Opinion ID: 2330747
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Maryland Law Prior to Wade Gilbert Stovall

Text: At the time the Wade  Gilbert  Stovall trilogy of opinions was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States [1] it was the general rule in this State that a judicial identification of the accused was admissible. It was also the general rule that the testimony of a witness that he had made a prior extra-judicial identification should be admitted for the purpose of corroborating the witness and bolstering his credibility.... Judy v. State, 218 Md. 168, 174, 146 A.2d 29 (1958). Testimony by a police officer or some third party as to an extra-judicial identification was admissible when made under circumstances precluding the suspicion of unfairness and unreliability, provided that the out-of-court identifier was present at trial and subject to cross-examination. Walters v. State, 242 Md. 235, 239, 218 A.2d 678 (1966); Johnson v. State, 237 Md. 283, 289-291, 206 A.2d 138 (1965). Such testimony was admissible whether or not the out-of-court declarant made a judicial identification, and thus was admissible not only as corroboration of a judicial identification but as substantive evidence of criminal agency. Johnson at 289, 206 A.2d 138. See Proctor v. State, 223 Md. 394, 398-400, 164 A.2d 708 (1960); Basoff v. State, 208 Md. 643, 650-651, 119 A.2d 917 (1956). This was all set out in Smith and Samuels v. State, 6 Md. App. 59, 63-64, 250 A.2d 285, cert. denied, Smith v. State, 254 Md. 720, cert. denied, Samuels v. State, 255 Md. 743 (1969), cert. denied, Samuels v. Maryland, 397 U.S. 1057, 90 S.Ct. 1402, 25 L.Ed.2d 674 (1970).