Opinion ID: 336561
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Suggestive Line-up

Text: 5 An identification procedure that is unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification violates due process of law. Stoval v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). A totality of the circumstances test was fixed as the standard for deciding such contentions. 388 U.S. at 302, 87 S.Ct. 1967. In Foster v. California, 394 U.S. 440, 89 S.Ct. 1127, 22 L.Ed.2d 402 (1969), the Court held that a line-up is unduly suggestive when it is virtually inevitable that the witness will select the individual whom the police have singled out. This rule, unlike the exclusionary rule of the Fourth Amendment, is aimed not at deterring unfair police practices but at the reliability vel non of the truth-finding process. See 394 U.S. at 440, 89 S.Ct. 1127. As a general principle, it is for the jury, the factfinder in our criminal process, to weigh the reliability of evidence and the credibility of witnesses. Only when the eyewitness identification is unreliable because of suggestive line-up procedures should a court rule that the evidence is constitutionally inadmissible as a matter of law. Foster v. California, supra, at 442-443 n. 2, 89 S.Ct. 1127. The district court placed great weight on the fact that petitioner's contentions in regard to the suggestiveness of the line-up all related to appearance. The identifying witnesses, with the exception of Willie Johnson, identified each of the codefendants on the basis of his voice and not his personal appearance. Johnson, who did identify from appearance, testified that he had previously met White and had known Caver for years. Relying on this evidence, the district court concluded that the identification was not unreliable due to any suggestiveness in appearance. We agree. While the procedures used at this line-up are subject to criticism, we are convinced that no miscarriage of justice occurred in this case.