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[0.000 --> 29.000] The murder happened a little over 21 years ago. January the 18th, 1991. In a small bedroom |
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[29.000 --> 36.640] community of Linwood, California just a few miles southeast of Los Angeles. Father |
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[36.640 --> 42.800] came out his house to tell his teenage son and his five friends that it was |
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[42.800 --> 48.240] time for them to stop forcing around on the front lawn and on the sidewalk to |
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[48.240 --> 54.080] get home, finish their schoolwork, prepare themselves for bed. And as the |
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[54.080 --> 61.200] father was administering these instructions, a car drove by slowly and just |
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[61.200 --> 66.120] after it passed the father and the teenagers a hand went out from the front |
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[66.120 --> 76.040] passenger window and bam, bam, killing the father and the car sped off. The |
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[76.040 --> 82.400] police, investigating officers were amazingly efficient. They considered all the |
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[82.400 --> 88.240] usual culprits and in less than 24 hours they had selected their suspect. |
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[88.240 --> 93.800] Francisco Carillo, a 17-year-old kid who lived about two or three blocks away |
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[93.800 --> 100.160] from where the shooting occurred. They found photos of him, they prepared a |
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[100.160 --> 106.760] photo array and the day after the shooting they showed it to one of the teenagers |
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[106.800 --> 114.200] and he said that's the picture. That's the shooter I saw that killed the father. |
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[114.200 --> 122.400] That was all plenary hearing Judge had to listen to to bind Mr. Carillo over to |
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[122.400 --> 127.760] stand trial for her first degree murder. In the investigation that followed |
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[127.760 --> 133.920] before the actual trial, each of the other five teenagers was shown photographs, |
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[133.920 --> 139.540] the same photo array. The picture that we best can determine was probably the |
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[139.540 --> 142.560] one that they were shown the photo array is in your bottom left-hand corner of |
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[142.560 --> 151.160] these mug shots. The reason we're not sure absolutely is because of the nature of |
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[151.160 --> 156.560] evidence preservation in our judicial system but that's another whole TEDx |
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[156.560 --> 166.760] talk for later. So at the actual trial, all six of the teenagers testified and |
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[166.760 --> 174.400] indicated the identifications they had made in the photo array. He was convicted. |
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[174.400 --> 184.160] He was sentenced to life imprisonment and transported to Fulsom Prison. So what's |
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[184.160 --> 192.160] wrong? Straight forward, fair trial, full investigation. Oh yes, no gun was |
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[192.160 --> 198.940] ever found. No vehicle was ever identified as being the one in which the |
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[198.940 --> 204.320] shooter had extended his arm and no person was ever charged with being the |
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[204.320 --> 212.680] driver of the shooter's vehicle. And Mr. Carillo's alibi, which of those |
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[212.680 --> 219.040] parents here in the room might not lie concerning the whereabouts of your |
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[219.040 --> 225.660] son or daughter in an investigation of a killing. |
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[225.660 --> 234.200] Mr. Prison, adamantly insisting on his innocence, which he has consistently for 21 |
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[234.200 --> 242.120] years. So what's the problem? The problem is actually for this kind of case |
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[242.120 --> 250.560] come many fold from decades of scientific research involving human memory. |
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[250.560 --> 255.160] First of all, we have all the statistical analysis from the innocence project |
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[255.160 --> 262.760] work where we know that we have what 250, 280 documented cases now where people |
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[262.760 --> 267.460] have been wrongfully convicted and subsequently exonerated some from death |
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[267.460 --> 275.080] row on a basis of later DNA analysis. And you know that over three quarters of |
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[275.080 --> 282.520] all of those cases of exoneration involved only eyewitness identification |
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[282.520 --> 288.280] testimony during the trial that convicted them. We know that eyewitness |
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[288.280 --> 294.140] identification are followed. The other comes from an interesting aspect of |
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[294.140 --> 298.460] human memory. That's related to various brain functions, but I can sum up for |
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[298.460 --> 307.480] the sake of brevity here in a simple line. The brain abhors a vacuum. Under the |
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[307.480 --> 314.740] best of observation conditions, the absolute best, we only detect encode and |
