Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial [Paperback]

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus (Author), Katherine Ketcham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1992

"The study of memory had become my specialty, my passion. In the next few years I wrote dozens of papers about how memory works and how it fails, but unlike most researchers studying memory, my work kept reaching out into the real world. To what extent, I wondered, could a person's memory be shaped by suggestion? When people witness a serious automobile accident, how accurate is their recollection of the facts? If a witness is questioned by a police officer, will the manner of questioning alter the representation of the memory? Can memories be supplemented with additional, false information?"

The "passion" Loftus describes in the lines above led her to a teaching career at the University of Washington and, perhaps more importantly, into hundreds of courtrooms as an expert witness on the fallibility of eyewitness accounts. As she has explained in numerous trials, and as she convincingly argues in this absorbing book, eyewitness accounts can be and often are so distorted that they no longer resemble the truth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Witness for the Defense is an important book." —The New York Times

"An intriguing and disturbing work in which forensic psychologist Loftus, a specialist on memory, examines the fallibility of eyewitness testimony in criminal cases . . . A fascinating examination of human memory, with troubling implications for the American criminal-justice system." —Kirkus Reviews

"Highly recommended for the general public and scholars interested in whether justice is served in the criminal justice system." —Library Journal

About the Author

Elizabeth Loftus is a professor of psychology and adjunct professor of law at the University of Washington in Seattle. For more than 20 years, she has conducted extensive research in the areas of human memory, eyewitness testimony and courtroom procedure. Loftus has served as an expert witness and consultant in hundreds of cases, including the McMartin PreSchool Molestation case, the Hillside Strangler case, the Michael Jackson case, the trial of Oliver North, and the trial of the Menendez brothers and has also worked on numerous cases involving allegations of "repressed memories." She has published over 250 journal articles and 18 books, including Eyewitness Testimony, which won the American Psychological Association's National Media Award in 1980, and most recently, The Myth of Repressed Memory. In 1983, she was invited to present her work to the Royal Society of London. Loftus has served as president of the Western Psychological Association in 1984 and has fulfilled leadership roles in numerous other organizations such as the American Psychological Association, Society of Experimental Psychologists, American Psychological Society, and Psychonomic Society.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (July 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312084552
• ISBN-13: 978-0312084554
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Law > Procedures & Litigation > Witnesses
  • #37 in Books > Law > Procedures & Litigation > Trial Practice
  • #70 in Books > Law > Criminal Law > Evidence

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Photo Album In The Brain, May 3, 2002

By 

Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial (Paperback)

Many people think that we store our past visual experiences as intact images in the brain. Research, however, shows that this concept is not accurate. The visual recollection of an event has to be recreated by assembling bits and pieces of memory into a whole picture. Our recollection of events is thus often distorted. A variety of psychological experiments have been conducted that demonstrate this phenomenon. Subjects shown a picture of an office later, when asked to recall the photograph, put items such as bookcases or a calendar in the scene that were not actually there. Other aspects of the office are forgotten.

Elizabeth Loftus, an internationally known expert on memory, applies research and her experience to the topic of eye witness testimony in the legal setting. The book attempts to be both entertaining in its often informal presentation of case histories, and modestly academic in presenting psychological theory and research. The case histories for the most part describe trials in which eyewitness testimony resulted in the conviction of an innocent person. Loftus shows how inaccurate recollections combined with inappropriate police photo and lineup presentations can cause a witness to create false recollections. As a side note the book also shows how fallible juries can be. All in all this book provides further proof that eyewitness testimony is not superior to circumstantial evidence.

My only criticism of this book should probably be directed toward the co-author. This book is oriented toward the general public, and the case descriptions are often fluffed to create the "true crime" approach used by writers in that genre. What I found particularly amusing was that, in a book devoted to the topic of fallible memory, Ms Loftus recalls minute trivia that most of us would normally forget within a day. She relates, for example, that in one case she had just finished eating a breakfast of coffee and wheat toast. The coffee had just been put in front of her when the lawyer for the defendant walked into the restaurant. Beyond this attempt at verisimilitude we are presented with a memory of an extremely inconsequential event -the breakfast, and its delivery timing- ten years after the event.

This book is an important read. It demonstrates vividly the inaccuracies of memory, and it presents the subject in a format that would entertain most courtroom novel fans. Author Loftus has written a variety of books including a recent one -The Myth of Repressed Memory"- that debunks repressed memory. A classic of hers is "Eyewitness Testimony" that is oriented more toward psychological theory and research.

13 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Stories--But Method is Flawed, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial (Paperback)

Loftus is an expert on memory, and here turns her attention to memory in criminal cases. Each chapter is a different example of memory and eyewitness testimony gone wrong in US legal cases where she served as an expert witness. Usually she focuses on the misidentification of innocent people as the perpetrators of crimes-including the controversial John Demjanjuk case.

She makes good points about the unreliability of memory under conditions of stress--like witnessing crimes. However, I have to disagree with her when she claims that there are objective ways of perceiving and remembering events untainted by emotion, etc. All perception and memory is tainted. We will just have to learn to deal with that in the court system.

Loftus does offer some good ways to avoid problems these problems--for instance procedures for line-ups and identification of perpetrators using pictures.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars UPDATE: Tim Hennis, April 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Witness for the Defense: The Accused, the Eyewitness and the Expert Who Puts Memory on Trial (Paperback)

"A Knock on the Door: Timothy Hennis" (p. 92)

In 2006, a DNA test linked Hennis to semen collected from Kathryn Eastburn's body. Hennis was tried in military court and found guilty in 2010. Hennis continues to appeal, based on the right of the military court to try him.