{"id":3723,"date":"2023-10-14T15:38:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T15:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2023-10-14T15:38:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T15:38:21","slug":"the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was dim but the lights and fanfare of the amusement park turned the darkness of a summer night into a lively dusk.\u00a0 I was 11 years old.\u00a0 I was standing at the edge of a safety fence looking up and watching carefully as train after train of screeching roller-coaster riders looped through the spirals of the aptly named \u201cCorkscrew.\u201d\u00a0 My sister was on one of these strands of looping cars and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of her streaking by.\u00a0 Me?\u00a0 I was tall enough to ride, but too chicken to do it.\u00a0 Train after train looped through.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see her.\u00a0 It was 8:45 at night.\u00a0 Another train of the coaster zipped down the main hill, shot up into the first big loop, and on its ascent the cars broke apart from the strand like the pearls of a snatched necklace.\u00a0 The sound of the train of cars coming apart was a loud and low roar, terrifyingly out of place in an amusement park.\u00a0 The first cars in the train made it through and passed normally through the corkscrew portion of the coaster.\u00a0 The trailing and detached cars, however, were stuck on the tracks.\u00a0 I could see the silhouettes of waving arms.\u00a0 I could hear the shrieks of the people stuck on the coaster.<\/p>\n

Your turn. First, tell me about the moment you found out you had passed the bar.<\/p>\n

Have you thought about it?\u00a0 Now, tell me where you were on the night of Tuesday, April 4th, 2023 at 8:34 p.m. What\u2019s that you say?\u00a0 You were probably at home?\u00a0 You can\u2019t be sure though.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know if you were alone or not?\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry, you say you might<\/em><\/strong> have been at a mock trial practice?\u00a0 But you\u2019re not sure of that either, eh?<\/p>\n

I recently read a research review on alibi generation that explored the idea that perhaps the often-maligned inconsistent alibi isn\u2019t such a bad alibi after all.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Perhaps the bored murderer isn\u2019t a murderer at all and the thing that\u2019s truly boring about him was what he was doing on the night of the murder.\u00a0 Let\u2019s flesh this out a bit more.\u00a0 At some point immediately after the awful sound I heard on the night of the roller-coaster accident, I realized I was witnessing something exciting, terrible, and terribly memorable.\u00a0 My brain was searching for details, for truths, and, principally, for the face of my sister amid the madness.\u00a0 At some point during the commission of a crime or while witnessing a car accident, the eyewitness is similarly excited, realizing that they\u2019re seeing a truly unique event in their workaday life.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Now contrast that with April 4th<\/sup>, 2023 at 8:34 p.m.\u00a0 That\u2019s not an event.\u00a0 It\u2019s a moment.\u00a0 And for the vast majority of us, there\u2019s nothing unique about that date and time.\u00a0 The moment itself is workaday.<\/p>\n

In memory-making and memory-telling, there are two principal phases: encoding and retrieval.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The authors of the research review note a truth which is intuitively obvious to us, but one which we probably don\u2019t think much about:\u00a0 Why would our brains bother to stash away the boring stuff for later use?[4]<\/a>\u00a0 And if it\u2019s true that they don\u2019t, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that an accused person offering a completely valid alibi is mistaken about the details of their alibi. Nor should we be surprised that after further reflection and investigation the accused offers a later (but now inconsistent) alibi that actually represents the truth.\u00a0 If I\u2019m grilling you at police headquarters about April 4th<\/sup> and you\u2019re digging through your memory, you\u2019re not digging through your daily planner or the collective memories of friends and family.\u00a0 Indeed, if you could use all those people, they might remind you that you weren\u2019t actually home alone, but you were doing something truly<\/em> awful\u2014like attending a kindergarten graduation ceremony for your neighbor\u2019s kid.\u00a0 Now, as a result of remembering that you\u2019re a really nice neighbor, your alibi changes, and you have a few new alibi witnesses to boot!\u00a0 In fact, the authors produce a number of Innocence Project stories of exonerations where defendants were later proven to be innocent even though they had originally offered inconsistent alibis.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 The authors also mention a host of studies to show how judges and juries find inconsistent alibi stories to be inherently suspect and indicative of guilt.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 This problem then produces a real conundrum for an accused:\u00a0 Stick with a bad alibi that is at least consistent or offer up a revised but inconsistent alibi that risks the guilty votes of a judge or jury?[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

That night standing at the safety fence, I\u2019m staring at the roller coaster run amok.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget that night.\u00a0 The yellow glow of the park lights silhouetting the metal skeleton of the coaster and the darkened cars clinging awkwardly to the curve of its ribs.\u00a0 Someone even shouted that a person had died.\u00a0 Thankfully, that was merely hysteria and not the truth.\u00a0 I also won\u2019t forget the relief I felt seeing my sister\u2019s face emerge from the dusky gloom and the throng of panicking people.\u00a0 Her car had passed safely down the hills and loops before the accident occurred.\u00a0 Now, as for where I was on the night of April 4th<\/sup>, 2023 at 8:34?\u00a0 That memory has faded into the dusky gloom of a thousand evenings and I\u2019m guilty only of having a relatively boring life.\u00a0 I suspect your alibi for that night is as bad as mine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> William E. Crozier et al., Memory Errors in Alibi Generation: How an Alibi Can Turn Against Us, 35 Behavioral Science and the Law, February, 2017, at 6-17, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/bsl.2273<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Id. <\/em>at 8.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Id. <\/em>at 7.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0 See id. <\/em>at 7-8.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0 See id. <\/em>generally.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Id. <\/em>at 8.<\/em><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Id. <\/em>at 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was dim but the lights and fanfare of the amusement park turned the darkness of a summer night into a lively dusk.\u00a0 I was 11 years old.\u00a0 I was standing at the edge of a safety fence looking up and watching carefully as train after train of screeching roller-coaster riders looped through the spirals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[203],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brain-lessons"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was dim but the lights and fanfare of the amusement park turned the darkness of a summer night into a lively dusk.\u00a0 I was 11 years old.\u00a0 I was standing at the edge of a safety fence looking up and watching carefully as train after train of screeching roller-coaster riders looped through the spirals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Grant Rost\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Grant Rost\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e\"},\"headline\":\"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\"},\"wordCount\":989,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Brain Lessons\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\",\"name\":\"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\",\"name\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"description\":\"Just another Law Sites site\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png\",\"width\":711,\"height\":220,\"caption\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e\",\"name\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g6b68adb939ecac32ef61d8026f0bafe4\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/author\/tug27334\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","og_description":"It was dim but the lights and fanfare of the amusement park turned the darkness of a summer night into a lively dusk.\u00a0 I was 11 years old.\u00a0 I was standing at the edge of a safety fence looking up and watching carefully as train after train of screeching roller-coaster riders looped through the spirals","og_url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/","og_site_name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","article_published_time":"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00","author":"Grant Rost","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Grant Rost","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/"},"author":{"name":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e"},"headline":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS","datePublished":"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/"},"wordCount":989,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Brain Lessons"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/","name":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-14T15:38:21+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2023\/10\/14\/the-bored-murderer-and-the-excited-eyewitness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"THE BORED MURDERER AND THE EXCITED EYEWITNESS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/","name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","description":"Just another Law Sites site","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization","name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png","width":711,"height":220,"caption":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e","name":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g6b68adb939ecac32ef61d8026f0bafe4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)"},"url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/author\/tug27334\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}