WSJ By James Fanelli and Corinne Ramey
The reliability of memory is expected to be a big part of the coming criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, which is poised to hinge on testimony of women who say the British socialite helped financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse them decades ago.
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers have said that they plan to cast doubt on the accusers’ accounts, in part by having a memory expert who has testified in many high-profile criminal cases take the stand to explain how people can develop false memories of past events.
Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, is expected to testify for the defense to explain how memory weakens over time and is vulnerable to contamination, according to a defense filing. She is expected to tell the jury about research showing that news reports or conversations can sometimes alter an individual’s memory or lead a person to develop a memory of an event that never happened…
