Opinion ID: 1903008
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: photo spread identification

Text: Next, Thomas claims that the photo spread identification made by Elvord was impermissibly suggestive because two of the six individuals in the Thomas spread had appeared in a prior photo spread showed to her. The police showed Elvord photos of over 7,000 different men. However, she did not identify any of them as her assailant. Approximately two weeks after the crime, the police showed Elvord photo spreads containing six people each. On May 1, Elvord immediately picked out Thomas from the photo spread, which contained his photo for the first time. The test to apply for suppression of an out-of-court identification is two-fold: (1) did the police use an unnecessarily suggestive procedure to obtain the out-ofcourt identification; (2) and if so, considering all the circumstances, did the suggestive procedure give rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. See Grant v. State, 390 So.2d 341, 343 (Fla.1980). If the police did not use an unnecessarily suggestive procedure, then the court need not consider the second part of the test. See Green v. State, 641 So.2d 391, 394 (Fla.1994); Grant, 390 So.2d at 344. Florida law has upheld the use of photo spreads containing six individual pictures. See Lewis v. State, 572 So.2d 908 (Fla. 1990); Stephens v. State, 693 So.2d 1090 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). Under the above stated test, Thomas's claim must fail. Detective Davis testified that he did not suggest to Elvord which photo to pick. He also testified that he did not tell her that she had to pick a photo from either spread. Although Elvord testified that Detective Davis had told her he had two suspects whose photographs he wanted her to look at, in Green we held that a photo lineup was not unnecessarily suggestive, even though the police officer told the witness that the suspect was within the six pictures that he was going to show her. Green, 641 So.2d at 394. From Detective Davis's and Elvord's testimony, it is clear that the photo spreads were not unnecessarily suggestive; therefore, the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying Thomas's motion to suppress Elvord's identification of Thomas.