Shabani Bakari versus The Republic; Criminal Appeal No 118 of 2015: Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Dodoma (Unreported).
- Evidence
- Visual identifications – guidelines to be used to avoid mistaken identity.
Held:-
When a Court of law is to rely on the evidence of a witness on visual identification, it has to consider some guidelines so as to avoid mistaken identity of a suspect. The said guidelines are as follows:-
(a) If the witness is relying on some light as an aid of visual identification, he must describe the source and intensity of that light.
(b) The witness should explain how close he was to the culprit(s) and the time spent on the encounter.
(c) The witness should describe the culprit(s) in terms of body build, complexion, size, attire, or any peculiar features, to the next person that he comes across and should repeat those descriptions at his first report to the police on the crime, who would on turn testify to that effect to lend credence to such witness’s evidence.
(d) Ideally, upon receiving the description of the suspect(s), the police should mount an identification parade to test the witness’s and then at the trial the witness should be led to identify him again.