Opinion ID: 674597
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Challenges to Identification Testimony

Text: 118 Lan Tran and Jimmy make a number of challenges to the admission at trial of pretrial or in-court identifications of them by victims of BTK's various crimes. The general principles governing these challenges are well established. A defendant has a due process right not to be the object of suggestive police identification procedures that create  'a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.'  United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d 369, 377 (2d Cir.1992) (quoting Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 163, 126 L.Ed.2d 124 (1993). The right to be free from suggestive identification procedures extends to photographic arrays. See, e.g., Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. at 384, 88 S.Ct. at 971; United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377; Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d 34, 40-41 (2d Cir.1986). An appellate court may review the array to determine whether it was unduly suggestive. See, e.g., United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d 934, 974 (2d Cir.1990), cert. denied, 501 U.S. 1233, 111 S.Ct. 2858, 115 L.Ed.2d 1025 (1991); United States v. Jacobowitz, 877 F.2d 162, 168 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 866, 110 S.Ct. 186, 107 L.Ed.2d 141 (1989). 119 In reviewing challenges to pretrial identification procedures, a court must examine the procedures employed in light of the particular facts of the case and the totality of the surrounding circumstances. See United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377; United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d at 973. The district court's findings as to what procedures were used may be overturned only if clearly erroneous, and its assessment of the credibility of the witnesses is, as usual, entitled to deference. See United States v. Jakobetz, 955 F.2d 786, 803 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 104, 121 L.Ed.2d 63 (1992); United States v. DiTommaso, 817 F.2d 201, 213 (2d Cir.1987). 120 If the pretrial procedures were not suggestive, any remaining questions as to reliability, such as the witness's inability to identify the same person at trial, go to the weight of the identification and not to its admissibility, and the identification therefore is generally admissible without any further reliability inquiry. See, e.g., United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d at 974-76; see also Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d at 42. If pretrial procedures have been unduly suggestive, an in-court identification may still be permitted if the court determines that the identification is independently reliable. See United States v. Butler, 970 F.2d 1017, 1021 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 480, 121 L.Ed.2d 386 (1992). The factors to be considered in assessing reliability include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness' degree of attention, the accuracy of the witness' prior description of the criminal, the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the confrontation, and the length of time between the crime and the confrontation. Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 199-200, 93 S.Ct. 375, 382, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972); see also United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377. The factors must be evaluated in light of the totality of the circumstances, recognizing that the linchpin of admissibility is reliability. See id. at 378; United States v. Butler, 970 F.2d at 1021. 121 For the reasons below, we conclude that the photo array was not impermissibly suggestive and that none of the individual identifications of Jimmy or Lan Tran was the product of impermissibly suggestive procedures.
122 Both Lan Tran and Jimmy contend that the array itself was unfair, principally because Lan Tran's picture was an uncropped, informal photo and because Jimmy's picture was black and white. Having examined the array, we disagree. 123 In evaluating whether or not a photographic array was unduly suggestive, a court must consider several factors, including the size of the array, the manner of presentation by the officers, and the contents of the array. See United States v. Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377; United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d at 974. If there is nothing inherently prejudicial about the presentation, such as use of a very small number of photographs, see, e.g., United States v. Boston, 508 F.2d 1171, 1177 (2d Cir.1974) (eight-photo array not impermissibly suggestive), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 1001, 95 S.Ct. 2401, 44 L.Ed.2d 669 (1975); United States v. Bennett, 409 F.2d 888, 898 (2d Cir.) (array of six not impermissibly small), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 852, 90 S.Ct. 113, 24 L.Ed.2d 101 (1969); see also United States v. Marrero, 705 F.2d 652, 655 n. 5 (2d Cir.1983) (six-photo array upheld); United States v. Archibald, 734 F.2d 938, 940-41 (2d Cir.1984) (same), or the utterance of suggestive comments before an identification is made, the principal question is whether the picture of the accused, matching descriptions given by the witness, so stood out from all of the other photographs as to 'suggest to an identifying witness that [that person] was more likely to be the culprit,'  Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d at 41 (quoting United States v. Archibald, 734 F.2d at 940). 124 The array used for most of the identifications in the present case contained more than 50 photographs, nearly all of which were of Asian males. All of the men pictured appeared to be of roughly the same age and had similar hair color. The photographs displayed a wide variety of hairstyles and a mixture of men with and without facial hair. Though the array consisted mostly of color mug shots, there were several black-and-white photos, all of which were mug shots, and there were several informal color photographs, all of which were similar to each other. We conclude that the array was not unduly suggestive. 125
