CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The West Virginia Senate unanimously passed a bill that lays out procedures for police lineups.
The bill passed Wednesday says that whenever possible, police should use a lineup with one real suspect and multiple decoy suspects. They are strongly discouraged from using only one suspect as it could lead or influence the eyewitness toward a positive identification.
The bill states that lineups should be videotaped, that there should be at least four "filler" suspects, that suspects should be presented one-by-one and that the administrator of the lineup should not know who the real suspect is.
The Legislature had previously established a law enforcement task force to study the best way to conduct police lineups. The task force completed its work and made its recommendations in 2009.
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