The Virginia State Crime Commission is looking at reforming the way police do eyewitness lineups to identify suspects.
In a meeting this week, the commission will hear a report on whether the state should require local law enforcement agencies to do sequential lineups--showing a witness pictures of possible suspects one at a time, rather than grouping pictures together.
It's part of a movement toward reforming lineup procedures, sparked by data showing that eyewitnesses aren't always reliable, and that reforms in lineup procedures could make it less likely that a witness will name the wrong person.
According to the Innocence Project, in more than 220 wrongful convictions nationwide that were later overturned by DNA testing, misidentification by eyewitnesses was a factor in over 75 percent of cases.
The Innocence Project is an organization that attempts to exonerate wrongly convicted defendants and reform police policies that led to those wrong convictions.
The reforms suggested by the Innocence Project include sequential lineups. According to the project's website, research indicates that in traditional lineups, grouping potential suspects together, witnesses tend to compare the people in the lineup with each other and choose the one who looks most like the perpetrator, rather than comparing each person with the witness's own memory.
The project also suggests reforms such as requiring that lineups be done by a member of the police force who does not know which one of the group is the real suspect, so that person cannot give any inadvertent cues to the witness.
Another suggestion is for police to have a standard statement instructing the witness that the perpetrator may or may not be in the lineup, so that the witness feels less compelled to choose one of the people in the lineup.
In Virginia some law enforcement agencies, including the state police, have already adopted the sequential lineup procedure, after a recommendation from the state Department of Criminal Justice several years ago.
Fredericksburg does sequential lineups, a change made four or five years ago, said Detective Johnny Wright.
"When you start showing so many pictures at one time, people start nitpicking at the picture, start eliminating more," Wright said.
His experience has been that sequential lineups have led to better identification of the suspect.
"We've been pretty successful in my opinion, or at least in my investigations," Wright said.
The Stafford County Sheriff's Department, though, typically does simultaneous lineups, not sequential ones.
Capt. Billy Bowler, captain of the criminal investigations division, said research differs on which way is best. Years ago, he said, police were told to move away from sequential lineups and toward simultaneous ones.
"It's another law enforcement trend," he said.
Bowler said the Stafford department finds the simultaneous lineups to be easier to document for court. The department has strict rules--all photos in a lineup must be either color or black-and-white; lineups must contain at least six photos; and a standard paragraph of instructions is read to each witness.
The Crime Commission report comes as a result of a bill submitted in the 2010 legislative session, which would make it mandatory for Virginia law enforcement agencies to do sequential lineups and to adopt many of the other reforms suggested by the Innocence Project.
John Jones, director of the Virginia Sheriffs Association, said his organization has worked with the Crime Commission's study, but hasn't taken a position on any specific bills.
"It's probably a good idea, that's what I understand from the research," Jones said.
"Whatever's adopted, we'll be getting the word out to the sheriffs."
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com