Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday (June 5) signed a new law that allows for experts to testify in criminal trials about the science behind problems with eyewitness identifications.

Forty-eight other states and the federal court system already permit expert testimony on the subject, which advocates for the new law say helps prevent wrongful convictions based on mistaken eyewitness identifications.

“Wrongful conviction cases, together with over 40 years of scientific research, show us that eyewitness identification is fallible, and yet it is so convincing that, when it is wrong, it poses a serious risk of convicting the innocent,” Innocence Project New Orleans Director Jee Park said in a statement.