R V. Turnbull Warning
Definition
A mandatory judicial warning in English and Welsh Crown Court proceedings when the case depends substantially on identification evidence, requiring the jury to consider factors including the witness's viewing conditions, time, distance, lighting, and opportunity to know the accused (Court of Appeal, 1976).
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Year
- 1976
- Court
- Court of Appeal
- Trigger
- Case turning substantially on identification evidence
Common questions
What must a judge tell the jury under a Turnbull warning?+
The judge must direct the jury to scrutinise the circumstances of the identification carefully, covering factors like viewing distance, duration, lighting, obstruction, and any prior familiarity with the accused, before relying on it to convict.
What happens if a Turnbull warning is required but not given?+
A conviction resting substantially on identification evidence without the proper warning is vulnerable to being quashed on appeal, since the warning is treated as a necessary safeguard against the known unreliability of eyewitness identification.
Related terms
- Cross-Race Effect
- The empirical finding that own-race identifications are more accurate than cross-race identifications (Meissner and Brigham meta-analysis, 2001), with practical implications for lineup...
- Estimator Variables
- Factors present at the time of the crime that affect encoding accuracy but cannot be retrospectively controlled, including weapon focus, cross-race effect,...
- Misinformation Effect
- The incorporation of misleading post-event information into the original memory trace, documented by Loftus and Palmer (1974) and subsequent studies. Distinguished from...
- Post-Identification Feedback Effect
- The inflation of witness confidence, perceived viewing quality, and retrospective memory detail following confirming feedback from an investigator. Documented by Wells and...
- Reconstructive Memory
- The psychological model of memory as a constructive process shaped by schemas, expectations, and post-event information, rather than a fixed recording. Foundational...
- System Variables
- Factors in the identification process that are within the control of the criminal justice system, including lineup administration, instructions, and feedback policies....
- Weapon Focus Effect
- The reduced encoding of a perpetrator's face when a weapon is present, attributable to attentional narrowing toward the threat-relevant stimulus (Steblay meta-analysis,...