In 1984, a man named Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl and sentenced to death—an outcome that rested largely on the testimony of five eyewitnesses. After Bloodsworth served nine years in prison, DNA testing proved him to be innocent. Such devastating mistakes by eyewitnesses are not rare, according to a report by the Innocence Project, which is an organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. They use DNA testing to exonerate those wrongfully convicted of crimes.
Since the 1990s, when DNA testing was first introduced, Innocence Project researchers have reported that 73 percent of the 239 convictions overturned through DNA testing were based on eyewitness testimony.