Opinion ID: 1872281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Defense counsel's cross-examination of Detective Morgan

Text: ¶ 65. The following is the cross-examination relating to simultaneous and sequential lineups: Q [defense counsel] Did you go to any kind of training on lineup, sequential versus simultaneous? A [Detective Morgan] Yes, I did. Q Same one I was at? A Yes. Q And you learned why simultaneous lineups like the one that occurred tend to be unreliable, right? MR. KAISER [Assistant District Attorney]: Objection; relevance. THE COURT: Overruled. A There were [sic] some discussion about why that presenter didn't believe they were as reliable. Q Part of the problem is that it gets to be comparative. The witness who is watching the lineup tries to figure out which one most resembles the person, right? A That's what the instructor said, yes. Q And the instructor also gave us examples how, when they remove the actual suspect from a lineup and show another lineup without that person, other people tend to get picked out because they remove the actual suspect, right? MR. KAISER: Objection; relevance of specific examples of other lineups and how they were conducted. THE COURT: Well, this relates to her training and so I think it's within her general realm of knowledge, so overruled. Q You understand my question, right? A One more time, please? Q The instructor showed you examples where six people are in a photo array and someone, a group of people have seen what the person looked like and they're supposed to pick out which of the six it was, and then they do the same thing again but take out the one who's picked out by the highest percentage of the witnesses, run the whole thing again, and the other five, their percentages all go up as a result, right? MR. KAISER: Objection; relevance of photo arrays. THE COURT: Overruled. Q Do you remember that? A I don't remember that specific example. Q Do you remember many discussions about the problems, though, with comparison when you look at six people? A Yes, and actually, I believe most of that was directed towards photo arrays as opposed to in person. Q And lineups too? A Okay. Q City of Madison is now doing a sequence lineup program now, are they not? MR. KAISER: Objection; relevance. THE COURT: Overruled. A Yes, we will be trained in that. Q Because it tends  because statistics tends to show that you have less false positives that way, right? A That's part of the training that they plan to present. Q But you know that already, right? A I'm not trying to be difficult, but I really think that the training was specifically directed towards photo lineups. ¶ 66. LOUIS B. BUTLER, JR., J. ( dissenting ). The majority concludes that the circuit court did not erroneously exercise its discretion in excluding the expert testimony on eyewitness identification proffered by the defendant, and that the absence of such testimony did not deprive him of his constitutional right to present a defense. Because I disagree with these conclusions, and because I conclude that there was a significant failure of communication between the trial court and defense counsel regarding the admissibility of some of the proffered expert testimony, I respectfully dissent.