Opinion ID: 405147
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: in-court identification of harper

Text: 14 Harper contends that Nicholas Tisi's in-court identification of Harper as a perpetrator of the Hallandale Bank robbery was impermissibly tainted by Tisi's encounter with the defendants on the day before his testimony. Evidently, Tisi was sitting on a bench outside the courtroom, waiting to be called to testify, when he saw the defendants walk down the hall with their attorneys. We conclude that Tisi's subsequent in-court identification of Harper was not impermissibly tainted by this encounter. 15 The test for whether a witness' in-court identification of a defendant is impermissibly tainted by a prior encounter between the witness and the defendant is as follows: 16 First, as a threshold inquiry, the Court must decide whether the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive. A finding of impermissible suggestiveness raises concern over the reliability of identification and triggers closer scrutiny by the Court to determine whether such a procedure created a substantial risk of misidentification. 17 Allen v. Estelle, 568 F.2d 1108, 1112 (5th Cir. 1978); accord, Preacher v. Estelle, 626 F.2d 1222, 1223 (5th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 930, 101 S.Ct. 1389, 67 L.Ed.2d 362 (1981). Applying the first part of the test to this case, we doubt that the facts of the challenged encounter rise to the level of impermissible suggestiveness. First, the encounter was inadvertent, and not staged by the government. Second, the only individuals accompanying the defendants were their lawyers. No police officers were with them. Third, although the defendants were wearing handcuffs, Tisi testified, out of the jury's presence, that he saw no handcuffs on the defendants and that he thought everyone in the group had their hands at their sides. Fourth, Tisi also testified that the hallway outside the courtroom was crowded with people walking down the corridor in the same manner as the defendants, that the group in question did not stand out in any way, and that he paid no particular attention to them. 18 Assuming arguendo that some elements of this encounter were unduly suggestive, we conclude that the facts of the encounter did not create a substantial risk of misidentification. Tisi was engrossed in a magazine as the defendants walked by. Tisi testified that he glanced up from the magazine at the defendants only for a moment, and that he paid no particular attention to them. Finally, he firmly stated that he was certain that he could identify the bank robbers without regard to the courthouse encounter. Accordingly, we hold that Tisi's in-court identification of Harper was not impermissibly tainted by Tisi's encounter with the defendants shortly before his testimony.