Mistaken Identities

 Lookalikes?

Dad often told the story of being severely beaten late one night by several patrons of a small Paris tavern he frequented during his “tour of duty” in WWII torn France.  He always insisted the aggressors were certain he was a local Frenchman who had established the reputation of “small time swindler” who had somehow duped quite a few local Frenchmen (while dressed as an American ‘GI’ no less) into giving him their hard earned Franc’s.  A sad circumstance he learned some weeks after he recovered from his most unusually cruel thrashing.

In truth, I found Dad’s story of ‘mistaken identity’ a bit far fetched during my youth, but then, to my surprise, I encountered a similar case of ‘mistaken identity’ years later.  However on this particular occasion absolutely no form of hostility transpired.  While purchasing a quick lunch at a local “KFC” establishment as a very young adult, I was approached by a duo of similarly young adults for a personnel autograph.  You see, they were convinced that I was the “drummer” for the musical group whose concert they had attended the evening prior.

My denial of being said individual or even ‘knowing of’ said person only resulted in reassuring the young couple they were not mistaken.  Needless to say, I soon recognized the futility of continuing to forswear the accusation, so ever so reluctantly I granted their request; however I was steadfast in refusing to add the post script, “drummer—Pink  Floyd” to my autograph.

We all know about Mistaken Identity when it’s used as a defense in sayyy ‘criminal law’; in such cases, the innocence of the accused or evidence of guilt are often times undermined by asserting that an eyewitness to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendant, when in fact the person alleged seen by the witness was in fact someone else.

Genetic fingerprinting and DNA evidence is now commonplace; because of this, many convictions based on the testimony of eyewitnesses are being re-examined. Based upon recent statistics, more than 75% of the cases of DNA exonerations encompass erroneous eyewitness identification or ‘mistaken identity’.

Abraham Lincoln was successful in using mistaken identity in his defense of accused murder William “Duff” Armstrong in 1858.  By using a Farmer’s Almanac Lincoln argued that a witness could not have possibly recognized Armstrong in the moonlight, since the position of the moon (according to the almanac) on the night in question would not have provided sufficient illumination.

A famous case of mistaken identity in the United Kingdom is the case of Adolf Beck; in March of 1898 he was convicted and served seven years in prison as a swindler; Beck was released upon completion of his 7 year term, and then arrested again on the same charges before the actual swindler (a fellow by the name of John Smith) of similar appearance was arrested for the same offence.

In 1984, Ms. Jennifer Thompson was raped. During the attack, Ms. Thompson later insisted that she was able to study the attacker’s face during the ordeal, with hopes of identifying him if she managed to survive the attack. Police investigators presented her with a photo lineup and Ms. Thompson identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Twice, she testified against him, even though she had visited Bobby Poole, an incarcerated man who had boasted to fellow inmates that he had committed the crimes for which Cotton was ultimately convicted. Ronald Cotton serving 10.5 years of his sentence before DNA evidence conclusively proved that Poole was indeed the rapist; a charge to which he pleaded guilty.

Jennifer Thompson has since become a critic of the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Upon release, Ronald Cotton was awarded a $110,000 payment from the State of North Carolina, for compensation. Cotton and Thompson have since reconciled and become close friends; as a team, they tour the US in support of eyewitness testimony reform. Bobby Poole died in prison in 2000.

Such occurrences of mistaken identity it turns out are not that unusual; I have stumbled-up-on an unusual case of mistaken identity of a more recent date that’s unrelated to the various court systems, which you may think is down-right intriguing:

On April 26, 2006 two young college girls were among the students traveling with a group from Taylor University (located in Upland, Indiana, USA).   The students were involved in a violent crash in northern Indiana; a tractor-trailer slammed into the van they were riding in, killing five passengers.

19 year old Whitney Cerak and 22 year old Laura VanRyn looked a lot alike. So much alike, that the coroner investigating the traffic accident confused the one who died, with the one who lived.

Whitney’s family was told she was among the dead; they held a closed-casket funeral that attended by no less than 1,400 family members and friends.   Laura VanRyn’s family was told that their daughter was alive; in intensive care and in a coma-like state.

The VanRyn’s family, stayed by the injured young woman’s bedside for weeks. They posted a Web log detailing her recovery; it detailed the many small steps they believed their daughter was making, such as playing the game Connect Four and feeding herself applesauce.

On a Monday, the VanRyns reported: “While certain things seem to be coming back to her, she still has times where she’ll say things that don’t make much sense.”  Shortly thereafter (5 weeks after the accident) the VanRyns learned why: The recovering patient wasn’t their daughter. She was 19 year old Ms. Whitney Cerak.

Sources:

http://roflrazzi.cheezburger.com/totallylookslike/page/19                        http://www.taylor.edu/                                                                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistaken_identity                            http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-06-01-vanryn-cerak-cover_x.htm?csp=22_dmr

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