Columbia lawyer pushes for law enforcement reforms
Published Sept. 16, 2002
On Friday, Columbia attorney Stephen Wyse presented a resolution to the Missouri Bar Association calling for reforms to the way eyewitness information is gathered.
Wyse said eyewitness testimony in Missouri is often corrupted by the law enforcement officers asking the witness questions.
"People will adopt what other people suggest to them, especially law enforcement officers," Wyse said.
The resolution would request that Missouri adopt policies supported by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Bar Association will vote on the resolution on Nov. 1.
The new policies would include interviewing eyewitnesses immediately after the crime and asking them objective, open-ended questions.
"They should ask general questions like: 'What did he look like?'" Wyse said.
More specific questions such as "Was he taller or shorter than I am?" or "Was he black or white?" influence the testimony.
The resolution is being proposed because a bill that would have made Missouri law enforcement adopt these reforms failed in the Missouri Senate.
The bill, among other things, would have created protocol for eyewitness questioning and would have created an oversight committee for crime labs.
A report released by a Bar Association subcommittee on DNA exonerations, a committee Wyse served on, stated that false eyewitness reports were a major factor in several convictions later overturned due to DNA evidence.