Unreliable Witness Testimonies

While going through the witness testimonies, it's very clear that every eyewitness of the Ferguson case has varying details in their accounts of what happened to Michael Brown. Most people, including jurors, put heavy weight on eyewitness testimonies and automatically assume their validity. However, they aren't as reliable as they seem. It's a common misconception that our memories are like a video camera, our minds record everything and then play them back exactly how they happened. In reality, our brains actually reconstruct the pieces of a memory as we are remembering it. Because of these, when being asked to remember a specific situation even the way the question is phrased can alter our memories. It's been proven that we can even create false memories in people's minds that never actually happened. I think it's really important to keep this in mind as we continue to go through the witness testimonies. Even if the witness thinks that what they saw happen to Michael Brown is true, it may not actually have happened that way.