Opinion ID: 2307035
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Identification Issues

Text: Defendant urges the broad constitutional proposition that a photographic identification when the subject is in custody cannot be conducted in the absence of counsel. [8] Since the argument derives from the line-up cases  United States v. Wade, supra (388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed. 2 d 1149), and Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed. 2 d 1178 (1967)  our consideration should begin with them. They held that an accused is entitled to counsel at any critical stage of the prosecution, that a post-indictment lineup is such a critical stage, and that failure to afford counsel requires the exclusion of evidence of such a lineup identification. The same day the court decided Stovall v. Denno, supra (388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed. 2 d 1199), which involved a one-on-one, emergency, pre-indictment identification. It held that Wade was not applicable, because it would not be applied retroactively, and that the question was whether the confrontation was so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that [defendant] was denied due process of law. 388 U.S. at 302, 87 S.Ct. at 1972, 18 L.Ed. 2 d at 1206. The next year a photographic identification case came before the court. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed. 2 d 1247 (1968). It concerned a pre-arrest identification of photographs of the defendant by eyewitnesses to the crime. The contention was not made that he was entitled to counsel at the time the pictures were shown to the witnesses, so this question was not decided. The assertion rather was that in the circumstances the identification procedure was so unduly prejudicial as fatally to taint his conviction, which, the court said, must be evaluated in light of the totality of surrounding circumstances, citing Stovall. 390 U.S. at 383, 88 S.Ct. at 970, 19 L.Ed. 2 d at 1252-1253. Mr. Justice Harlan went on to speak further of identification by photograph: We are unwilling to prohibit its employment, either in the exercise of our supervisory power or, still less, as a matter of constitutional requirement. Instead, we hold that each case must be considered on its own facts, and that convictions based on eyewitness identification at trial following a pretrial identification by photograph will be set aside on that ground only if the photographic identification procedure was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. This standard accords with our resolution of a similar issue in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 301-302, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1972-1973, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199, 1206, and with decisions of other courts on the question of identification by photograph. (390 U.S. at 384, 88 S.Ct. at 971, 19 L.Ed. 2 d at 1253). The United States Supreme Court has not since directly passed upon the right to counsel at photographic identifications. As defendant concedes in his brief, most federal circuit courts of appeal and state appellate tribunals have refused to apply the Wade exclusionary rule in such situations. He does rely on the contrary view of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in United States v. Zeiler, 427 F. 2 d 1305 (1970), in which a panel of that court held that the Wade rule does apply to pretrial photographic identification of an accused who is in custody. There the defendant had not only been arrested for the crime as to which the identification was made, but counsel had been appointed for him. But very recently the same court, sitting en banc, overruled this holding of Zeiler. United States ex rel. Reed v. Anderson, 461 F. 2 d 739 (3 Cir.1972). It may be noted that even the dissenting judges in Reed, one of whom had written the opinion in Zeiler, agreed that [t]he Zeiler rule is inapplicable to such photographic exhibition during investigation preliminary to possible charging. (461 F.2d p. 752). Shortly before Reed was handed down, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held in accordance with Zeiler, expressly relying upon it. United States v. Ash, 461 F. 2 d 92 (D.C. Cir.1972). Significantly, the United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in that case on the government's petition. 407 U.S. 909, 92 S.Ct. 2436, 32 L.Ed. 2 d 682 (1972). In Ash, as in Zeiler, the defendant was in custody, presumably for the crime involved, and counsel had been appointed. While following Zeiler, the majority did say: There are instances in which a photographic exhibition  even though an event capable of being adduced at trial  is too preliminary and preparatory to be regarded as a critical stage of the prosecution requiring attendance of defense counsel. Certainly when a case is in the pre-arrest investigative stage there is justification for photographic viewings, assuming no undue suggestiveness, Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247.... (461 F.2d at 101-102). Our obligation, in resolving the question before us, is to divine, as best we can, what result the United States Supreme Court would reach in our case. See Roadway Express, Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation, 50 N.J. 471, 475 (1967), appeal dismissed 390 U.S. 745, 88 S.Ct. 1443, 20 L.Ed. 2 d 276 (1968). Some clue is found in Kirby, which we followed in Earle. There at a police station the victim of robbery identified as the culprits, in a face-to-face confrontation (not a lineup), two men whom the police had arrested. They had not been formally charged with the offense. The majority held evidence of the identification admissible on the basis that a person's right to counsel attaches only at or after the time that adversary judicial proceedings have been initiated against him. The latter was defined as formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment. 406 U.S. at 689, 92 S.Ct. at 1882, 32 L.Ed. 2 d at 417. [9] There seems every reason to think that, at the very least, the same holding would be applied to investigative, precharge photographic identifications. As we have noted, even Zeiler and Ash excepted photographic viewings at such early stages from the scope of their holdings. Indeed, the court could soundly hold more broadly that the stage at which photographic identification takes place is of no relevance on the question of admissibility, but that the test should be only that of impermissible suggestiveness as indicated in our quotation from Simmons. Photographic identifications have many facets and serve many purposes. For example, they may be quite properly used to buttress other evidence in the preparatory stages of a prosecution when the defendant has been indicted or an arrest warrant issued, but has not been apprehended, so that no counsel has been appointed for him and no lineup is possible. In fact, the idea of requiring counsel for photographic identifications generally approaches the impractical, if not the ridiculous. Again, for example, eyewitnesses are frequently shown photographs of several persons whom the police conceive, on the basis of past conduct, as capable of the offense in question, but against none of whom is there yet any real evidence, nor have any of them been taken into custody. Is counsel to be appointed for each person whose photograph is shown? Other similar situations, common in law enforcement practice, can readily be brought to mind. We therefore hold that there was no error in the admission of the photographic identifications of defendant on the ground that they were conducted in the absence of counsel. [10]