126 Ms. Quang Nguyen, the victim of the Asian Market robbery in Tennessee, was shown the array and initially selected one photograph that was not of Jimmy. The next day, the police substituted an uncropped color photo in place of Jimmy's black-and-white photo and presented the array to her again. After looking at the array for about 40 minutes, she selected Jimmy's picture. 127 We reject Jimmy's contention that the substitution of the color photograph of him for the original black-and-white photograph after Ms. Nguyen's initial selection of another photo was unduly suggestive. At a hearing on the admissibility of the photo identification, Ms. Nguyen stated that on the second viewing she had believed all of the pictures had been changed. She also testified, as did Detective Oldham, that no one had suggested what picture she should identify or had otherwise tried to influence her selection. 128 The district court was entitled to accept the testimony of Ms. Nguyen and Detective Oldham that the police did not direct her attention to any particular photograph. It was also entitled to accept Ms. Nguyen's testimony that she believed she was viewing a very different array from the first one shown her. Further, we note that since most of the pictures were in color, the substitution of one in color for Jimmy's original black-and-white photo was likely to cause the new picture of Jimmy to attract less attention, not more. 129
130 At the time of the robbery of San Wa Fine Jewelry in Georgia in the fall of 1990, Elizabeth Lim, daughter of the owners, was 6 1/2 years old. She testified at trial that she had been in the store playing Nintendo when seven boys entered the store, and began to rob it. In June 1991, she was shown a photo array and was asked if she recognized any of the robbers. Elizabeth testified that she looked through the book and picked out five names. She testified that she was asked to go through the book twice more, and each time she picked out the same five photos. 131 Detective Oldham, who conducted the array, testified somewhat differently. He testified that he had shown Elizabeth the array and that the first time through she selected one photo, numbered 40; she then was asked to look through the array a second time and picked out photos 8, 15, and 29; she was then asked to look through the array a third time and picked photo 24, which was the picture of Lan Tran. Oldham testified that in later appearing before the grand jury, Elizabeth selected the same five photos, i.e., those numbered 8, 15, 24, 29, and 40. Both Detective Oldham and Elizabeth testified that at no time had the officers presenting the array told Elizabeth which photos to select or otherwise tried to influence her selections. 132 Lan Tran moved to suppress the photo identification as unreliable, on the grounds that Elizabeth was not a competent or reliable witness and that the identification resulted from a suggestive procedure. The court denied the motion. As to competence, the court stated that Elizabeth struck me as a very intelligent child, a bright child who understood the process and knew what this was about, so I find her--to the extent that that is even an issue, I find her competent to testify. (Tr. 3251.) As to suggestiveness, the court noted first that the procedure as described by Elizabeth was unobjectionable. The court noted further that, even as described by Detective Oldham,I still don't find that there was anything that was impermissibly suggestive about the procedure ... [because] there were a number of participants in the robbery, and there were a number of photographs, so she was called upon to look once, picked out people, asked to look again, picked out someone else and asked to look a third time. 133 It wasn't as if anything about this procedure narrowed her attention to the defendant [Lan] Tran himself ... [.] [I]n light of the large number of photographs, I don't think it was [an] impermissibly suggestive procedure. 134 (Tr. 3252-53.) 135 Given the district court's unique ability to observe the witnesses, we see no basis on which to disturb either its finding that Elizabeth Lim, despite her youth, was competent to testify at trial and to attempt identification of the robbers or the conclusion that the pretrial identification procedures had not been suggestive. Although repeatedly asking a witness who has selected a certain photo to look again at the array might be troubling in some circumstances, for example if there were a small number of photos and only one perpetrator, the procedure described here, given the large number of photos in the array and the large number of robbers, was not impermissible. 136 At trial, Elizabeth selected photos 15, 36, 40, and 51 from the array. The government was then permitted to introduce her grand jury testimony in which she had selected photos 8, 15, 24, 29, and 40. We reject Lan Tran's suggestion that Elizabeth's inability to select the same five photos at trial was a ground for excluding her pretrial identification. The different identification at trial goes to the weight of the evidence and is properly a basis for argument to the jury, not a ground for the exclusion of a pretrial identification that was otherwise permissible. 137
138 An otherwise fair pretrial identification procedure may be rendered impermissibly suggestive through subsequent actions or remarks by government agents. See, e.g., United States v. Jarvis, 560 F.2d 494, 500 (2d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 934, 98 S.Ct. 1511, 55 L.Ed.2d 532 (1978). Conduct such as showing the witness isolated pictures of the person the witness has selected, see, e.g., Solomon v. Smith, 645 F.2d 1179, 1185 (2d Cir.1981), or endorsing the correctness of the selection, see, e.g., United States v. Leonardi, 623 F.2d 746, 755 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 928, 100 S.Ct. 3027, 65 L.Ed.2d 1123 (1980); United States v. Moskowitz, 581 F.2d 14, 20 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 871, 99 S.Ct. 204, 58 L.Ed.2d 184 (1978), may tend to reinforce an otherwise weak or tentative identification and therefore lend a later in-court identification greater conviction than it deserves, United States v. Leonardi, 623 F.2d at 755; see also Solomon v. Smith, 645 F.2d at 1185. However, if the original identification was strong and unequivocal, such misguided postidentification remarks or actions will not render it invalid or preclude a subsequent in-court identification. See United States v. Leonardi, 623 F.2d at 755. 