Opinion ID: 4027532
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Photo Arrays

Text: A few days after the shooting, the police heard rumors that James Dennis might have been the shooter, and they decided to show witnesses photo arrays containing his picture. The detectives compiled three arrays of eight photographs each. Dennis’ picture was placed in the first position of the first array, and police used this array to solicit an identification of the shooter (the second array was used to attempt identification of the accomplice, and the third was shown thereafter to offer the witnesses one more opportunity to identify a suspect). At trial, Detective Manuel Santiago explained how he compiled the array: he used the “most recent photo”36 that he could find of Dennis and then “went into [police] files and obtained photos of young black males, which would not be too unlike the photo of Mr. James Dennis.”37 When Detective Santiago showed the witnesses the arrays, he instructed them: “I’m going to show you a photograph spread with eight photos. See if you recognize anyone.”38 Only four of the nine eyewitnesses could make any identification from the arrays: Zahra Howard, Thomas Bertha, Anthony Overstreet, and James Cameron indicated that Dennis “look[ed] familiar.”39 However, none of these witnesses was initially certain about their “identifications.” For example, when Detective Santiago showed Howard the arrays, she pointed to Dennis and stated, “[t]his one looks like the guy, but I can’t be sure.”40 Detective Santiago next showed the same spreads to James Cameron. When asked if he recognized anyone, Cameron stated, “#1 looks familiar but I can’t be sure.”41 When provided the same arrays, Bertha pointed to Dennis and stated, “[t]hat looks like the one that was running 36 J.A. 165. 37 Id. 38 J.A. 161. 39 J.A. 1548. 40 J.A. 1537. 41 J.A. 1548. 9 with the gun.”42 Santiago probed further: “Can you be sure that photo #1 is the male that you saw get away from the girl and run at you with the gun after the gunshot?”43 It was then that Bertha replied, “Yes I can.”44 Detective Santiago’s follow-up question and Bertha’s response bear an eerie resemblance to the follow-up question asked of Jennifer Thompson (“Are you sure?”) after her response (“Positive”) following her initial tentative selection of Ronald Cotton from a photo array. A different detective showed Anthony Overstreet the arrays. After Overstreet had reviewed the first array, the detective asked “[i]s there anyone in these photos that you can identify?”45 Overstreet replied: “Yes, in the first set of photos, #1 looks like the male who shot the girl.”46 The detective then asked Overstreet to repeat his identification: “The male that you identified, is he the male you saw running up the street with the gun?” “Yes he is,” Overstreet confirmed.47 Thus, when asked about the male that he had “identified,” Overstreet moved from saying that Dennis’ picture “looked like” the shooter to affirming that Dennis “is” the shooter. This may, at first, appear to be a meaningless distinction that is nothing more than innocuous reply to a simple follow-up question. However, as I will discuss in greater detail below, such subtle, and seemingly innocent, probes can sow seeds that blossom into certain, albeit inaccurate, identifications.48 Significantly, none of the remaining five eyewitnesses selected Dennis from the photo arrays. When a detective showed Verdell the spreads, he stated, “The best I can say is it’s either #1, #5, or #8. I concentrated more on the male that was directly behind Chedell and I believe him to be the accomplice.”49 Verdell returned to the police station a few days later to reexamine the photos. The second time around, he stated “it would be either #1 or #8 who was the [shooter]. I lean 42 J.A. 1555. 43 J.A. 1556. 44 Id. 45 J.A. 1565. 46 Id. 47 J.A. 1566. 48 See infra Part III.A.4. 49 J.A. 1576. 10 more towards #1 because of the build of the male but he definitely doesn’t have that cut of hair now. I definitely do not remember him having his hair cut that way.”50 Neither David LeRoy nor either of the DiRienzos identified Dennis from the arrays. Finally, the Commonwealth denies that police ever showed George Ritchie a photo array. Ritchie vigorously disputes this claim. In 2005, Ritchie testified at Dennis’ PostConviction Relief hearing that officers showed him an array during their investigation but became frustrated when Ritchie was unable to identify the shooter from the photos. Assuming arguendo that the Commonwealth’s claim regarding Ritchie is true, that means that the police and prosecution did not attempt to learn if Ritchie would have identified Dennis or someone else as the shooter even though Ritchie had initially expressed confidence in his ability to identify the shooter.