We are glad to see in the current number of
Truth an article dwelling strongly upon the dangers of the present system of identifying prisoners. The witness has a number of persons paraded before him, and be then picks out the man. It is alleged that in many cases he is prompted by the police, either consciously and directly or else unconsciously and indirectly. For example, we remember that during the discussions on the Beck case a man wrote to the Times and described bow he was taken to a prison yard to identify a prisoner, and bow as he reached the line paraded for his inspection the police- man who escorted him whispered in his ear : "Third man from the right." No doubt all identifications are not managed
in this way, but very often some kind of hint is given. We do not hesitate to say that the declaration which sounds so impressive, "The witness pioked the accused out of a group of six men," is as a role quite worthless as evidence. We believe it would be far better to bring the witness face to face with the accused and say : " This is the man we suspect ; do you recognise him ?" Then let the witness say in open Court why he believes the prisoner to be the man wanted, and let the jury decide whether the evidence is credible.
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