I. Eyewitness Testimony Is Highly Unreliable
Eyewitness testimony continues to be used widely and many criminal cases hinge on it exclusively. "Since 1989, a hundred and eighty people have been exonerated of sexual-assault charges in the U.S. Nearly three-quarters of those wrongful convictions relied, in whole or in part, on a mistaken identification by an eyewitness." "Since 2001, DNA testing in Texas has led to more than forty exonerations, a greater number than in any other state. Misleading or inaccurate eyewitness identification was a factor in a vast majority of overturned convictions in those cases." [1] Most law enforcement agencies in Texas had no written policies regarding eyewitness lineups; officers simply relied on old habits.
Tim Cole was convicted of a rape in a Texas court and after he died in prison while being treated for a medical condition, tested DNA evidence excluded him as the rapist. The exoneration of Cole so traumatized the raped victim that she trembled in fear after she worked up the courage to visit Tim Cole's mother.
Tim Cole's tragic conviction and death in prison has led to two changes in Texas law: one is the creation of an advisory panel to recommend how eyewitness testimony should be handled and a second increases the monetary relief for exonerated. Then-Governor Rick Perry acknowledged Judge Charlie Baird's ruling and granted Cole the first posthumous pardon in Texas history.
What should be done in regard to eyewitness lineups? In 1998, Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, was the principal author of a paper suggesting some reforms. Lineups should be "blind," a standard borrowed from scientific experiments. The officer administering the lineup should know nothing about the case, so as to avoid unconsciously influencing the proceedings. In photographic lineups, images should be presented sequentially rather than simultaneously, allowing witnesses to compare each image against their memory, instead of choosing from a group. And witnesses should be told that a lineup may not include the perpetrator. According to Wells, a witnesses's confidence at the moment of identification is far more accurate than a reconstructed assertion at trial, weeks or months later. [2]
II. Natural Gas Leaks Are a Disaster for the Planet
The natural-gas leak ongoing since October, 2015 near Porter Ranch, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, is a harbinger of more such disasters to come. To this point, the leak has cost $12 million in market value, caused 2,292 families to relocate, and led to 4,683 applications to relocate. Besides the monetary cost and the effect on nearby residents, there is an enormous effect on climate warming: one day of the leak warms the climate at a rate equivalent to driving more than 4.5 million cars for a day, or to put it in bovine terms, the ; methane released each day has the same warming effect as 2.2 million cows belching in one day. [3]
The leak at the 60-year-old Aliso Canyon storage facility is a harbinger of other potential leaks. There are more than 400 natural-gas storage facilities fashioned out of former mines and other underground formations that together store some 3.6 cubic feet of natural gas. Regular maintenance at these storage facilities is a rarity, much as this nation is unwilling to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure.
Recent research has suggested that "natural-gas-gathering facilities alone leak 100 billion cubic feet of methane each year -- more gas that the entire country burns in a day." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Oxfam has concluded that 62 people own as much wealth as the the 3.5 billion people at the bottom half of the world's income scale.
*The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the national governmental deficit will rise by $544 billion in 2016. It attributes the increase to the extension of tax cuts last year. Revenues should rise by 4% but spending will increase by 6%. The new deficit will be added to the $18 trillion debt load.
*The nutritional quality of U.S. school lunches has increased 29% since 2012, thanks to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Paul Kix, "Recognition,: The New Yorker, January 18, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Justin Worland, "The ongoing California natural-gas leak is a disaster for the planet," Time, January 25, 2016.
[4] Ibid.
[5] "Digits," Time, January 18, 2016.
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