Opinion ID: 1111382
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Accidental Voice Show-up or Speak-up

Text: Officer Clarence Allen brought Ms. McKinion to the police station on the night of September 3 at 11:30 p.m. for further questioning. Mr. Nicholson was in a room with the door shut talking with Police Chief Joe Mowdy. As Ms. McKinion walked into the station, she overheard Nicholson's voice and immediately identified the voice as that of her assailant. She became upset and Officer Allen immediately drove her back home. Officer Allen testified that he knew Nicholson was in the station that night, but that knowledge did not prompt him to bring Ms. McKinion into the station, nor did he expect Nicholson to still be there when he returned with Ms. McKinion. He did not tell Ms. McKinion that Nicholson was at the station. Police Chief Mowdy testified that he did not know Ms. McKinion was in the station, that he and Nicholson were behind a closed door, and that there was no ploy to effect a show-up. Thus, there is substantial evidence that this incident was inadvertent. Mr. Nicholson claims that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated. In Thompson v. State, 483 So.2d 690 (Miss. 1986), this Court addressed the issue of right to counsel at an inadvertent show-up. Relying on United States v. Thevis, 665 F.2d 616 (5th Cir.1982), this Court held that there is no violation of right to counsel where the encounter was inadvertent and there was no evidence that the prosecutor staged it. Thompson at 692. Therefore, in the absence of any evidence that this incident was staged, Nicholson's Sixth Amendment right to counsel was not violated, assuming that this voice overhearing is even equivalent to a show-up, since Ms. McKinion did not actually see Mr. Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson next argues that this incident tainted Ms. McKinion's subsequent in-court identification of Mr. Nicholson. Again applying the Neil factors, Ms. McKinion had ample opportunity at the time of the crime to hear her assailant speak. She testified that he kept threatening to kill her if she told the police. According to the record, she immediately identified his voice when she overheard it, and the overhearing took place only four days after the crime. Therefore, there is substantial evidence that there was not substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification in allowing the in-court identification, nor was there substantial likelihood of misidentification in allowing testimony of this out-of-court identification of Nicholson's voice.