Opinion ID: 1834065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claimed Ineffectiveness of Counsel With Respect to Instructions on Eyewitness Identification.

Text: Stringer next argues that both trial and appellate counsel were ineffective in failing to propose the giving of a detailed instruction on eyewitness identification testimony. The district court instructed the jury that, on questions of identity, therefore, the value of an opinion expressed by a witness depends upon the knowledge the witness has of the person attempted to be identified, the extent of his acquaintance or lack of it, the opportunity such witness has had for observation, and the circumstances surrounding the transaction in question, whether such is to be likely to impress upon the witness the appearance and personal characteristics of the party under consideration, or otherwise. It is not necessary that such opinion should be formed at the time the person sought to be identified was seen by the witness; but when such opinion is formed, it must be the result of the recollection of the person seen and of the facts connected with the seeing, and not from information derived from others. Stringer characterizes the foregoing instruction as rambling, confusing, and disjointed. He believes that trial counsel should have proposed a more detailed instruction that included specific reference to the problems of identification that inhere in picking a suspect out of a group of similar individuals. Because this was the technique used by the police in securing his identification from the surviving victims, he urges it would have been more appropriate to have an instruction tailored to that method of identification rather than the trial court's general admonition that you may consider the way in which the defendant was presented to the witness for identification. We believe that the argument now presented goes to the form of the instruction and not the substance. Trial courts have a rather broad discretion in the language that may be chosen to convey a particular idea to the jury. See State v. Grady, 183 N.W.2d 707, 719 (Iowa 1971). Unless the choice of words results in an incorrect statement of law or omits a matter essential for the jury's consideration, no error results. Id. Stringer's trial counsel was not ineffective in failing to object to the instruction that was given nor in failing to present an alternative instruction containing the matters for which Stringer now argues on postconviction relief.