Identification Parades: An Empirical Survey of Legal Recommendations and Police Practice in South Africa
![handle is hein.journals/soafcrimj11 and id is 210 raw text is: Identification parades: an empirical
survey of legal recommendations and
police practice in South Africa
ANNEGRET RUST*, COLIN TREDOUX**
Introduction
Witnesses to crimes often have crucial information about the physical identity
or appearance of the perpetrator, and are frequently asked to make a personal
identification. Unfortunately this process is error-prone, and criminal history
is replete with examples where this has led to tragic miscarriages of justice. In
the South African Law Journal several articles have acknowledged the inherent
dangers of identification evidence. The Justice of the Peace writes, in 1926:'
'.. . [M]istaken identity is the most likely and common cause of miscarriages of
justice, and such miscarriages not only shock the public conscience but give rise to
doubt and uneasiness as to the administration of justice.'
South African courts recognise the danger posed by a bald statement of
identification,2 and approach identification evidence with caution. One of
the safeguards against the vagaries of identification evidence is the police
'identification parade', or 'line-up'. The identification parade is widely regarded
as an important safeguard to an accused who is implicated by identification
evidence, both in South Africa and abroad.
Identification parades are, in our opinion, attributed too much protective
power: less protection is accorded to an accused by an identification parade
than is commonly supposed. We present this argument in three stages. In the
first stage we briefly review regulations which have come to govern the conduct
of identification parades. In the second stage we provide evidence from
* BSocSci (Hons) (UCT).
PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department ofPsychology, University of Cape Town.
Anonymous 'Identificatiod (1926) 43 SALJ287.
2 R v Shekelele 1953 (1) SA 636 (T); S v Mehlape 1963 (2) SA 29 (A), and many other cases
express the need for caution. Indeed, Didcott J in S v Ngcobo 1986 (1) SA 905 (N) at 906
says: 'The danger of mistaken identification is one to which all judicial officers are or should
certainly be alive. Enough has been said about it over the years, and in various parts of the
world to see to that.'](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/soafcrimj11&div=25&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Identification Parades: An Empirical Survey of Legal Recommendations and Police Practice in South Africa
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