Collaborative Justice in Eyewitness Misidentification Cases

The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) in coordination with the Conviction Review Unit for the Broward County State Attorney’s Office/17th Judicial Circuit (BCRU) request funding to support the Collaborative Justice in Eyewitness Misidentification Cases Project. Eyewitness misidentification is a leading cause of wrongful convictions both nationally and in Florida. An ongoing collaboration between the IPF and the BCRU, funded in part by two BJA grants in 2020 and 2024, identified numerous cases of possible witness misidentification and led to two exonerations based primarily on witness misidentification. The goals of the Collaborative Justice in Eyewitness Misidentification Cases Project are to: review already identified cases and such cases identified during the grant term where there appears to be a possible witness misidentification that has contributed to the conviction; seek expert opinion on the factors impacting the reliability of eyewitness evidence in approximately 15 of these cases; extend existing collaborative justice work for the backlogged requests for case reviews received by IPF and the BCRU; solidify IPF’s and the BCRU’s ability to manage this substantial review and backlog reduction project by hiring an additional full-time assistant state attorney at the BCRU and defray portions of salary and benefits for certain IPF legal staff to efficiently and thoroughly review and investigate these cases; and provide, through IPF lawyers, high quality legal assistance to defendants in the Conviction Review Unit process and collaborate with the BCRU to resolve eight cases over the three-year grant term.