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I'm sitting on the couch next thing you know I got like three nine-millimeter just pointed directly in my face I'm like what is this about why is you coming in with guns drawn for they laid us on the ground out of everybody pygmy I say okay what's going on what's in do you know who this detective is I'm like nope he say this guy is Columbo I said Columbo he said have you ever seen a TV series Columbo I say yeah growing up growing up I don't watch Colombia a few times he say so you know Columbo always gets his man so I'm telling you right now you will be found guilty the American criminal justice system enforces our laws and keeps watch over us but who is watching the system I'm Joe Berlin drew and I've used my camera for 20 years to knock down doors and pursue the truth information system now we're going inside the American criminal justice system in law enforcement to elected officials the court system the corrections to find out if justice is being served you know every day in this country thousands of suspects are identified by eyewitnesses but a shocking number of these eyewitnesses get it wrong in fact in all of the DNA exonerations that have happened to date 70% of them have involved faulty eyewitness identification but what happens when there's no DNA evidence involved in a case in Dallas Christopher Scott spent 13 years in prison trying to get to the bottom of that question I mean I was working taking care of my family always home enough to feed my key is put him to bed take him to school I was an average guy and when I went in G I was like they gotta be kidding me Christopher Scott's case is one of the hundreds that have been reinvestigated by the Dallas County District Attorney's Office James Hammond led the investigation here's this location two gentlemen went in to purchase some drugs gun-firing sued and the resident at this house was killed when the police arrived they were looking for suspects in the area two black males one tall one short the victim witness to see a Escobedo given that description it was reported that she awoke and there were two men in the house the spouse had just been murdered have been pretty quick within minutes police cars descended upon the scene on the lookout for two suspects an officer passed another car that had two black males in and he turned around trying their light on him as they pulled into your driveway off of kin well that's all that there was a tall one in a shorter one which matched the vague description given by Cecilia Escobedo and call for backup Christopher Scott was in that car along with a friend named Claude Simmons next thing you know I got like three nine millimeters just pointed directly in my face I'm like what is this about why are you coming in with guns drawn for well you just need to come outside and we'd get everything situated and if everything is okay then we'll let you go they ended up taking Krista into custody we're gonna take him down to the police station and interview him down there and if he didn't have any to do it they told me he'd be released I was just concerned about why I was being put inside of a police car and have indeed they Christopher Scott's fate literally his life would hang up on whether or not an eyewitness could correctly identify him an eyewitness of a different race who had just seen a high-impact home-invasion robbery and murder go down in a matter of seconds this is when I seen a plot thickened they put me in front of a big glass window doing like handcuffed me to the bench but everybody else in the room was pushed on the other side where they concede ease in the vision they can only see me and my head was down because I'm tired it's early in the morning I raise up that's when I see the cop walk the lady up and say this is the guy who killed your husband I'm behind a glass window but I concede like I'm seeing you and I read our lives I say not no she didn't just say what I thought she said she said see cuz she was Hispanic there's him there's him while Christopher Scott's nightmare inside Dallas County's criminal justice system was just beginning another inmate in New Orleans was already 11 years deep into a life sentence in 1984 George toko was identified by two witnesses both of them white who accused toca of accidentally shooting his best friend Erik batiste during the course of a robbery this young men put together all of the time all of the time if you saw George you saw Erik and we used to argue so judge Marlins a fellow was on active duty on the day of the murder your victim came out of the saladin store and they were parked here and as they walk to the car they were confronted by two suspects at least one holding a gun and they demanded property and money while the gunman held the female robbery victim on the driver's side of the car Erik batiste began to struggle with the male victim the gunman panicked fired a shot at the passenger and hit Eric batiste in the head so when I had received an information that Eric was dead the first name came to mind was Josh toca a few hours later Marlon de fillo arrested George toca the next day the two witnesses identified toca using this photo lineup provided by the New Orleans Police Department I'm gonna show you the photograph and that did take a look at those if you can identify one George toca claims he was never there he told police that he spent the night in this motel after attending a high school dance at the Superdome toca saw Eric batiste leave the dance with another young man who fits the description of the gunman given by the witnesses but police didn't buy his story they had eyewitnesses when you have an eyewitness said to say I was there I saw him do it I saw him in this robbery that is the best evidence in 1985 toca was tried found guilty of murder and sentenced to life