January 19, 2009

Ga. lawmaker aims to improve suspect lineup procedures

Chattanooga Times Free Press

DeKALB COUNTY, Ga. — After a four-year battle, state Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield has seen changes to suspect lineup procedures realized.

"So much of this comes down to training," said the DeKalb County Democrat. "If you've got good training, then you're less likely to make mistakes."

Mistakes were the key issue for Rep. Benfield and the Georgia Innocence Project, a nonprofit group that works to secure post-conviction DNA testing for Georgia inmates.

According to information from the Innocence Project, seven Georgia inmates have been exonerated based on DNA evidence since 1999. During original trials all seven were misidentified by either the victim or an eyewitness.

According to the project, more than 75 percent of prisoners exonerated by post-conviction DNA also were misidentified during their original trials.

The Georgia Police Academy for years has offered training in conducting suspect lineups for eyewitness verification, but the course has been part of the academy's criminal investigator program only.

With the new Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training recommendations, course materials are available online and can be tailored to police agencies of all sizes.

Dalton police Chief Jason Parker said most of the main points of the training are already in place at his department.

"I don't think it throws too many obstacles in investigators' way and it's reasonable to do," Chief Parker said.

Keith Howard supervises the criminal investigations section of the Georgia Police Academy and helped expand the course for Georgia POST.

"They have to be given flexibility," Mr. Howard said of the statewide police departments.

The three key areas that the course addresses are preparation, presentation and preservation, Mr. Howard said.

The training outlines correct preparation for the lineup when choosing participants or their photographs, the best practices for presenting the lineup and preserving the results through good documentation of what the witness intended.

A major point that both Rep. Benfield and Innocence Project officials have pushed for is a "blind administrator" to conduct the lineups. That's a police officer who has no knowledge of the investigation and could not influence a victim or eyewitness to select a suspect.

"You don't want to indicate the suspect to the witness," Chief Parker said. "They may feel undue pressure to identify the person."

One part of the new course recommends that police tell the witness that he or she does not know if the suspect is in the lineup, which should reduce any influence on the witness, Rep. Benfield said.

Though it took four years of pushing her bill in the General Assembly, Rep. Benfield said she's happy that the changes took place within law enforcement.