Defendant argues alternatively that the photographic identifications by Stallings, Rojas and Shaver should not have been admitted in evidence (and so the in-court identifications by Stallings and Shaver should also have been excluded), because, under the rule laid down in Stovall and Simmons, they were so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification and thus resulted in a denial of due process. We have consistently applied that test of admissibility since Stovall in photographic, as well as personal confrontation, identifications. See, e.g., State v. Matlack, 49 N.J. 491 (1967), cert. den. 389 U.S. 1009, 88 S.Ct. 572, 19 L.Ed. 2 d 606 (1967); State v. Mustacchio, 57 N.J. 265 (1970); State v. Royster, 57 N.J. 472 (1971), cert. den. 404 U.S. 910, 92 S.Ct. 235, 30 L.Ed. 2 d 182 (1971); State v. Thompson, 59 N.J. 396 (1971). Impermissive suggestibility is to be determined by the totality of the circumstances of the identification. It is to be stressed that the determination can only be reached so as to require the exclusion of the evidence where all the circumstances lead forcefully to the conclusion that the identification was not actually that of the eyewitness, but was imposed upon him so that a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification can be said to exist. What is being tested in the preliminary inquiry as to admissibility is whether the choice made by the witness represents his own independent recollection or whether it in fact resulted from the suggestive words or conduct of a law enforcement officer. The strength or credibility of the identification is not the issue on admissibility; that is a matter of weight, for the fact finder, under appropriate instructions from the trial judge. As Judge Adams said with respect to photographic displays, in his concurring opinion in Reed v. Anderson, supra , ... I do not dispute that such an arrangement has a potential for error. However, because so many crimes can be proved only through the use of eye witness testimony, the admission of such evidence should not be unduly restricted. Rather such judicial policy should encourage full utilization of eye witness testimony, tested, of course, in the crucible of trial proceedings. (461 F.2d p. 746). Our examination of the photographs used here and the testimony as to the identifications therefrom convinces us that we cannot disagree with the trial court's conclusion, entitled to very considerable weight, that the procedure was not so suggestive as to require exclusion of Stallings' and Rojas' identifications of defendant. What defendant is really complaining about is that the hour of the day and lighting conditions, the excitement of the occasion, and the fleeting glimpse that these young boys had of the culprits made their later identifications of defendant unreliable and untrustworthy. They were rigorously cross-examined, both on the voir dire and before the jury, by assiduous defense counsel and all weaknesses in their identifications fully pointed up. The worth thereof was for the fact finder, not for the court. It will be recalled that Stallings' photographic identification was preceded by his chance encounter with defendant, at which time he spontaneously advised Detective Jacalone that this was the man he had seen leaving the Hermans' the night of the killing, so in his case the photographic display was of secondary importance. The mere fact that defendant's photograph was about an inch larger in length and breadth than the other four does not require exclusion. The picture was otherwise of exactly the same kind  front and side view, with identical finish and color  as the others. The other pictures were of men with both differing and similar facial characteristics, so as to afford a fair basis for choice. And there was no evidence, as to either Stallings or Rojas, that Jacalone had done or said anything to direct distinctive attention to defendant's picture. It is inferred that Rojas, who was not as strong a witness as Stallings, may have turned it over and seen Stallings' signature on the back. The testimony thereon was inconclusive in that the witness was in some doubt, but Jacalone testified that he was with Rojas all the time he was examining the photographs and that they were not turned over. The trial judge was justified in believing the officer. Defendant also urges that, since defendant was in custody on another charge, a lineup should have been held, without any previous photographic identification. We know of no such requirement, either constitutional or non-constitutional. Under Kirby and Earle, defendant would not have been entitled to counsel in the event of a lineup and it is much more difficult to reconstruct such a procedure for a trial court and jury (unless a photograph thereof was taken) than in the case of photographic identification. A claim of error is also made with respect to the photographic identification by Shaver because Agent Laughlin showed him only one picture and told him it was of defendant. In the first place, the showing of a single photograph ordinarily goes only to weight, and not admissibility, of an identification. State v. Matlack, supra (49 N.J. at 498). But more important, the situation was entirely different than in the case of Stallings and Rojas. Here there was a known person and the purpose was only to add his full name to a nickname and to confirm the identity of the man having that name with the one in whose company Shaver had been. Moreover, the identification pales into insignificance in the light of the identical testimony of McCallum, who had known defendant for a long time and had been in the group on the day in question. There was no realistic possibility of misidentification. In sum, defendant's contentions with respect to the out-of-court and in-court identification testimony of Stallings, Rojas and Shaver go merely to weight and not to admissibility under the circumstances here and provide no ground for reversal.
Defendant also urges error in the trial court allowing Agent Laughlin to corroborate the identification testimony of Shaver. We see no merit to the contention. Such testimony of a third party as to a statement of prior identification by a person, when that person is a witness at the trial, is clearly admissible in this state. State v. Matlack, supra (49 N.J. at 499-500); Evidence Rule 63 (1) (c).