Opinion ID: 457943
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Pretrial Line-up.

Text: 10 Jones claims that, because Banks had previously described him as short and since he was, in fact, the shortest participant in the pretrial line-up, the line-up was impermissibly suggestive and tainted Banks' subsequent in-court identification of Jones as the last one to ride with the murdered taxi driver. Jones seeks to bolster this claim by citing the discrepancy between his actual height and the estimate of his height Banks gave the police before his arrest. 1 11 A pretrial line-up is impermissibly suggestive if, under the totality of the circumstances, the procedure challenged created a substantial likelihood of misidentification: 12 [F]actors to be considered in evaluating the likelihood of misidentification include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness' degree of attention, the accuracy of the witness' prior description of the criminal, the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the time of the confrontation, and the length of time between the crime and the confrontation. 13 Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 199-200, 93 S.Ct. 375, 382-383, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972). Jones emphasizes the first three of these factors, arguing that: (1) Banks observed Jones for only five minutes as Jones arranged to hire the taxi, (2) Banks was not attentive since he did not then know that the driver would be murdered, and (3) Banks' estimate of Jones' height was inaccurate by two or three inches. 14 Like the state courts and the district court below, however, we hold that the line-up, if suggestive at all, was not impermissibly suggestive. The five-minute period of observation passed under good lighting conditions. During this period, Banks' attention was specifically directed towards Jones when Jones asked Banks if he were the taxi driver. The line-up occurred only three weeks later, at which time Banks immediately and unequivocally identified Jones. In fact, this identification was so positive that at trial Banks could remember very little about the other individuals who participated in the line-up. This evidence of Banks' certainty is even more compelling when it is recalled that he had previously rejected without hesitation several photographic arrays not containing Jones' picture. The remaining core of Jones' claim--that five minutes was too short a period of observation and three inches too great a discrepancy in height estimation--does not, under a totality of the circumstances create a substantial likelihood of misidentification. The line-up was not unduly suggestive and did not taint Banks' in-court identification of Jones. 15