Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/362/362mass564.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 19:56:46+00:00

Document:
COMMONWEALTH vs. JOSEPH E. DENAULT.
INDICTMENT found and returned in the Superior Court on November 12, 1969.
Klari Neuwelt, for the defendant, submitted a brief.
KAPLAN, J. The defendant Denault, convicted after a trial under G. L. c. 278, Sections 33A-33G, on an indictment with charges of breaking and entering a dwelling house at night with intent to commit larceny, and of committing the larceny of a purse and its contents, seeks reversal on grounds stemming from the admission of evidence regarding his identification by the victim of the burglary, a Mrs. Bates-Gee.
further talk about identification. As the cruiser reached the scene, Mrs. Bates-Gee saw the black sedan parked near the curb and said that that was the car and the same registration number. When the cruiser pulled up in front of the black car, Mrs. Bates-Gee saw a police car ahead with a man sitting in the back seat. She said without prompting that there was the man and, immediately thereafter, walking over to the police car with an officer, she said that this was definitely the man.
At the trial Mrs. Bates-Gee recounted what she had done and seen and heard as just described. She testified without objection that the man she saw at the pantry window was the defendant now in the court room; objection with exception was taken only to her subsequent reference to the man who fled into the street as "Mr. Denault." She thereafter testified without objection to her identification of Denault at Central Street.
Denault was alone in the back seat of the police car when seen by Mrs. Bates-Gee. Considering, however, the "totality of the circumstances" (Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 302) including the spontaneity of the original identification at Central Street we think there was no denial of due process. See Commonwealth v. Bumpus, 354 Mass. 494 , 501; Commonwealth v. Leaster, ante, 407, 411; Commonwealth v. McGrath, 361 Mass. 431 , 436-437; Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384. [Note 2] The in-court identification, moreover, had support apart from the Central Street episode, for Mrs. Bates-Gee had had an opportunity to fix the appearance of the intruder in her mind at the time of his escape and gave a description within minutes thereafter. See Commonwealth v. Leaster, ante, at 415; United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 239-241; Cooper v. Picard, 428 F. 2d 1351, 1354 (1st Cir.); S. C. 316 F. Supp. 856, 859-860 (D. Mass.).
The second error claimed is in the judge's permitting two police officers, Ramsdell and Bryant, to testify to Mrs. Bates-Gee's identification of the defendant at Central Street. Again there is doubt that objection was timely made; the substance of Ramsdell's testimony on that point came in without objection. The testimony was inadmissible as hearsay if received to prove the truth of Mrs. Bates-Gee's identification, but admissible if received as corroboration of the fact that she made the identification. The latter is the sense in which any trier of the facts would naturally view the officers' testimony. A limiting instruction might have been appropriate, see Commonwealth v. Leaster, ante, at 412, but it was not requested, nor was it required.
[Note 1] There was $12.50 in the purse which was discarded at the scene and returned to Mrs. Bates-Gee with its contents other than the cash.
[Note 2] The dissenting opinion by Brennan, J., in Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 698, n. 5, would hold that the strict Wade-Gilbert rule as to right to counsel at lineups and the like should apply to a period before indictment, but it is notable that the opinion would still leave room for "on-the-scene encounters shortly after the crime," citing as examples United States v. Davis, 339 F. 2d 948 (2d Cir.), cert. den. 393 U.S. 987, and Russell v. United States, 408 F. 2d 1280 (D. C. Cir.), cert. den. 395 U.S. 928.

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