he's doing hard time in one of the toughest places in the country Louisiana's Angola prison 29 years later George's sister sandy is still convinced that he's innocent I think about George all of the time Oh date alone you know he's on my mind when I wake up it's like you know I think god I say my prayers and always pray for my presence God cover him in such a horrific environment you know and just keep his mind you know keep his sanity I remember getting the news and falling all off the porch falling all down in the street and you know just crying out to God like why how you notice unbelievable if he was guilty in a crime then I can rest because at least I know you you've been there for something that you have to pay them they paid your price but Oh from a 17 year old child to a 48 yo man for a crime that you didn't commit sandy has never given up on her brother but she's not battling the system alone in fact she has the kind of support rarely found in a murder case the support of the victim's family he's been falsely accused incarcerated for something he did not do and at such a young age Joyce doe Leo's nephew was Eric batiste the man George toca was convicted of murdering two loving brothers you know they couldn't have been closer no one is listening to us that George is innocent each day each year is gonna be the year that you know finally he gives the chance to prove his innocence where he can't come home and until until we get that for us my family we can't finalize Eric's debt because we don't have the satisfaction of the person that deviated being punished for it and that somebody else that wasn't you two whole life's is going down the drain for something you didn't do George toke his case raises troubling questions about the procedures used by police to obtain accurate eyewitness identifications many of these practices have been in place for years but now they are being put to the test so we're here at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan to see dr. Jennifer die sir we're going to do some experiments in eyewitness identification and I kind of love coming to Criminal Justice schools and meeting with young people because they haven't yet lost their idealism and they still have a strong belief in the system it's good to remind yourself of what the system can be hi Joe Birla jerk Jennifer dice how a pleasure to meet you meet you so tell us what we're what we're gonna do today absolutely so I'm an eyewitness identification researcher I've been studying the factors that influenced eyewitness reliability for about 15 years and so I thought today we would run you through an experiment so you can see how the research is conducted right and how accurate are eyewitness identifications you know studying not only people in the research lab but also witnesses in the real world about 30% of the time witnesses in real cases who pick someone and say yes that's the person who committed the crime are wrong I actually have a demonstration if I can oh yeah I can show you so here's an example I'd like to show you we've called the penny example and the instructions I'll give you is I'd like you to take a look at this and tell me which one is the real penny hmm I would say that is it number four yeah but most people do if they don't immediately recognize the person they go to the second process which is can I figure it out like a multiple choice question and so they'll eliminate a bunch one two and three those are gone up 10 11 and 12 are often gone those in the opposite direction and at the end of the day people narrow down their options and pick the one that is the best and we researchers call that relative judgment relative to the others you pick the one that's the best in fact now I want to switch to number five which number five number five is actually the most commonly chosen but this also demonstrates another very important principle for witnesses in real cases and that is law enforcement are supposed to tell the witness that the real perpetrator or penny may or may not be there so that none of the above and the multiple-choice question really is an option and here none of them are actually the real penny didn't tell me that I did not tell you that just like many law enforcement officers because it's not part of their policy and they're not mandated to do so don't tell witnesses in advance keep in mind we might not have the right guy right the real perpetrator may not be here that's not part of their repertoire what Jennifer Dysart and other leading researchers believe is that the identification procedures used by the majority of the police departments in this country are outmoded and unscientific that was the case in Dallas in 1997 a witness had just identified Christopher Scott as the man who shot and killed her common-law husband during a robbery he said you know you committed this crime I'm like what crime is this so you never even told me what I was being booked for so I said I'm not answering no more question until you tell me why my her typical cop stuff cigarette in the South dream tell me what you know so I said we I have to use the restroom may I be excused to use the restroom he said yeah of course you can't go nowhere so I know when you're in one of those rooms and when you walk out you look up whatever room you end this is what they saying you probably done did or whatever so when I walked up and looked up I seen homicide April 15 1985 two eyewitnesses testify they see George token accidentally shoot his best friend Eric batiste during the course of an armed robbery toko was convicted and has spent more than half of his life in prison he maintains that he's innocent he agreed to talk with us during his weekly phone call to his family toca believes that because he is black and the eyewitnesses against him were white the odds were stacked against him in a