NCJ Number
193299
Date Published
2000
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This appendix presents questions and answers in the plaintiff's attorney's cross-examination of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus in the case of Lynn Crook vs. Bruce Murphy and Lucille Murphy in the Superior Court of the State of Washington (1994), a case in which Dr. Loftus testified as an expert witness to counter the plaintiff's claim that she had been sexually abused in her childhood; due to the traumatic nature of the abuse, the plaintiff had repressed memories of it until later in adulthood, when she recalled it under therapeutic intervention.
Abstract
The cross-examination opened with questions by the plaintiff's attorney designed to show the possibility that Dr. Loftus had a strong financial motive for offering her services repeatedly as an expert witness for defendants in cases that involved a plaintiff's adult memories of childhood traumatic events. The questioning then turned to the scientific findings regarding a person's repression of memories of traumatic events and the clarity of the subsequent recollection of the events some years later. The intent of these questions was to show that there were differences of opinion in the scientific community regarding the validity and reliability of repressed memories recalled later in life. Questions also focused on the influence a therapist may have in suggesting the content of a recall of a client's earlier traumatic repressed experience. The cross-examination asked the witness about her knowledge of case studies in which an adult with repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse correctly recalled the experience, based on corroborated confessions by the perpetrator. The cross-examination focused on questions that caused the witness to acknowledge the possibility that the plaintiff did in fact experience childhood sexual abuse, did repress the memory of it, and can accurately recall it.