A Florida Senator has filed a measure that could change the way law enforcement agencies conduct lineups to help crime eyewitnesses avoid the misidentification of suspects.
Due to a Florida Innocence Commission report, Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) filed a bill to cut down on wrongful prosecutions due to suspect misidentification.
“So, we’ve been looking at this issue for awhile and of course we want to help law enforcement have good cases,” said Baxley. “We want to be able to have equity and we certainly don’t want to convict innocent people. So, this effort will put a uniform procedure for doing eyewitness interviews, so that it will take that issue off the table. And, there are best practices that many law enforcement units already use. And, so, this will just make it more uniform.”
Under Baxley’s “Eyewitness Identification Reform Act,” the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission would set the training standards.
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