Suppose professor Will Fail has been murdered at XXX University.The professor was found stabbed to death in his office. The policesuspect Anne Tagonist is the culprit because Anne recently took Dr.Fail’s class and received an F. Anne is normally an A/B student andwas extremely upset by her grade. Rumor has it she even threatenedDr. Fail saying he “would be sorry†he gave her the F. Anne has notbeen seen since the murder so the police broadcast a picture of heron the local news and put her picture on local billboards to tryand find her. Meanwhile, to gather more evidence the police starttalking to other students asking if they noticed anythingsuspicious at the time of Dr. Fail’s murder. One student, who wasin Dr. Fail’s class the same semester as Anne, says he saw someonerunning out of Dr. Fail’s office with some kind of oddly shapedobject in hand the day of the murder. To check out their suspicionsregarding Anne the police start asking the witness whether theperson he saw was female, was about 5’-3†tall, had a red backpack,and wore glasses. They ask these questions because Anne has allthese characteristics. Later the student goes to the police stationand is asked to pick out the person he saw from a photograph“lineup†of 8 pictures all spread out on a table. The student picksout Anne’s picture. At this point the police are confident Anne isthe murderer and prepare to take their evidence to the DistrictAttorney so he can begin putting together his case to prosecuteAnne for first degree murder.
Did the police do anything wrong during their investigation? Ifso, what did they do incorrectly? (2 points)
Should we have any reason to doubt that the student did see Annerunning out of Dr. Fail’s office even after the student picked Anneout of the lineup? Whether you answer yes or no, explain why weshould/should not have confidence in the student’s identificationof Anne from the lineup. (2 points)