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[314.740 --> 319.620] store in our brains bits and pieces of the entire experience in front of us. And |
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[320.020 --> 325.300] they're stored in different parts of the brain. So now when it's important for us to be |
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[325.300 --> 332.220] able to recall what it was that we experienced, we have an incomplete, we have a |
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[332.220 --> 340.300] partial store. And what happens below awareness with no requirement for any kind of |
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[340.300 --> 347.980] motivated processing, the brain fills in information that was not there, not |
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[347.980 --> 354.380] originally stored from inference, from speculation, from sources of information |
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[354.380 --> 359.780] that came to you as the observer after the observation. But it happens without |
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[359.780 --> 364.820] awareness such that you don't aren't even cognizant of occurring. It's called |
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[364.820 --> 370.480] reconstructed memories. It happens to us in all the aspects of our life, all the |
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[370.480 --> 375.940] time. It was those two considerations among others, reconstructed memory, the |
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[375.940 --> 380.940] fact about eyewitnessing of a fallibility. That was part of the |
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[380.940 --> 387.140] instigation for a group of appeal attorneys led by an amazing lawyer named Ellen |
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[387.140 --> 392.860] Eggers to pull their experience and their talents together and petition the |
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[392.860 --> 400.780] superior court for a retrial for Francisco Corille. They retained me as a |
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[400.780 --> 406.740] forensic neurophysiologist because I had expertise in eyewitness memory |
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[406.740 --> 412.180] identification, which obviously makes sense for this case. But also because I |
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[412.180 --> 419.500] had expertise and testify about the nature of human night vision. Well what's |
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[419.500 --> 425.540] that got to do with this? Well when you read through the case materials in this |
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[425.540 --> 430.700] Corille case, one of the things that suddenly strikes you is that the |
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[430.700 --> 436.320] investigating officers said the lighting was good at the crime scene, at the |
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[436.320 --> 442.400] shooting. All the teenagers testified during the trial that they could see very |
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[442.400 --> 450.420] well. But this occurred in mid-January in the Northern Hemisphere at 7 p.m. at |
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[450.420 --> 458.580] night. So when I do the calculations for the lunar data and the solar data at |
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[458.580 --> 464.540] that location on earth at the time of the incident of the shooting, it was well |
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[464.540 --> 469.020] passed the end of civil twilight and there was no moon up the night. So all the |
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[469.020 --> 471.860] light in this area from the center of the moon is what you see on the screen right |
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[471.860 --> 478.740] here. The only lighting in that area had to come from artificial sources and |
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[478.740 --> 483.360] that's where I go out and I do the actual reconstruction of the scene with |
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[483.360 --> 488.340] automators with various measures of illumination and various other measures of |
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[488.340 --> 494.460] color perception along with special cameras and high-speed film. Take all the |
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[494.460 --> 498.540] measurements and record them and then take photographs. And this is what the |
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[498.540 --> 501.940] scene looked like at the time of the shooting from the position of the |
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[501.940 --> 507.540] teenagers looking at the car going by and shooting. This is looking directly |
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[507.540 --> 512.700] across the street from where they were standing. Remember the investigating |
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[512.700 --> 516.900] officers report said the lighting was good. Teenagers said they could see very |
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[516.900 --> 525.740] well. This is looking down to the east where the shooting vehicle sped off. |
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[525.740 --> 532.500] And this is the lighting directly behind the father and the teenagers. As you |
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[532.500 --> 539.700] can see it is at best poor. No one's going to call this well lit good lighting. |
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[539.700 --> 544.620] And in fact as nice as these pictures are and the reason we take this I knew I was |
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[544.620 --> 549.540] going to have to testify in court and a picture is worth more than a thousand |
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[549.540 --> 554.020] words when you're trying to communicate numbers abstract concepts like |
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[554.020 --> 557.700] lots the international measurement of illumination, the Ishaahara color, |
