The Connecticut Supreme Court has taken up a case of a man convicted of murder in which an eyewitness identified him as the shooter even though she was 265 feet away in a fifth-floor apartment, the Associated Press reports. As part of the case, the Supreme Court is considering "whether Connecticut should join other states and abandon a balancing test created by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977 and used by judges nationwide to determine whether to allow eyewitness identifications as evidence."
The balancing test is used after judges find that law enforcement was suggestive with witnesses identifying suspects, and then the judges must decide if the identifications are still admissible when weighing the eyewitnesses' certainty, the accuracy of their descriptions and other factors, the AP further reports.
There are two other cases pending before the Supreme Court on witness identification issues, the AP also reports.
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