Senator know that you support the important reforms advanced by this bill, as well as the added safeguard involving the effective use of fillers. Send a fax through our system urging them to pass SB 82 today!

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