Mistaken identity is a defense in

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...

which claims the

actual innocence Actual innocence is a special standard of review in legal cases to prove that a charged defendant did not commit the crimes that they were accused of, which is often applied by appellate courts to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Overview of ...

of the

criminal defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...

, and attempts to undermine evidence of guilt by asserting that any

eyewitness Eyewitness or eye witness may refer to: Witness * Witness, someone who has knowledge acquired through first-hand experience ** Eyewitness memory ** Eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the court ...

to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendant, when in fact the person seen by the witness was someone else. The defendant may question both the memory of the witness (suggesting, for example, that the identification is the result of a

false memory In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporatio ...

), and the perception of the witness (suggesting, for example, that the witness had poor eyesight, or that the crime occurred in a poorly lit place). Because the

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

in a criminal case must prove the guilt of the accused beyond a

reasonable doubt Beyond (a) reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the standard of balance of probabilities (US English: preponderance of ...

, the defendant must convince the

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

that there is reasonable doubt about whether the witness actually saw what they claim to have seen, or recalls having seen. Although scientific studies have shown that mistaken identity is a common phenomenon, jurors give very strong credence to

eyewitness testimony Eyewitness testimony is the account a bystander or victim gives in the courtroom, describing what that person observed that occurred during the specific incident under investigation. Ideally this recollection of events is detailed; however, this is ...

, particularly where the eyewitness is resolute in believing that their identification of the defendant was correct.

Studies

Many experiments have demonstrated how the memories of eyewitnesses can be manipulated. In one study by

Elizabeth Loftus Elizabeth F. Loftus (born 1944) is an American psychologist who is best known in relation to the misinformation effect, false memory and criticism of recovered memory therapies. Loftus's research includes the effects of phrasing on the percep ...

, subjects were shown a videotape of a car accident and then asked either "How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?" or the same question with the verb "hit" replaced by the verb "smashed". Subjects who were asked the question with the word "smashed" gave higher estimates of speed. Additionally, when asked if there was broken glass at the scene, those who heard "smashed" were more likely to answer affirmatively, even though there was no broken glass shown in the video. With

genetic fingerprinting DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

and DNA evidence now commonplace, many convictions based on eyewitness testimony are being re-examined. According to

the Innocence Project ''The Innocence Project'' is a television drama series created by BBC Northern Ireland and first broadcast on BBC One on 9 November 2006. The series follows the work of Professor Jon Ford (Lloyd Owen), who sets up ''The Innocence Project'', peo ...

, 73% of the cases of DNA exonerations have involved mistaken

eyewitness identification In eyewitness identification, in criminal law, evidence is received from a witness "who has actually seen an event and can so testify in court". The Innocence Project states that "Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wron ...

Case studies

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

used mistaken identity as a defense for

William "Duff" Armstrong William "Duff" Armstrong (c. 1833–1899) was an American Union Army soldier and the defendant in an 1858 murder prosecution in which he was defended by Abraham Lincoln, two years before Lincoln was elected President of the United States. The ca ...

in 1858. He referred to a farmer's almanac to prove that a witness could not have seen Armstrong in the moonlight, as claimed, because the position of the moon that night would not have provided sufficient illumination. Armstrong was acquitted.

Adolf Beck

A famous case of mistaken identity in the United Kingdom is the case of

Adolf Beck The Adolf Beck case was a notorious incident of wrongful conviction by mistaken identity, brought about by unreliable methods of identification, erroneous eyewitness testimony, and a rush to convict the accused. As one of the best known cause ...

, who served several years in prison as a swindler, was released upon completion of his sentence, and then arrested again on the same charges before the actual swindler of similar appearance was apprehended.

Ronald Cotton

Another case demonstrating mistaken identity is the case of Ronald Cotton. In July 1984, a man broke into Jennifer Thompson's home in

Burlington, North Carolina Burlington is a city in Alamance County, North Carolina, Alamance and Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which en ...

and raped her. During the attack, she studied the attacker's face, determined to identify him if she survived the attack. When presented with a photo lineup, she identified Cotton as her attacker. Twice, she testified against him by saying she had identified him. Cotton was found guilty of rape and burglary and sentenced to life plus 54 years in prison. In March 1995, Cotton's lawyers had the DNA in Thompson's

rape kit A rape kit or rape test kit is a package of items used by medical, police or other personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence following an instance or allegation of sexual assault. The evidence collected from the victim can aid the ...

retested, which found that his DNA was not present, resulting in Cotton being exonerated and freed. Authorities also tested the DNA in the rape kit of Mary Williams, who was raped by the same assailant as Thompson on the very same night, and the DNA was found to be that of Bobby Poole, another inmate in the prison where Cotton was incarcerated; Poole had also boasted to his fellow inmates that he had committed the crimes for which Cotton was convicted. Poole confessed to raping both Thompson and Williams and was sentenced to 70 years in prison. He died of cancer in prison in 2000. Thompson has since become a critic of eyewitness testimony because of its proven unreliability. She was filled with remorse after learning that she had contributed to Cotton, an innocent man, being convicted and sent to prison. Upon release for wrongful conviction (proved by DNA analysis), Cotton was awarded $110,000 in compensation from the

state of North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. Cotton and Thompson reconciled and became close friends; they conduct speaking tours to promote reform of procedures for eyewitness testimony.

SODDI defense

The SODDI defense ("Some Other Dude Did It" or "Some Other Dude Done It") is a slang term referring to a situation in which the defendant does not deny that a crime (e.g., murder or assault) occurred and is not asserting

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

, but rather is asserting that they are not the one who did it. The SODDI defense in a murder, rape or assault case is often accompanied by a mistaken identity defense and/or an

alibi An alibi (, from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person under suspicion in a crime that they were in a different place when the offence was committed. During a police investigation, all suspects are usually a ...

defense. Another common scenario where the SODDI defense is available is where the police find contraband in a car or residence containing multiple people. In this scenario, each person present could assert that one of the other people possessed the contraband. In '' Holmes v. South Carolina'', 547 U.S. 319, 126 S. Ct. 1727, 1731, 164 L. Ed. 2d 503 (2006), the US Supreme Court held that a

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

statute that prohibited putting on a SODDI defense when the state's case was "strong" violated the Sixth Amendment right to put on a defense.Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice
.

References

External links

Mistaken Identity at the Innocence Project

Mistaken identity: Keith Lamont Johnson, Detroit man sues over repeated arrests for another man's crimes
{{Miscarriage of Justice

Mistaken identity Mistaken identity is a defense in criminal law which claims the actual innocence of the criminal defendant, and attempts to undermine evidence of guilt by asserting that any eyewitness to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defend ...

Identification Legal error