Finding a "near consensus among cognitive and
social psychologists that people have significantly greater
difficulty in accurately identifying members of a different race
than in accurately identifying members of their own race," the New York State Court of Appeals ruled Thursday (December 14) that "when
identification is an issue in a criminal case and the identifying
witness and defendant appear to be of different races, upon
request, a party is entitled to a charge on cross-racial
identification."
The ruling comes in the case of People v Otis Boone.