House committee mulls reform of eyewitness evidence collection

More extensive training for criminal investigators who collect eyewitness identification may be on the horizon.

A house committee is making its final revisions to a bill that will require law enforcement agencies to standardize the way they collect eyewitness evidence.

Current procedures are under scrutiny after seven Georgia men have been exonerated from false rape convictions based on eyewitness testimony.

Aimee Maxwell with the Georgia Innocence Project spoke to the committee about the high cost of false convictions, especially when compensating exonerees.

“First off it’s a cost to society to leave them in prison, every single day that costs us, and then Clarence Harrison, they gave him a million dollars for the time he spent in. But probably more importantly, the societal cost. We leave the right person on the street to hurt people.”

Lawmakers estimate the cost of reform at 20 to 40 thousand dollars.

Death row opponents ask Court for new trial

Supporters of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis asked the state Supreme Court today to order a new trial in the case. They say eyewitness testimony implicates another man in the 1989 shooting death of 27-year old Savannah police officer Mark McPhail.

Davis' attorneys argued Georgia law allows death row inmates to ask for a new trial, after all other appeals have been exhausted. However, prosecutors say the time for a new trial has passed and no further evidence may be introduced.

Martina Correia is Troy Anthony Davis' older sister. She says similar stories by witnesses about police coercion are too alike for the court to ignore.

"They didn't come forward because we asked them. They came forward because it was the right thing to do. It was amazing that their recantations were almost the same thing. They told stories of coercion and intimidation and of threats. They didn't know each other was recanting."

Since his 1989 conviction, nearly a dozen witnesses have recanted their eyewitness testimony against Troy Anthony Davis. Davis is African American and was convicted in Chatham County. His supporters say the previous exoneration of two other African American males from Chatham County may point to a pattern of police misconduct.