This research can help refine police and court procedures with respect to eyewitness accounts.
Many "law enforcement" people are already aware of these behavioral tendencies.
Witnesses can very easily be "helped" to remember things that never actually occurred, especially when the helpers are over-zealous public service authority figures.
exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices.
DNA testing is being increasingly used to overturn convictions of people who were often identified by eyewitnesses.
Indeed, coaching the witness. Lawyers have that issue too ;)
I've seen instances on one or two news shows where the interrogation tapes show the police feeding information to a witness that wasn't made public through leading questions.
I doubt the witness even realized it.
It can be very damning "evidence".