A “20/20” Vision: Supreme Court of Missouri Revisits Admissibility of Eyewitness Expert Testimony After More Than 30 Years

Since 1989 the admissibility of expert testimony regarding eyewitness identifications has been unaddressed in Missouri’s courts. During this time, over 2,000 scientific studies have illustrated the fallibility of eyewitness testimony. The United States Supreme Court has long recognized the “vagaries” of eyewitness identification and the real potential for erroneous identifications leading to wrongful convictions. Most recently, advanced capabilities with DNA evidence have highlighted the tragic consequences of erroneous eyewitness identification.

Indeed, a now often-cited fact: Of the 375 exonerations since 1989, nearly seventy percent involved wrongful convictions founded at least in part on eyewitness identification.