place like New Orleans start into the other boy get a darker complexion the other one you give a height weight around five everybody the female witness got the closest look at the shooter she picked out George toca from a photo lineup but toca believes when the witness saw him in court she realized her mistake beginning all of the trial and thing I think when you saw me in prison and of course it would he have come forward or period or whatever that's done the right thing all these years toca is still amazed how both witnesses continue to stand by their stories I think that Sophie before you saw me and it's a potion spell Adel King I was too small to be the tall guy so tell us your statement you see that he did go look he could maybe you could make a pilot last all I can say about a graceful girl somebody will come forward or somebody go get involved and really go the extra mile is good it fine finally somebody's knows it already all right take care I love y'all oh you're Leone is weak Innocence Project New Orleans has always taken on difficult cases cases that take years and years and years to win we took on George's case because he's innocent it's very clear I think most lay people looking at the case can see that he didn't do the crime Emily Maher is the director of the Innocence Project in New Orleans since 2001 she and her staff have helped win the exoneration of 20 wrongfully convicted inmates George Tucker's conviction is based exclusively on a cross-racial identification by two witnesses who were exposed to a procedure by the New Orleans Police Department that has been proven time and time again in every way that the police department conducted it to increase in accuracy and identification the Innocence Project is arguing that the state willfully ignored those inconsistencies and has suppressed efforts to give toca a new trial as a lawyer who is frequently challenging convictions when there is new evidence of innocence courts still look to an eyewitness and say but the high witness identified him it baffles me that that happens given what we know now about the potential problems with eyewitness identification in the last 10 years cognitive psychologists like Jen Dysart have been shattering the myths surrounding eyewitness identification there like some basic beliefs that I think a lot of people have why would somebody falsely confess or how could you miss identify somebody the fascinating thing about the whole system in the process is that generally speaking these are mistaken witnesses who really believe they're accurate they're not lying today Dysart has invited a group of students to her offices at John Jay College to demonstrate how police procedures work and how witnesses behave the students have been told they will be participating in a social science study but that's all they've been told they have no clue about what is going to happen next something that takes place here will turn them from innocent bystanders into witnesses so you're just gonna be watching a video and then answer a few questions about it you'll have to fill out some informed consent first just to give your consent to be a part of this study and actually let me just go grab that I'll be right back you guys just sit tight for a second does anybody know Vicki she just stepped out I'm here to pick up a laptop I'm from IT so I imagine that's the laptop I hope so thank you okay so we can get started I've got my forms tracing my laptop your friend can't make that my friend is looking for Vicky team I have no idea who that was I think someone just stole my laptop I guess I should call security okay as you guys probably guessed already this is part of the experiment and the person that was here we're gonna pretend that that was an actual effect but he sold a laptop so what's gonna happen that what's gonna happen we're gonna bring participants back one at a time we're going to ask them to give a description of the criminal who stole the laptop and then we would show them some photographs to see if they can make a correct ID decision okay let's let's bring them up the line of questioning utilized here is consistent with the questions that law enforcement use with real eyewitnesses starting with the physical attributes of the suspect as much as you can remember about what he looked like what he was wearing any details really that you can remember what I can remember she was right I think he was wearing a blue collar under his black sweater white collar tall I finish his hair it's like kind of grayish not too great oh wait here brown hair and blue jeans black pants brown shoes he was a little bit over medium built loose a little heavy when you think about it most of these answers are pretty vague in fact they could have been describing just about any middle-aged white man in America and think about the real-world cases we have two african-american man accused of violent crimes that took place in a matter of seconds the men were also identified by witnesses of a different race research has shown these cross-racial identification can be biased when I witness cases are overturned 40% of the time the witnesses who got it wrong were members of a different race what went around in my case they had a Hispanic lady saying she remembered seeing a black guy killed you know they cross racial thing you looking at no how could dark complected murder aids medium height how many black men in America are you describing when you describe it you described over most of majority the men in America they say there are two days in a prison sentence the day you go in and the day you go home for Christopher Scott that first day never should have happened I took it on the chin to say if there's anything you want to say I say yes ma'am I say y'all convicted the wrong man and believe me when I tell you this I would be back to fight