Police Lineups: The Science of Getting It Right

(Credit: Shutterstock) One night in 1984, a man broke into Jennifer Thompson’s apartment and raped her at knifepoint. Throughout the attack, the college student memorized every detail of her rapist’s face, promising herself that when she took the witness stand against him, “he was going to rot” in prison. Thompson hurried to police the morning after the attack, giving them a detailed description of her rapist, filling in all the characteristics she’d memorized so carefully. The police put together a photographic lineup – the standard lineup technique in the modern U.S. – and Thompson selected a man named Ronald Junior Cotton. “I had picked the right guy,” she said. “I was sure. I knew it.” But Cotton was innocent, as DNA evidence proved – after he’d spent 11 years in prison. Wrongful convictions like Cotton’s may be avoided, as a recent study showed, with incredibly simple changes to police lineup practices – changes that some law enforcement agencies seem reluctant to make.