Opinion ID: 3134480
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Move to Suppress

Text: or Object to Identification Testimony Defendant next argues that his trial counsel were inadequate for failing to move to suppress or object to the identification testimony of Kenneth Stewart. Stewart was the service station attendant who identified defendant at trial as the man who purchased gasoline from him before the fire. At trial, Stewart testified that he witnessed a lineup at 4 p.m. on January 6, 1987. In his testimony Stewart candidly admitted that, at the lineup, he stated that he thought defendant was the man, but that he could not tell with “any degree of certainty.” Stewart told police during the lineup that defendant “favored” the man who purchased the gasoline. Defendant attached an affidavit from Stewart to his post-conviction petition. In it, Stewart avers that he was asked by police to view the lineup to identify the man who purchased the gasoline. The lineup consisted of five African-American men, one of whom was shorter than the other four. Stewart was not able to identify anyone. Stewart was still not able to make an identification after going into the lineup room and listening to the men ask for “$1.50 worth of gas.” Stewart felt pressured by a prosecutor to make a positive identification. Stewart was asked “if any of the men more likely than not was the man,” and Stewart picked out defendant, the shortest man. At trial, Stewart identified defendant as the man who purchased the gasoline “although [he] was not certain.” Stewart did not recall being contacted by the defense before trial. Defendant now asserts that the failure of his trial counsel to obtain this information from Stewart constitutes ineffective assistance. He argues that counsel should have filed a motion to suppress Stewart's identification and that, without this information, counsel could not have made a strategic choice about whether to file the motion to suppress. The record of defendant's trial, however, reveals that counsel had almost all this information and used it. Steven Stern, the attorney who represented defendant during the lineup, testified that he viewed the lineup and Stewart's identification. Stern informed the jury that on several occasions Stewart failed to make an identification, that he again made no identification after he heard each person ask for $1.50 worth of gas, that he declined to rate his certainty of identification on a scale of 1 to 10, and that he finally identified defendant only when asked if it was more likely than not that someone in the lineup was the person. Therefore, the information that defendant now asserts should have been presented to the jury by trial counsel was in fact presented to them through Stern's testimony. Trial counsel used this information at trial in an effort to cast doubt on Stewart's identification testimony. Defendant has thus failed to show any deficiency in the performance of his counsel. Defendant nonetheless asserts that his counsel was deficient because they should have filed a motion to suppress rather than presenting Stern's testimony at trial. To show deficiency, a defendant must overcome the strong presumption that the challenged action or inaction of counsel was the product of sound trial strategy and not of incompetence. People v. Barrow , 133 Ill. 2d 226, 247 (1989). The decision whether to file a motion is a matter of trial strategy which will be accorded great deference. People v. Wilson , 164 Ill. 2d 436, 454-55 (1994). Here, the decision by counsel to present this information at trial rather than file a motion to suppress was a sound strategic decision. Defendant's ineffectiveness claim thus fails.