A split Appellate Division panel agreed with the result below, holding that expert testimony concerning cross racial identification was not definitive or unanimous. But Judge Thomas Shebell Jr. dissented, saying that the trial judge ignored the task force report and denied Cromedy a fair trial. The majority of courts allowing cross racial identification charges hold that the instruction is a matter within the trial judge's discretion. Civil rights attorneys say the decision is long overdue. Each of us has been on the street and called out to people that we have mistook as a friend.
Memories are fallible, yet imagine what it is like when someone's life is hanging in the balance.
He adds that the decision won't have an overarching effect because, in his experience, there are very few trials that rely solely on the testimony of one eyewitness. Rosenbach says he is considering asking for reconsideration on the issue of whether, even in light of the Court's decision, the case should be remanded since there was corroborating evidence about the clothing that Cromedy was wearing at the time of the crime and when he was apprehended eight months later.