Eyewitnesses May not be Good Witnesses

Whenever I read a news story that recounts an eyewitness’ account of an event, I am reminded of an experience I had in high school that taught me that eyewitnesses may not be good witnesses. One day, I was sitting in class waiting for the teacher to arrive. Two students sitting next to me started arguing. At first it was fairly quiet, but since they were sitting next to me and there was nothing more interesting available to me (smart phones weren’t available for another forty years), I decided to watch this little melodrama unfold.

Gradually, the volume of their voices increased, as did their physical reaction to the disagreement. This caused more students to start watching the dispute. Within a few minutes, it appeared that they were on the verge of fisticuffs. At that point, the teacher walked in and thanked the students. He announced that the dispute was staged, and our assignment was to write a report about what we had witnessed.

When we were finished writing, the teacher had us pass our report to another student. We were then instructed to write our comments on that report. We passed our reports several times, with each student making their own comments. When my report got back to me, I was stunned.

When the dispute first began, I was paying attention. I didn’t look around the room to determine if others were doing likewise, but given the volume of their voices, it’s doubtful that many students were even aware of what was happening. Other students started paying attention as the dispute escalated in volume. I witnessed the entire event, yet the other students wrote that my report was completely wrong.

I don’t remember the details of that experience, but I vividly remember my reaction when my report landed back in my hands. “I know what I saw,” I shouted to myself silently. “How can everyone else think that I am so wrong?” And that is when I began to realize that eyewitnesses may not be good witnesses.

Many years later, I read “A Scandal in Bohemia,” a classic Sherlock Holmes story. In the story, he tells Watson, “You see, but you do not observe.” The example that Holmes used was the number of steps leading to the flat that Holmes and Watson shared. Watson climbed those stairs daily, often multiple times. He saw the stairs, but he did not observe how many there were. And that is the case with many eyewitnesses. They see, but they do not observe.