Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

Selected Quotes from the Book:

..."our memory can be changed, inextricably altered, in that what we think we know,
what we believe in our hearts, is not necessarily the truth."

"It isn't so astonishing, the number of things that I can remember,
as the number of things I can remember that aren't so." Mark Twain

"When we remember we pull pieces of the past out of some mysterious region of the brain --jagged, jigsaw pieces that we sort and sift, arrange and rearrange until they fit into a pattern that makes sense. The finished project, the memory that seems so clear and focused in our minds, is actually part fact, part fiction, a warped and twisted reconstruction of reality."

Memory starts with the acquisition stage..., the retention stage..., and the retrieval stage...

"Contrary to popular belief, facts don't come into our memory and reside there untouched and unscathed by future events. Instead we pick up fragments and features from our environment and these go into memory where they interact with our prior knowledge and expectations --information that is already stored in our memory. ...think of memory as being an integrative process --a constructive and creative process --rather than a passive recording process such as a video tape."

"It wasn't that he didn't have doubts --no one can know anything for certain."

'Created Memories' "Simply by asking (leading) questions... In this situation, we can see the power of suggestion to induce a memory of something that never actually occurred."

"When you ask leading questions that suggest what the answer is to be, children (and adults) will pick up that information and incorporate it into their memories, and then they will then come to believe that they actually experienced these details when, in fact, they've only been suggested to them."

Once some one's memory has been contaminated, distorted or transformed... it's virtually impossible to tell fact from fantasy because the individual witness now believes in what he or she is saying."

"Is the...memory an original truth, or an after-the-fact truth?"

"...stress is detrimental to mental functioning, the ability to receive and remember details is impaired. ... The more an event is rehearsed, the more confident a person becomes that what she remembers is the the absolute and unequivocal truth."

"And yet the victim couldn't accept the fact that she had made a mistaken ID. She could not bring herself to admit that someone other than Von Williams might have committed this crime." ..."people can become so attached to their memories that even when obvious contradictions and discrepancies are raised, they refuse to change their minds."

"As a witness you will resent any doubt about your memory as an assault on your basic integrity, a presumptuous intrusion on your personality." Judge Jerome Franks in his book: Not Guilty

"...memory is fallible."

Long before DNA testing began to demonstrate that an alarming number of people had been convicted of crimes they did not commit, Elizabeth Loftus was using her scientific studies of memory and memory distortion to alert the legal system and the public in general of such injustices. This book describes a series of cases that are classic examples of just how faulty eyewitness memory can be. The book does a great job of mixing documentary story-telling and personal reflection with genuine education regarding what cognitive scientists know about how memory works and doesn't work. This book is engaging and recommended reading for anyone, whether they are an educator, a lawyer, or simply an average citizen who someday may find themselves witnessing a crime or sitting in the jury box deciding someone else's fate.

had to read for college course but surprisingly good book. passed it on to family to read. definitely eye opening! bought used but came looking new. pleasantly surprised. only neg is the book cost $3 shipping was $20.

This book is worth reading, if only to study the author's thoughts on Ted Bundy for whom the author testified as an expert witness. On p. 74 the author wonders if Bundy will offer to let her stay in his apartment. On page 83 she describes him as "adorable...all Ivy League charm, clean-cut freshly shaved and showered, bright and eager." And then on page 84 she decides that while everything about Bundy seemed right--his suit, hair and expression--that she decided that Bundy was guilty when he smiled the prosecuting attorney.

This book is easy to read and gives the lay reader many illuminating insights into the work of this well known and respected forensic psychologist. Above all, we catch a glimpse the human side of Elizabeth Loftus, who works not only out of professional commitment to good science and judicial process, but is also moved by her compassion and empathy for persons accused.

(...) leave book buyers with the false impression that Loftus's book is a universally acknowledged authority. It is not. It is highly controversial and has been vigorously condemned. Memory experts, trauma treatment experts, other lawyers, and readers alike have identified three fundamental flaws that diminish this book's credibility. They are--
1. Failing to distinguish trauma memory from ordinary memory (different fields, different rules).
2. Applying ordinary-memory principles to trauma memory.
3. Failing to recognize and apply the principles of trauma memory.
As a result, the author's analysis is largely immaterial and irrelevant. I share the author's justified horror of convicting any person with tainted evidence. There are recognized means, however, of distinguishing externally imposed false memory from true trauma memory. It would have been useful to have a book on that subject.