my case this is not over back in New York at our eyewitness identification experiment a laptop has been stolen and the witnesses have already given conflicting descriptions of the suspect the next step is for the investigator in this case Vicki to show the witnesses a lineup this is how most Police Department's do it it's called a six pack six pictures on one page so the next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you a lineup six people and I just want you to try to find which one is okay it looks more like the guy on the bottom right do you think that's him yeah I think that's him in the bottom right mm-hmm let me feel confident I feel very confident that it was that guy that it was that guy yeah okay that was bad that technique yes okay why do we call it bad technique what's not a recommended police practice first all of the individuals were presented at the same time what this tends to result in is witnesses who compare the photos and pick the one who's the best and you could actually almost hear that in the language where we kind of settled on number six this is just one of the potential errors made by the New Orleans Police Department in the case against George toca the department has become notorious for outmoded police tactics and corruption toko was given a life sentence for the murder of his best friend Erik batiste during the commission of a robbery the way that the police conducted this procedure was in every way flaws creating an inaccurate identification of an innocent suspect in this case George toca so this here is the six-pack you can see here this is George toca and these are the the fillers that they used at the time of the shooting both the witnesses described the gunman as being tall and having a medium build George toca is five foot five and weighed just over a hundred pounds it's one of several inconsistencies in the accounts given to the police by the eyewitnesses what's interesting is you can't see Heights from here you can't see very clearly whether or not George toca has gold teeth for very prominent gold teeth at the front in a crime where the person who ultimately shot Erik batiste is supposed to have spoken there is no way that if that person was George toca they would not have noticed his gold teeth as we are seeing in these identification experiments it's easy for eyewitnesses to give inaccurate information I got a good look out of his eyes at least are like the way he looks like Alma the innocence projects case goes much further it accuses the New Orleans Police Department of perverting justice by mishandling the entire eyewitness identification procedure there is no evidence in the record at all that they were told when they were showing this photo lineup that the perpetrator or you know the suspect may or may not be in this lineup that is very important to do and then there's been significant research bearing this out it's one of the things that the Department of Justice recommends all law enforcement agencies do the New Orleans Police Department declined our request to comment on this case back in New York at our eyewitness identification experiment a laptop has been stolen and the witnesses have already given conflicting descriptions of the suspect what I can remember is who's right I think he was wearing a blue collar under his black sweater white collar talk I finish his hair it's like kind of grayish not too great I'll wait here brown hair here's the six-pack photo lineup that was shown to the witnesses but what their choice have been affected if they were told originally that the actual suspect is not pictured here he also was not told in advance that the actual person who stole the laptop may or may not be there so he's led to believe induced to believe that he's supposed to pick someone he looked more like the guy on the bottom right inducing or guiding a witness to make a decision as a major flaw in the witness identification system and the next witness here in this experiment is proof of how this can happen I think of the guy and the middle bottom looks the closest okay but I'm not confident that that's really him that's the guy that we think is the person to thank he's the closest he's the closest if you think so you can see the witness starting to change their identification decision because of some subtle pressure so absolutely in Dallas the eyewitness identification procedure used in Christopher Scott's case was a powerful tool for the prosecution despite its many flaws it took me straight to my lawyer and he told me as they look this is capital murder I'm not okay what is that he said they see the life a death yep what do you mean he say exactly what I just see it they can either kill you I give you a life sentence and with no forensic evidence to lean on the prosecution put all of its weight behind the testimony of its star witness I come believe she was seeing what she was seeing because I could it's like a play it's like a movie when you see the prosecutor doing this thing with his witness bleeding her into all her question Wayne tis to God I did this is just a guy to be a dead and she said yeah there's him I remember him I would never forget him he ruined my life I couldn't believe it according to George toca the real person who shot and killed his friend Erik Bautista New Orleans is still on the streets George's sister sandy had heard rumors about the suspect in the neighborhood but as the years went by she couldn't find anyone who would be willing to talk about it on the record then she got a call from a girlfriend who remembered that a guy she was dating at the time of the murder had shown up visibly shaken by something that had just happened to him she said that morning he came over to the house and you know he had on these bloody clothes and you know girl I got up I was so scared I ain't know what's going on