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A long time ago I remember watching an episode of Oprah about eyewitness testimony

I actually haven't been able to find the episode in question online

This would have been like three decades ago when I was a kid home from school watching TV

It's entirely possible I imagine parts of it

But in my memory Oprah without telling anyone has this guy run on stage and snatch up a purse belonging to one of the panelists

And then afterwards Oprah asks everyone to identify the thief

But no one can

Each person Oprah asks they've got a different answer as to what the guy looked like

I don't remember how the show ended I probably went off and played some duck hunt

But it lodged in my head as I got older started working in journalism and writing about the criminal justice system

It would periodically pop back into my head a

Reminder of just how fallible the human eye and memory can be so wait

Let me just back up. Okay. Tell me when you first notice the truck

I

Probably like it was maybe a block and a half

North of there, but it was describing down Pennsylvania past where I was out of my

Do you think it stopped and then went around again?

Or do you think it just went by you went around and came back around?

The Oprah segment came to mind the first time I heard this tape which was recorded near Indianapolis in 2022

The details aren't really important not yet

For now all you need to know is that the first voice belongs to Lara Basilone. She's a law professor

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