Cause for Witness Unreliability

As many have noticed the witnesses will change their stories based on differences between interviews and significant differences between recounting events when compared with other witnesses. This can happen due to multiple reasons. Primarily witnesses will talk with each other about the event and since everything happened very quickly they may alter their own story based on what others say. Furthermore, as in the Ferguson Trial, some witnesses changed their story based on the actual facts that were released later such as the autopsy, thinking that they would retain credibility. Secondly, if the witnesses were related to Michael Brown in any way or if they knew him then they might alter their story to cover up for him and to aid him. For example, even if they are unsure as to whether his hands were up or not they state that Michael Brown had his hands up to display him as an innocent victim. Witness unreliability will happen in any case and it is therefore important that one has multiple witnesses and that one can identify overlapping themes in order to access the closest truth towards how the actual crime played out.