it is she talking I literally dropped the phone but why would you keep that from me knowing that's my brother life on the line we talking about I didn't know at the time a whole lot about the law you know but at the same time I know I needed to do something to help my brother at least get some type of attention talk to somebody that's involved or somebody that knows somebody because everything into all of his connections sandy went back to the Lafitte housing complex where she and George grew up it was a high crime area and a tough place to get information about an old case especially a case that pointed a finger at the police huh New Orleans is one of the worst police force in America and it has been like that for years I ever since I can remember from being a young kid everybody were petrified we grew up in a project you would even call the police you understand people would try to handle things on their own because they have to side to protect and serve but it wasn't no protection not a service they were providing and it wasn't no service to where would benefit you so you never felt safe it was so much police brutality these kids are started literally growing up with this almost hatred in their heart for the police department the New Orleans Police engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that was both discriminatory and unconstitutional and that too often undermined the public's trust and the city's efforts to effectively prevent crime in March of 2011 the Justice Department released the findings of a two-year investigation of the New Orleans Police the report found that New Orleans police used too much force against civilians too often didn't report it and often failed to investigate the use of force thoroughly it noted that african-americans were disproportionately arrested when compared to white citizens the report was explosive it found some of the most widespread dysfunction and corruption in the history of big-city policing in America today the Justice Department and the city of New Orleans filed a consent decree to ensure that local police services are delivered in a manner that is effective and complies with Constitution and the laws of the United States it's an extreme measure at 126 pages the federal consent decree is aimed at correcting long-standing patterns of police misconduct and it specifically requires the New Orleans Police Department to completely overhaul its eyewitness identification procedures but as far as George toke as lawyers are concerned there is little evidence of change we have a district attorney's office here that has said publicly if all we've got is one eyewitness I'm willing to take that case to trial one piece of evidence that has been shown to be one of the most unreliable kinds of evidence in criminal cases where the consequences in many of these trials a life without parole I think that is a huge disservice to the citizens of the city if George toca and his supporters are looking for hope that justice will come to New Orleans they can take a look at the city of Dallas and what happened to another inmate stuck in the system Christopher Scott he had nearly given up hope when he showed his case to a jailhouse lawyer and he read it and he made fun of me one time and he was like dude there's no way in the world you're gonna get out of prison you gotta mean in one chance I'm like why you say - 'i say for one you have no DNA okay somebody has to come back and say that they actually committed this crime before you get released and I told him I say you know what I'm gonna be that one out of a million to get out of prison for this nun DNA case I'm laying in bed I'm trying to figure out my next best move that I could make and all of a sudden create walkins got addicted Craig Watkins the kid from Oak Cliff will become Dallas County's next District Attorney as your DA not only am I responsible for prosecuting those bad guys but I'm responsible for making sure that if someone innocent comes down to the courthouse we're not gonna be down there trying to put them in jail for a crime they didn't commit I was elected in 2006 I was the first african-american DA elected in the whole state of Texas being a person of color obviously I have issues with law enforcement it didn't work for me and people that look like me for a long time and so I wanted to come in and make sure that law enforcement worked for a community that basically distrusted it the thought process was that a DA was to protect a conviction at all cost and when I came in I looked at these cases to make sure that if a person was wrongfully convicted that they got their fare day in court and they would be exonerated and also we would actually go and pursue the actual person that committed the crime in 2007 Watkins created a special unit to re-examine those cases he named it the conviction Integrity Unit and they started unpacking case files the unpacking on the case starts with getting all the documents that we can that are available normally that's a transcript of the trial so we can see what happened Jim would handle a substantial amount of the factual investigation then Cynthia will handle the legal side and then we'll all get together and we pose questions to each other so that we challenged the validity of the conviction within a year the unit was investigating 400 guilty verdicts and they cleared six men through the use of DNA technology own TB exoneration exoneration exoneration and I'm like oh yeah you know it may be trying to happen for some of us so I went to beg write letters again to people but the real test was clearing someone like Christopher Scott Christopher Scott case is one of the first cases that we actually investigated from the standpoint of eyewitness identification it was an on DNA case Craig Watkins was putting his career in the credibility of the conviction