I am aware of the Sam Houston study/opinion conducted on the issue of eye witness identification and photographic lineups. We have adopted a policy which covers many different ways of administering the lineup, however, I was told that there is a case in which defense attorney's are referencing which challenges a six person lineup. Apparently, six photographs on one page is an issue, as opposed to six individual photographs. Anyone had any challenges to the lineups (without arguing the photographs themselves)?

38.20(3)(a) states that agencies must adopt the LEMIT policy or develop its own policy that conforms to 38.20(3)(c). One of the big issues with the photo array arrangement of 6 photos all on one page is how witnesses compare the photos when viewing the array. The research on eyewitness memory indicates that witnesses compare each photo with the other when viewed all on one page to find the photo that MOST looks like the suspect. When doing so, they might be picking the photo that looks most like the suspect compared to the other five photos, but not necessarily picking the photo that matches their memory. In other words, they might eliminate the five photos that look LEAST like the suspect and choose the photo that is left over. When witnesses view each photo separately without other photos to compare, research says they tend to compare the photo only with their memory, not with the other photos. After September 1st, if the agency policy allows for a photo array to be conducted all on one page, the agency will need to be able to cite credible research on eyewitness memory the policy was based on [required by 39.20(3)(c)(1)(A)]. With the recent academic research findings collectively saying just the opposite is true about photo arrays, the agency policy might face tough scrutiny in court from the defense. With the ease in which photos can be arranged on six separate pages instead of all on one, the agency will also have an extremely hard time trying to justify why this couldn't be done. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the reply, it was informative and helpful. My agency has adopted a policy much like that put out by LEMIT, which gives us the ability to use six on one page, however, after reading your email, we might have to take a closer look at it. Thanks again.