Opinion ID: 766617
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Impermissibly Suggestive Identification Procedures

Text: 22 Armstrong argues that the photo spreads used to identify him impermissibly suggested to Meidinger that the officer thought Armstrong was her attacker and that this suggestiveness casts doubt on the reliability of Meidinger's in-court identification of Armstrong. At trial, Armstrong moved to suppress Meidinger's out-of-court identifications of him and to disallow Meidinger's in-court identification. On direct appeal from his conviction, the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of these motions. 23 To prevail on his claim that the identifications were unreliable, Armstrong must first show that the out-of-court identification procedures were impermissibly suggestive. See United States v. Triplett, 104 F.3d 1074, 1079 (8 th Cir. 1997) (quoting United States v. Ramsey, 999 F.2d 348, 349 (8 th Cir. 1993)). Armstrong's sole basis for asserting that the photo spreads were impermissibly suggestive is that his photograph was the only one to be included in both. This fact is insufficient, by itself, to show that the procedure was impermissibly suggestive. See United States v. Johnson, 56 F.3d 947, 954 (8 th Cir. 1995). Furthermore, the district court found that Meidinger was not told that Armstrong was a suspect, nor was there any evidence that Armstrong's appearance in the photo spreads was suggestive in any way; in fact, different photographs of Armstrong were used in each spread, and Meidinger testified that she did not know that Armstrong was the only person to appear in both. These findings of fact are reviewable only for clear error. See Ivy v. Bowersox, 122 F.3d 675, 676 (8 th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S. Ct. 1063 (1998). Under these facts, Armstrong cannot show that the out-of-court identification procedures were impermissibly suggestive, and the Missouri Court of Appeal's denial of this claim accordingly did not involve an unreasonable application of Federal law.