139 Lan Tran complains here of two instances of postidentification impropriety. In connection with the investigation of the robbery of the Vientiane Restaurant in Bridgeport, Bounmy Banavong, the owner, gave the police a physical description of one of the robbers that fit Lan Tran, and she selected Lan Tran's picture from the array. Having s[een] his whole face because he turned and spoke to me (Tr. 4010), and having paid close attention because somebody did something bad to me, it sticks in my eyes (Tr. 4025), Bounmy was certain of her identification. She again selected his picture from the array just prior to testifying before the grand jury. After this second identification, a police officer showed her another mug shot of Lan Tran and said [t]his is another photo of the same person. (January 6, 1992 Hearing at 39.) Then, before the grand jury, Bounmy selected Lan Tran's photograph from the array. She also identified Lan Tran at trial. 140 In the robbery of the Bangkok Health Spa in Bridgeport, one customer, Mike Ganopoulos, had been held in the lobby of the Spa. He had not been forced to keep his head down, he had spoken several times to the robbers, and he was able to watch the robbers throughout most of the robbery. After the robbery, Ganopoulos gave the police detailed descriptions of the robbers. Before the grand jury, Ganopoulos selected the photo of Lan Tran, inter alios, as one of the robbers. At trial, Ganopoulos testified that several officers told me afterwards that I had done a good job of picking them out and complimented me on my memory. (Tr. 4044.) 141 Though the postidentification showing of the isolated photograph to Bounmy and the complimentary remarks of the officers to Ganopoulos were inappropriate procedures, the district court found that each witness had had an adequate opportunity to view the robbers and had paid attention to the events, and it concluded that there were thus independent bases for each identification. These findings were supported by the testimony of the witnesses and are not clearly erroneous. We thus cannot conclude that the court's decision to allow the identification testimony of Bounmy and Ganopoulos, notwithstanding the flawed postidentification procedures, was error.
142 Lan Tran also makes various challenges to the identifications of him by other BTK robbery victims, including Kim Lim, who was Elizabeth Lim's mother and one of the owners of San Wa Fine Jewelry in Georgia, Jenny Ngaopraseutsck, who was present when the Vientiane Restaurant in Bridgeport was robbed, and Vinh Tran, the nephew of Sen Van Ta who was present when Ta was murdered. Lan Tran complains that Kim Lim had initially selected pictures of three other men as the robbers; that Jenny Ngaopraseutsck was present when her aunt and uncle, Bounmy Banavong and Somlith Banavong, respectively, were shown the array; and that Vinh Tran, age 13 at the time of trial, could not remember how many times he viewed the array and did not remember whether his attention had been directed toward a particular picture. 143 In each instance, there was testimony that the 50-photo array was presented to the witness in an entirely neutral fashion and that the attention of the witness was not directed to any particular picture. For example, as to Vinh Tran, the detective who had presented the array, testified as follows: 144 We gave him the album and he flipped through the album. He looked at the album and he flipped through it and he get to photo--photograph number 24 [Tran's photo], and he look [sic ] at the photo and then he pointed at the photo and said this look like the guy. Then this little boy look [sic ] at me. 145 .... 146 One of the two detectives ... told the little boy, just keep on looking, finish the book, looking through the album. 147 (Tr. 5052-53.) The officer then testified that Vinh Tran went through the rest of the book and did not identify anyone else. As to Kim Lim, Detective Oldham testified that Kim Lim was asked to look through the book and identify when they [sic ] were able to, they [sic ] recognized who robbed the jewelry store. (December 27, 1991 Hearing at 123.) Oldham testified that he had not directed Kim Lim to any particular photograph or page, and had not said anything to her after she made her selections. In finding that the procedures leading to these identifications were not unduly suggestive, the district court clearly credited the testimony of the officers, as it was entitled to do. 148 As to Ngaopraseutsck, all of the witnesses testified that her attention had not been drawn to any particular photograph or page. There was evidence that she had not observed the earlier identifications made by Somlith and Bounmy; Ngaopraseutsck testified that she did not know until after she selected Lan Tran's photograph whether or not the Banavongs had identified anyone at all. The district court's finding that the procedures were not unduly suggestive is amply supported. 149 Finally, we note that Lan Tran also contends that the district court erred in allowing Vinh Tran to give unsworn testimony. This contention is frivolous. When children testify, the trial court may fashion an oath or affirmation that is meaningful to the witness. Spigarolo v. Meachum, 934 F.2d 19, 24 (2d Cir.1991); see Fed.R.Evid. 603 (setting out the oath requirement). An  '[a]ffirmation is simply a solemn undertaking to tell the truth; no special verbal formula is required.'  Spigarolo v. Meachum, 934 F.2d at 24 (quoting Fed.R.Evid. 603 Advisory Committee Notes). 150 Here, the court asked several questions to establish that Vinh Tran appreciated the difference between truth and falsehood and that he knew it would be improper to lie in this proceeding. The court concluded its questioning of Vinh Tran as follows: 151 You've told me that you understand that it is very wrong to tell a lie. 152 Do you promise me that in response to Mr. Vinegrad's questions and in response to any questions that Mr. Meyerson [defense counsel] asks, do you promise me that you will tell the truth. THE WITNESS: Yes 153 THE COURT: You understand it's wrong not to. 154 THE WITNESS: Yes. 155 (Tr. 5079.) The district court was satisfied with these answers. Nothing more was required.