Integrity Unit on the line if I go with this case based upon this subjective information about which identification am I going to run the opportunity for us to pursue this program that we have if this individual actually committed the crime and has found out years later and so the first thing I did first thing I first time I ever done this was I'm going to go go down and talk to him face to face he was in his you know jail uniform looked him in the eye and ask him and you know I truly believed him when he answered the questions that he didn't commit the crime Scott's next break came when he met a lawyer from the Dallas County Public Defender's Office Thank You Michelle Moore was racking up a string of exoneration victories in Dallas when I was in prison I see Michelle Moore on TV getting God's exonerated and I was saying like if I can get this lady to represent me I better get exonerated like a week later I get a letter from Dallas County Craig Watkins office Sam Michelle Moore was appointed my counsel and we talked he's like I didn't do it I knew it I've said that from the beginning I kind of lost hope for a little bit and stopped fighting as much but I didn't do it I never told anybody I did it I'm completely innocent and I have maintained that the entire time even when I lost hope with the system mm-hmm I maintained my innocence the unthinkable was happening in Dallas public defenders Secours were working side by side on a wrongful conviction case word was spreading throughout the system that Christopher Scott's case was mishandled and another person had gotten away with the crime Christopher Scott finally caught a break when an inmate serving time for another gun related crime came forward to identify himself this was the man police should have been looking for his name is Alonzo Hardy party had written a letter to the court and said I did this I was I was not the shooter but it was a good eyes I'm sick and you know I want to clear my conscience on this next card he gave up the shooter it was a man named Michael Anderson aka D Mike you can see how a frightened witness making a cross-racial identification could confuse Claude Simmons with D Mike Michelle Moore arranged to meet Alonso Harding he was able to take us through going to buy crack at the house previously kind of scoping out the house because they had actually seen a lot of money in the house going back to the house to steal money during the trial and during the initial investigation his name Alonzo Hardy and Michael Anderson's names that come up in the investigation that they were known to be committing these robberies that they were robbery and Mexican drug dealers in the area I've got to give a lot of accolades to Jim Hammond because looking at the scene and going through the ballistic stuff he's like well there's stuff is missing and then they not from the door they they open the door from what Alonso Hardy says is that they recognize D Mike from the previous robbery and Alonso Hardy was standing by the door to the left and the victim shot at him and the bullet pierced his coat he didn't strike his body at all but pierced his coat and that and as he swung the gun toward D Mikey Mike shot e Hammond reinvestigated the scene and put the confession and the evidence together and after 13 years the first non DNA exoneration case in Dallas was cracked could this mean freedom for Christopher Scott and Claude Simmons Claude Simmons and Christopher Scott we're both in the same courtroom receiving life sentences 12 years ago today their names clearly the evidence supports a the final finding a fax showing that each defendant in these two cases are actually innocent we made a mistake in the chronal justice system we convicted two individuals for capital murder and crimes in which they didn't commit I wasn't angry I wasn't bitter about the situation I was happy I had my time to be mad in prison I had my time to be bit in prison it was no time for that because I didn't want nothing to stagnate my growth that what I'm trying to do I have planned that I had to try to foresee and make happen when Christopher Scott was released from prison the state of Texas compensated him with a million dollar settlement he never forgot what it was like to wear that white jumpsuit every day so he built a store and filled it with color and style and when an inmate is exonerated or if they serve time with Scott he helps them to get back some of their dignity with a fresh set of clothes you know pays they go with your shoes Christopher's means where did he uh pass out like when we was in prison glad you had you know that means real but the store is really home base for the system changing work he does with a band of fellow exonerees each falsely identified by an eyewitness even Phillips 26 years for a crime he didn't commit Johnny man's at 25 years for a crime he didn't commit they called themselves the house of renewed hope and what we do is we receive many many letters of individual that's in prison that's claiming their innocence and we read the cases we read they try out transcripts and if we feel like it's something that we can do a should be done we dig deeper into the case Christopher Scott's exoneration was a watershed moment from the criminal justice system in the city of Dallas the police department under intense public pressure decided to change their outmoded eyewitness identification procedures basically it was an opportunity to look at the research that was out there ron Waldrop is the former assistant police chief he helped to spearhead the changes in procedure we showed him the facts here's how many have been overturned by the end and here's what the research said the first step was to embrace the findings of researchers like Jan Dicer in 2013 Dicer along with Ron waldrop helped to publish a groundbreaking National Institute