Opinion ID: 445269
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony as to Resemblance

Text: 22 The prosecutor asked Ms. Metternich, Do you see anybody here in the courtroom today that resembles one of the two men who robbed you on that day ...? 23 Pointing out defendant, she answered He resembles him. There was no objection. On cross-examination she testified that the resemblance was to the man who first entered the bank, but that she could not positively state whether he was the robber. Nothing in the record suggests any prior out-of-court identification. 24 Appellant argues that this was a suggestive identification procedure which denied due process of law. 25 The question whether conditions of an in-court identification itself may be so suggestive as to deny a defendant due process of law has been considered by only a few federal courts of appeals. In United States ex rel. Clark v. Fike, 538 F.2d 750 (7th Cir.1976), this court dealt with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus based in part on a challenge to in-court identification testimony in an Illinois prosecution. Petitioner contended that the testimony of a Mrs. Kent was inherently unreliable principally because the perpetrator of the crime was black and petitioner was the only black sitting at counsel table. The trial court denied petitioner's motion for an in-court lineup. The Illinois Supreme Court held petitioner had no right to an in-court lineup, finding race to be a mere identifying characteristic. People v. Clark, 52 Ill.2d 374, 387-88, 288 N.E.2d 363, 370 (1972) (quoting State v. Brown, 76 Wash.2d 352, 353, 458 P.2d 165, 166 (1969)). Writing for this court, Judge Sprecher stated: 26 Although a person's race is more than a mere identifying attribute, and although more than a mere possibility of misidentification exists when a witness in the witness box is faced with having to make an identification not having seen the perpetrator for five months, we must note that a defendant in a criminal trial as yet has no right to an in-court lineup. United States v. Moss, 410 F.2d 386 (3d Cir.1969). Moreover, Mrs. Kent's testimony remained credible and unshaken after a thorough cross-examination by competent counsel. Petitioner's arguments here were arguments which he properly made to the jury during trial. Mrs. Kent's testimony was neither so unreliable, nor so fraught with the possibility of misidentification that petitioner was denied a fair trial. What inconsistencies existed, were properly for a jury and not a reviewing court to consider. 27 538 F.2d at 755-56 (emphasis in original). 28 The decision reached in Fike, that the question of the possible suggestiveness of the in-court identification was ultimately for the jury to determine, is consistent with the general view that identification testimony is for the jury to weigh unless there is a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 971, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968). 29 The deference shown the jury in weighing the reliability of potentially suggestive out-of-court identification would seem even more appropriate for in-court identifications where the jury is present and able to see first-hand the circumstances which may influence a witness. 30 At least two circuits have nevertheless found conditions surrounding some in-court identifications so suggestive that a defendant's due process rights are implicated. In United States v. Warf, 529 F.2d 1170 (5th Cir.1976), the Fifth Circuit held that a prosecutor's attempts to influence an identification by pointing and verbally directing the witness when coupled with the erroneous admission of defendant's prison record was so prejudicial as to require reversal of the conviction. The court did not, however, hold that the prosecutor's suggestive actions during the identification would alone have required reversal. 4 The Second Circuit has recently gone farther, finding that an overly suggestive in-court identification by itself violates due process, though also finding the error harmless in the case before it. See United States v. Archibald, 734 F.2d 938 (2d Cir.1984). Acknowledging the inherent suggestiveness of any in-court identification where defendant sits at counsel table, the court found significant that the defendant himself recognized that there was a problem of suggestiveness. Id. at 941. The defendant told his attorney that he wanted to be seated with five or six other black men who looked reasonably like him, to ensure that he would not be obviously singled out by an educated witness. Id. The trial court denied defendant's request finding no obligation to stage a lineup. The Second Circuit found that while they may agree ... there was no obligation to stage a lineup, ... there was ... an obligation to ensure that the in-court procedure did not simply [amount to a show-up]. Id. Given that the defendant was the only black in the courtroom the Second Circuit held that: 31 [H]is request should not have been dismissed so quickly or so absolutely by the trial court. A fairly short delay of proceedings was all that would have been required to rearrange the seating in the courtroom and to secure the presence of some people of the defendant's approximate age and skin color. While it was not necessary for the court to conduct a true Wade -type of lineup, these relatively minor steps were required to ensure that the identification was not unfair. The in-court identification procedure utilized here was so clearly suggestive as to be impermissible, however traditional it may be. 32 Id. at 942-43. 33 Those cases reveal no basis for reversing defendant's conviction. As an initial matter, this is not an identification case. Ms. Metternich was unable to identify Bush; her testimony was only that Bush resembled one of the robbers. While this testimony may raise due process concerns, see United States v. Brooks, 449 F.2d 1077, 1083 (D.C.Cir.1971), the impact of the testimony is not likely to be as great. 34 Nor are the circumstances surrounding Ms. Metternich's testimony as suggestive as those in Warf or Archibald. There is no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct; nor is there evidence that the defendant stood out physically from others in the courtroom. 5 The only suggestive circumstance identified by defendant is that he sat at counsel table. This circumstance alone is not enough to establish a violation of due process. Without more, any uncertainty surrounding Ms. Metternich's testimony, whether because of length of time since commission of the offense or the lack of a reliable pretrial identification or the suggestiveness of the seating arrangements at trial, was for the jury to consider. Fike, 538 F.2d at 756. 35 Finally, unlike defendants in Fike, Warf, and Archibald, Bush did not object to Ms. Metternich's testimony during trial. To reverse on appeal, we would have to find that the trial court committed plain error in admitting Ms. Metternich's testimony. Fed.R.Cr.P. 52(b). Given the uncertainty surrounding the scope of defendant's due process right during a traditional in-court identification, there is no basis for finding that the trial court committed plain error in not, sua sponte, responding to any suggestive conditions surrounding Ms. Metternich's resemblance testimony. 6 36 We note also that in his opening statement, one of the prosecutors predicted that both tellers would identify Bush as one of the two robbers. When they testified, however, his colleague questioned Ms. Metternich only in terms of resemblance and Ms. Miller in a form even less likely to bring forth an identification. The record contains no further indication, but if the prosecution originally had some basis for its prediction, and the witnesses advised before testifying that they could not identify Bush, except that Ms. Metternich believed there was a resemblance, there would be even less force in a claim that the in-court procedure was suggestive.