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Eye witness's

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:19 am
by woodchip
Watching a Nat. Geo. proggy on the TWA 800 crash, I was struck by a comment by the then head of NATSB Loeb. Regarding all the eye-witness's who saw missles going from the ground up to the plane, Loeb stated that "Seeing is not the truth" and that 400 people claiming to see rocket exhaust streaking up to TWA 800 were not really seeing that.
So what doe this mean for the crimminal justice system?
When a "eye-witness" fingers a suspect, defense atty's can now bring up Dr. Loebs statement and claim the supposed eye-witness didn't actually see their client
do the crime. I wonder if a defense atty will ever try this? Hey it worked on the TWA 800 incident.

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 7:31 am
by Zuruck
well remember woodchip, when it's a government agency you work with, they can tell YOU what YOU saw, and that's how it is...would be nice to be able to do that

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2004 8:01 am
by Will Robinson
Not sure exactly how this applies but it's been proven that in criminal cases a large percentage of eye witnesses who *think* they are sure actually identify the wrong man.