Opinion ID: 351559
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: photographic identifications

Text: 16 (A) Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey 17 Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey challenge on due process grounds the in-court identifications of them by Shaw. They claim the identifications were the product of an impermissibly suggestive photographic identification procedure. 18 On April 10, 1975, after Shaw was taken into custody, federal agents showed him what the government describes as a stack of between six and fifteen photos, displayed one at a time. Photographs of Peter Betres, Ronald Betres and Coffey were included. Shaw identified all three, although he expressed doubt as to the photographs of Peter Betres and Coffey. 19 Normally the threshold question is whether the identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive. The procedure here combined characteristics of the photographic spread which may pass constitutional muster if properly done, cf. Boyd v. Henderson, 555 F.2d 56, 59-60 (2 Cir. 1977), and characteristics of the singly presented photograph which, absent exigent circumstances, see Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384-85 (1968), amounts to an impermissibly suggestive photographic identification procedure. E. g., Brathwaite v. Manson, 527 F.2d 363, 367 (2 Cir. 1975), rev'd on other grounds, sub nom. Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (1977); United States ex rel. John v. Casscles, 489 F.2d 20, 24 (2 Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 959 (1974). If the procedure is found to have been unnecessarily suggestive, the issue becomes whether the identification possesses sufficient aspects of reliability. Manson v. Brathwaite, supra,432 U.S. at 109-17. 20 While the indicia of suggestiveness appear to point in both directions in this case, we find it unnecessary to reach the question whether the procedure was impermissibly suggestive since Shaw did not testify on the basis of the photographic identifications themselves. United States v. Yanishefsky, 500 F.2d 1327 (2 Cir. 1974); United States v. Mims, 481 F.2d 636 (2 Cir. 1973) (per curiam). In Brathwaite v. Manson, supra, 527 F.2d at 367 & n. 6, we reaffirmed our rule that an in-court identification is permissible if it stems from the original observation of the defendant rather than the tainted identification. See also Manson v. Brathwaite, supra, 432 U.S. at 110 n. 10. We therefore turn to an inquiry whether Shaw's in-court identifications were supported by an independent basis in memory. 21 Shaw had excellent opportunities to observe Ronald Betres and Coffey. He met both among the group of six in addition to himself at the restaurant at midday on March 1. Thereafter he rode to New York in the same automobile with Ronald Betres and Coffey, among others. The group stopped at a turnpike service area on the way to New York. There Shaw had an opportunity to view Coffey in the lighted parking lot. He observed Ronald Betres in the parking lot and inside the building. Once in New York, Shaw joined Ronald Betres, Coffey and the others in a tavern for parting drinks. 22 Shaw's opportunities to view Peter Betres were more fleeting. They first met and spoke to one another at close range for one minute out of doors on a dark night. Their only other meeting, also brief, occurred in a well-lit area at LaGuardia Airport. Shaw paid close attention on both occasions. At LaGuardia it was Shaw rather than Tiche who first recognized the approaching Betres. Shaw later described in detail the clothes Betres wore on both occasions. In light of this corroboration and on the authority of our decisions in analogous situations, Mysholowsky v. New York, 535 F.2d 194 (2 Cir. 1976); United States v. Mims, supra, we hold that Shaw's opportunities to observe Peter Betres were sufficient to have enabled him to form and retain an independent impression. 23 Appellants, relying on the factors for determining reliability set out in Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 199-200 (1972), argue that Shaw's identifications were unreliable despite his opportunities to observe. They point out that six weeks elapsed between the crime and the photographic identifications; that Shaw expressed uncertainty about his identifications; and that Shaw made an incorrect estimate of Ronald Betres' height. Appellants also stress that the United States Attorney, in response to a question by Shaw, told him before he testified that the men he would be identifying would be in court and that he previously had identified them in photographs. Shaw thereafter was on the witness stand for a day and a half before the United States Attorney asked him to make the identifications. 24 Although these facts arguably might be said to support the claim that Shaw relied on mental impressions from the photographs in making the identifications, we hold that they are insufficient to rebut the inference of an independent basis for his identifications. Despite what is described as the United States Attorney's apparent orchestration of Shaw's testimony, it amounted to little more than what became self-evident once Shaw took the stand. Since the entire matter was fully developed on cross-examination of Shaw by appellants' counsel, the latter had ample opportunity to make use of it in attacking Shaw's credibility and in challenging the weight of the identification evidence. Significantly, Shaw was sufficiently certain of his identifications to withstand extensive cross-examination. 7 Moreover, Judge Newman's finding of an independent basis for the identifications is entitled to great weight. United States ex rel. Pella v. Reid, 527 F.2d 380, 384 (2 Cir. 1975). 25 We hold that Shaw's identifications had an independent basis in memory sufficient to support his in-court identifications without reliance on the intervening photographs. We are satisfied that the identification was reliable, Manson v. Brathwaite, supra, 432 U.S. at 114-117, and that there was no substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Simmons v. United States, supra, 390 U.S. at 384. 26 (B) Just 27 Several employees of the Sponge Rubber plant and the Danbury motel testified that they identified Just on the basis of a photograph of him included in a six-photograph spread displayed to them by federal agents. Just claims that, because the spread was impermissibly suggestive and the identifications unreliable, the identification testimony should have been excluded. Manson v. Brathwaite, supra, 432 U.S. at 104-07, 111-114; Simmons v. United States, supra, 390 U.S. at 384. 28 Just's claim of unnecessary suggestiveness relates only to the qualities of the photographs, not to the manner of their presentation. He argues that the focus and contrasts were sharper in his photograph; that a narrow strip of light not in the other photographs ran across the field above his head; and that his hair was longer and darker, his moustache darker and bushier, than those of the other individuals depicted. 29 We hold that these differences did not render the spread suggestive in the first instance, much less impermissibly so within the meaning of Simmons. The due process clause does not require law enforcement officers to scour about for a selection of photographs so similar in their subject matter and composition as to make subconscious influences on witnesses an objective impossibility. Cf. United States v. Harrington, 490 F.2d 487, 494-95 (2 Cir. 1973). In light of this holding, we need not reach the question of reliability.