Memory expert taken to task in Libby hearing [View All]

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15432154/

Memory expert taken to task in Libby hearing
Special counsel causes witness to question her own research

WASHINGTON - A key to the defense strategy for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - that the pressure of his job at the White House caused Libby to "misremember" conversations about Valerie Plame to reporters - was put in question today during a pre-trial hearing on whether a memory expert would be admitted to testify on Libby's behalf.

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Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald vigorously cross-examined Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a memory expert and defense witness at the procedural hearing. Loftus, the first witness to appear in the case, testified in support of a motion by Libby's attorney that Dr. Robert A Bjork, the chairman of UCLA'S psychology department, should be admitted as an expert witness at trial.

Perception of guilt or innocence

Fitzgerald's blistering, nearly three-hour, questioning of Loftus caused her to admit that some of her own findings about what juries know about memory were faulty and that some of her own research may have been flawed.

Quoting from her own book "Witness for the Defense," Fitzgerald also confronted Loftus about how she might sway a jury if called to testify at trial. She had written that, "using my arsenal of subtle psychological tools" Loftus could make an impression on a jury about her perception about guilt or innocence.