of Justice report the report breaks down the steps that law enforcement agencies should take in order to make their eyewitness identification procedures more accurate and fair we agreed in Dallas Police Department to be a test City we took every step that the research had indicated was a beneficial and we put it in the system ron Waldrop moved the Dallas Police Department away from what are considered bad practices like the ones we've seen so far in the experiment so to recap the laptop was stolen investigators showed the witnesses a six pack lineup this guy picked number six the wrong suspect this woman was coerced into picking number five now the way we changed it in Dallas they would prepare align it and then they would give all the admonitions so you're gonna do group photographs keep in mind that it's just as important to clear innocent people as to identify guilty people it's things that you tell the witness that are important for them to know the people that you see in the photograph might not look exactly like they did at the time that you saw them because some features might change the person who committed the crime may or may not be in the photographs that you see so keep that in mind advise the person looking at the lineup that no matter if they identify anybody or not the police are gonna continue to investigate and regardless of whether you make an identification the investigation is gonna continue to they would take it to a blind administrator so that's when the officer detective who's showing the images or the people shouldn't know who the suspect is in the case and that's so that they can't unconsciously or consciously influence the witness in any way then they show them to him sequentially one at a time now there can't be any unintentional outside influence and they have to make an independent decision on each photograph as they go through no witnesses are less likely to make a mistake pick an innocent person if the images are just shown one at a time no and that gets us to the fifth recommendation ask the witness immediately after they make their identification how certain they are know how comforting are you mm pretty confident it turns out this witness is right the suspect was not in the lineup he seemed like such basic and obvious things it's surprising that everyone doesn't do it is there resistance or is it education it's a little bit of both being frank the resistance across the country is more from prosecutors than it is from law enforcement you know law enforcement want the tools that are the most effective to help them with their job and they're generally speaking receptive receptive to these kinds of reforms you're not gonna eliminate mistakes by eyewitness and identification you just try to make it as as good a system as you can and minimize the mistakes and then understand that mistakes can still be made and rely on other investigative means to try to resolve them before anybody spends their life in prison for something they didn't do since the day George toca was arrested convicted and sentenced for the killing of his best friend Erik batiste he has said he did not do it by 2010 after 24 years behind bars momentum was finally building for George toca he was granted a post-conviction hearing to present new evidence at Criminal Court in New Orleans the hearing was the culmination of years of amateur detective work by his sister sandy who never lost hope I never even second guess that I never even doubted with the innocence projects help sandy cooks a number of reluctant witnesses to come forward many who pointed a finger at another suspect when you look at his physical description it exactly matches the description initially given by the two witnesses to the crime June 16 2010 George tokhes post-conviction relief hearing open in New Orleans for new witnesses testified another man shot Erik batiste nine affidavits were presented tokhes lawyers made the case that research on cross-racial identification z' proved them to be biased then judge Julian Parker ended the hearing tearful testimony today from the victim's family was not enough to grant George toca a chance at freedom several other witnesses said that another man confessed to but Judge Julien Parker dismissed those claims judge Lee release it after all this I got these people to write comfo write out the Dave's and everything and the George literally sit down so everybody in the court he don't know where they coming from after 27 years but he don't know who paid them off as if I went to these people and literally paid their money to come forward the state actually argued in that hearing that it was a conspiracy of people from the Lafitte housing project to free one of their own we all want to just start screaming shouting in it but we knew not to do that because we probably locked up so we left the courthouse with that type of feeling feeling that he was trying to give us in consideration but as far as we was concerned he gave us no consideration the Innocence Project has filed an appeal but as every year passes George toca boy it gets harder and harder to prove his innocence that's the only thing that the state put on just a month could be furnish crime I believe it a true you know that's we've been keep me going and so I'm innocent I know going on business and I believe in you know God the Jeff go and I know what i'ma do a monkey fighting to the day he's released I want you searching it somewhere something need to talk to the councilman I need to talk to the senator I'm not gonna quit you know the wheels of justice move slow but they do move and I just think at the right time right place it could be fixed but it's up to us to fix it because that's why we've have to go out there and vote to put the right people in the right positions to make the changes that we need not criminal justice system