Original Article Borderland Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Eyewitnesses most common reason for mistaken IDs Tammy Fonce-Olivas and Daniel Borunda El Paso Times Learn more about the Eyewitness Identification Research Laboratory at UTEP at http://eyewitness . utep.edu/ Mistaken eyewitness identification is the most frequent problem leading to a person being wrongly sent to prison, said a UTEP professor who is a national expert in the field. "It's hard to estimate how frequently it occurs. It may occur as much as 5 percent of the time, some studies have estimated," said Roy S. Malpass, director of the criminal justice program and a psychology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Mistaken eyewitness identification appears to have played a key role in Brandon Moon's conviction for a 1987 sexual assault in West El Paso. The victim identified Moon as her attacker in a police lineup and later in court. But new DNA evidence conclusively proves that Moon could not have been the attacker, the district attorney and defense lawyers now agree. Moon is expected to be exonerated at a court hearing today based on the new evidence. Several factors can make eyewitness recollection unreliable, Malpass said. Memory can be influenced by fear. And people tend to remember people of their own race better than those of other races, said Malpass, who has studied eyewitness identification since the 1960s. "The single most important thing about witness memory is it can be contaminated," Malpass said. Despite the problems, the judicial system relies heavily on the recollection of witnesses and victims, according to local law experts. "It has to be taught, the pitfalls and the strong points. Don't get me wrong, it's not totally reliable, but law enforcement has to be trained on it," said Vince Pokluda, director of training for the El Paso County Sheriff's Department. Pokluda said eyewitness identification is incorporated into the 48 hours of criminal investigation training given at the academy for sheriff's deputy recruits. Officers are taught to seek out eyewitnesses because "the more sources of information you can get to nail the identification of either an innocent or responsible party the better off you are," he said. Moon's lawyer said many cases of incorrect identification are created by poor police work. "This case is just another example of something that we have known for well over a decade -- that a mistaken eyewitness identification is the single leading cause of wrongful convictions in America," said Nina Morrison, a lawyer for the New York-based Innocence Project. "You wonder how many more cases like this will it take before those in charge of administering lineups and photo spreads start to take seriously the research that shows that there are so many ways we can do it better and to avoid the risk and error and permit someone like Brandon from going to prison for something that he didn't do," she said. Eyewitness testimony continues to heavily influence the outcome of trials, said Joe Spencer, a longtime defense attorney. "Surely, it weighs a lot in court if you have a victim that points at the defendant and says, 'That's him; I know it's him,' " Spencer said. "Jurors want to believe the victim because the victim, I'm sure, is being sincere and doesn't want to make a mistake. But you can't rely on that testimony because studies have shown how unreliable it is." Tammy Fonce-Olivas may be reached at tfonce@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.; Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.