He spent seven years in prison. Then a court changed the rules – 20/03/2019

By Ashley Southall

Otis Boone claimed that he was innocent since he was charged with two robberies in 2011, when he was 19 years old. However, the two victims that a man armed with a knife seized their cell phone indicated Boone identifying the police. Despite the absence of material evidence, he was tried and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Boone, of Brooklyn, appealed to the highest court of the state, where a majority of judges decided to tell the jury that witnesses often have trouble identifying suspects of other races than the and that confusion reigns Identifications are an important factor in unjust penalties. Boone is black; the victims were white.

The Court of Appeal granted Boone a new trial and then forced the judges to explain to the jury what expert psychologists call the "cross race effect"When there are cases with a witness who identifies a suspect of a different race.

At his second trial, the public defenders presented evidence that five minutes before the Boone was one kilometer from one of the flights. They declared him innocent on March 1, after spending seven of the last eight years behind bars.

Boone, 27, cried on hearing the verdict. Some of the jurors kissed him with his fiancee. One of them said the panel had made its decision in less than five minutes.

"Complying with the pain of someone else is an ordeal"He said in an interview. "Several times, I wanted to give up."

Boone's Calvary illustrates a change in the way in which the US criminal justice system treats the identifications made by witnesses. Once considered strong evidence of guilt, they remain a tool of persuasion for prosecutors.

However, in recent years, psychologists and criminologists studying memory have documented that the identification of a witness is often questionable after a crime because of factors such as stress, the short duration of the crime. incident and the presence of a weapon. The identifications may also be influenced by the witness's prejudices, as well as by the subtle clues of the police and prosecutors.

"Because memory has so many shortcomings and flaws, when a suspect is presented to the witness, his memory of the case adds to this suspect," he said. Nancy Franklin, Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University who testified for the defense at the trial. "I think that Boone's case is a striking example of the kind of problems that my field of study has revealed that lead to false judgments. "

Approximately 70% of the 364 DNA-related convictions in the United States since 1992 involved witnesses who identified the wrong criminal.and half of these misidentifications involved a witness and a suspect of different races, according to The Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to seek exemptions.

The decision in the Boone case has made New York one of the few states enforcing the cross-breed effect rule (New Jersey and Mbadachusetts have similar rules). In New York, some defense lawyers call it the "Boone Rule."

Previously, the warning was only required if the defense had asked after an expert testified at the trial on the testimonial statements. Now, judges are required to give instructions before the application, unless either party denies the identity of the suspect.

Eric González, the Brooklyn attorney supports the new rule, but prosecutors said they remain convinced of Boone's guilt.

"We believe that the evidence substantiated his guilt and that they should have allowed the second trial jury to hear the evidence of the high level of security that the witnesses showed when they proceeded to proceed." Identification two days after the incidents, "said Oren Yaniv spokesman.

Some prosecutors say that the new rule is unfair because it suggests that a witness has a racial bias without any expert background or testimony about his life. A judge of the Court of Appeals of the seven-member panel said that his colleagues had gone too far in making this decision mandatory.

John Wixted, professor of psychology at the University of California and testifying in the Boone trial in favor of the prosecution, said the Court of Appeal had erred in focusing the rule on race and not on the certainty of the witness during initial identification. Witnesses who show great confidence in choosing a suspect will almost always choose the culprit, regardless of race, he said. "The certainty tells you what you want to know, not the race," he said in an interview.

Boone plans to sue the city for false arrest and malicious prosecution. Bess Stiffelman, the attorney who represented her at the trial, said the authorities were showing a "shocking contempt for the risk of a false identification and the likelihood that they could have stopped a innocent suspect ".

A spokesman for the law department declined to comment. At the Boone trial, Maureen Sheehan, the principal investigator, said she had not reviewed the case notes before preparing the suspects' presentation and that she was unaware that the detectives had recovered the cell phone from one of the victims and had returned it. .

The victims of the Boone case were a teenager and a man in his twenties who had been badaulted ten days apart in February 2011 in Midwood, an enclave of Orthodox Jews. Each time, the attacker asked for the time, so the victims took out their mobile phone and stole them.

The victims stated that they had only had a brief moment to see the face of the attacker, partially covered during the second incident, and that he was available to him. a weapon, factors that, according to psychologists, affect the identifications of witnesses.

Two weeks elapsed between the first badault and the presentation of the police suspects, which, according to Boone's defense, was unfair. He was at one end and ten centimeters taller than the man next to him.

Three of the five men who filled the presentation wore visibly long hair, although witnesses claimed that the badailant had short hair. The youngest victim chose Boone only after hearing "What time is it?"

Since then, the New York Police Department has adopted a series of guidelines to make the presentation of the suspects and a series of photographs more equitable. The officer who applies the test, for example, does not have the right to know who the suspect is, a practice that prevents the police from influencing the witnesses as to the suspect's identity .

At the second trial, Boone's defense found evidence to support his alibi: government records showing two transactions on his social benefits card, made one and a half kilometers from the second flight and almost five minutes before. arrive.

The prosecutor tried to argue that Boone took a four-minute bus ride to commit the robbery, but the jurors did not believe his theory.

"It's quite unlikely," said Meredith Coffey, one of the jurors. He noted that Boone had just moved to Brooklyn a few weeks before the first badault.

Coffey, 32, of Park Slope, said she was willing to support a decision based on testimonial statements, but did not think she was convincing in the present case. He also added that the judge's warning about the cross-race effect confirmed his doubts about his reliability.

Boone was released from prison in January 2018, but the experience has led him to be wary of anyone. The long wait for a new trial cost him a job because he was often missing to appear in court, he said. There was a time when he wanted to become a police officer like one of his uncles, but he now says that he has lost confidence in the criminal justice system.

"I want things to change," he added. "I want justice."

c.2019 New York Times News Service