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[557.700 --> 563.660] color perception test values. When you present those to people who are not well |
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[563.660 --> 568.220] versed in those aspects of science and that they become salamanders in the |
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[568.220 --> 571.620] new day sun. It's like talking about the tangent of the visual angle. |
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[571.620 --> 578.580] Their eyes just blaze over. A good forensic expert also has to be a good |
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[578.580 --> 582.260] educator. A good communicator. And that's part of the reason why we take the |
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[582.260 --> 586.340] pictures to show not only the where the light sources are and what we call the |
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[586.340 --> 592.340] light source. So these are some of the pictures that I used when I |
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[592.340 --> 596.340] testified. But more importantly where to me and the scientists are those readings, |
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[596.340 --> 602.340] the photometer readings which I can then convert into actual predictions of the visual |
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[602.340 --> 608.340] capability of the human eye under those circumstances. And from my readings that I recorded at the |
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[608.340 --> 614.340] scene under the same solar and lunar conditions at the same time so and so forth, I could predict |
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[614.340 --> 619.340] that there would be no reliable color perception which is crucial for face recognition and that |
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[619.340 --> 623.340] there would be only scotopic vision which mean there would be very little resolution |
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[623.340 --> 628.340] what we call boundary or edge detection. And that furthermore because the eyes would have been |
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[628.340 --> 633.340] totally dilated under this picture, I would say that the first thing I would say was that |
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[634.340 --> 638.340] the edge detection and that furthermore because the eyes would have been totally dilated under |
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[638.340 --> 643.340] this light, the depth of field, the distance at which you can focus and see details, |
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[643.340 --> 653.340] would have been less than 18 inches away. I testified to that to the court and while the judge was |
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[653.340 --> 659.340] very attentive it had been a very very long hearing for this petition for a retrial. |
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[659.340 --> 666.340] And as a result I noticed out of the corner my eye that I thought that maybe the judge was |
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[666.340 --> 673.340] going to need a little more of a nudge than just more numbers. And here I became a bit adacious |
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[673.340 --> 681.340] and I turned and I asked the judge, I said, Geronner, I think you should go out and look at the |
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[681.340 --> 688.340] scene yourself. Now I may have used the tone which was more like a dare than a request. |
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[688.340 --> 695.340] But nonetheless it's to this man's credit and his courage that he said, yes I will, |
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[695.340 --> 702.340] a shocker in American jurisprudence. So in fact we found the same identical |
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[702.340 --> 707.340] convictions, we reconstructed the entire thing again. He came out with an entire brigade |
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[707.340 --> 714.340] of sheriff's officers to protect him in this community. |
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[714.340 --> 721.340] We had him stand actually slightly in the street. So closer to the suspect vehicle, |
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[721.340 --> 727.340] the shooter vehicle, then the actual teenagers were. So he stood a few feet from the curb |
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[727.340 --> 735.340] toward the middle of the street. We had a car that came by, same identical car as |
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[735.340 --> 742.340] described by the teenagers. It had a driver and a passenger and after the car had passed |
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[742.340 --> 750.340] the judge by, the passenger extended his hand, pointed it back to the judge as the |
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[750.340 --> 757.340] car continued on just as the teenagers had described it. Now we didn't use a real gun in his hand. |
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[757.340 --> 761.340] So we had a black object in his hand that was similar to the gun that was described. |
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[761.340 --> 768.340] He pointed by, and this is what the judge saw. This is the car 30 feet away from the |
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[768.340 --> 775.340] judge. There's an arm sticking out of the passenger's side and pointed back at you. |
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[775.340 --> 781.340] That's 30 feet away. Somebody at the age of 10 said that in fact the car was 15 feet away |
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[781.340 --> 790.340] when it was shot. Okay. There's 15 feet. At this point I became a little concerned. |
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[790.340 --> 797.340] This judge is someone you never want to play poker with. He was totally stoic. |
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[797.340 --> 803.340] I couldn't see a twitch of his eyebrow. I couldn't see the slightest bend of his head. |
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[803.340 --> 809.340] I had no sense of how he was reacting to this. And after he looked at this reenactment, |
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[809.340 --> 814.340] he turned to me and he says, is there anything else you want me to look at? |
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[814.340 --> 821.340] I said, Your Honor, and I don't know whether I was emboldened by the scientific measurements |
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[821.340 --> 827.340] that I had in my pocket and my knowledge that they are accurate or whether it was just sheer stupidity, |
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[827.340 --> 833.340] which is what the defense lawyers thought. When they heard me say, yes, Your Honor, |
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[833.340 --> 838.340] I want you to stand right there. I want the car to go around the block again. |
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[838.340 --> 847.340] I want it to come and I want it to stop right in front of you, three to four feet away. |
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[847.340 --> 852.340] I want the passenger to extend his hand with a black object to point right at you |
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[852.340 --> 862.340] and you can look at it as long as you want. And that's what he saw. |
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[862.340 --> 867.340] You'll notice, which was also in my test report, all the dominant lighting |
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[867.340 --> 871.340] is coming from the north side, which means that the shooter's face would have been photo occluded, |
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[871.340 --> 877.340] would have been backlit. Furthermore, the roof of the car is causing what we call a shadow cloud |
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[877.340 --> 887.340] inside the car, which is making it darker. And this is three to four feet away. |
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[887.340 --> 893.340] Why did I take the risk? I knew the depth of field was 18 inches or less. |
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[893.340 --> 900.340] Three to four feet in might as well have been a football field away. |
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[900.340 --> 908.340] This is what he saw. Went back. There was a few more days of evidence that was heard at the end of it. |
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[908.340 --> 913.340] He made the judgment that he was going to grant the petition for retrial. |
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[913.340 --> 919.340] And furthermore, he released Mr. Carillo so that he could aid in the preparation of his own defense |
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[919.340 --> 927.340] if the prosecution decided to retry him, which they decided not to. |
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[927.340 --> 942.340] He is now a freed man. This is him embracing his grandmother in law. |
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[942.340 --> 946.340] His girlfriend was pregnant when he went to trial. |
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[946.340 --> 960.340] And she had a baby boy. He and his son are both attending Cal State Long Beach right now taking classes. |
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[960.340 --> 968.340] What does this example? What's important to keep in mind for ourselves? |
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[968.340 --> 975.340] First of all, there's a long history of antipathy between science and the law in American jurisprudence. |
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[975.340 --> 983.340] I could regale you with horror stories of ignorance. Over decades of experience as a forensic expert, |
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[983.340 --> 993.340] of just trying to get science into the courtroom, the opposing council always fight it and oppose it. |
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[993.340 --> 1002.340] One suggestion is that all of us become much more attuned to the necessity through policy, through procedures, |
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[1002.340 --> 1012.340] to get more science in the courtroom. And I think one large step toward that is more requirements with all due respect to the law schools. |
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[1012.340 --> 1022.340] Of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, for anyone going into the law because they become the judges. |
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[1022.340 --> 1029.340] Think about how we select our judges in this country. It's very different than most other cultures. |
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[1029.340 --> 1035.340] The only one I want to suggest, the caution that all of us have to have. I constantly, through my myself, |
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[1035.340 --> 1044.340] about just how accurate are the memories that we know are true, that we believe in. |
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[1044.340 --> 1055.340] There is decades of research, examples and examples of cases like this, where individuals really, really believe. |
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[1055.340 --> 1061.340] One of those teenagers who identified here, thought that they were picking the wrong person. |
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[1061.340 --> 1070.340] None of them thought they couldn't see the person's face. We all have to be very careful. All our memories are reconstructed memories. |
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[1070.340 --> 1077.340] They are the product of what we originally experienced and everything that's happened afterwards. They're dynamic. |
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[1077.340 --> 1085.340] They're malleable. They're volatile. And as a result, we all need to remember to be cautious. |
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[1085.340 --> 1096.340] That the accuracy of our memories is not measured in how vivid they are, nor how certain you are that they're correct. |
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[1096.340 --> 1098.340] Thank you. |
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