Opinion ID: 303766
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Due Process Under the Fifth Amendment

Text: A. The Evidence and Its Development 121 In Simmons v. United States the Supreme Court, speaking unanimously on this point, laid down the standard for resolving questions arising from initial identification by photograph in these terms: 122 Despite the hazards of initial identification by photograph, this procedure has been used widely and effectively in criminal law enforcement, from the standpoint both of apprehending offenders and of sparing innocent suspects the ignominy of arrest by allowing eyewitnesses to exonerate them through scrutiny of photographs. The danger that use of the technique may result in convictions based on misidentification may be substantially lessened by a course of cross-examination at trial which exposes to the jury the method's potential for error. We are unwilling to prohibit its employment, either in the exercise of our supervisory power or, still less, as a matter of constitutional requirement. Instead, we hold that each case must be considered on its own facts, and that convictions based on eyewitness identification at trial following a pretrial identification by photograph will be set aside on that ground only if the photographic identification procedure was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. [Emphasis supplied. 59 123 Both at the pre-trial hearing, at which the trial judge ruled that the witnesses could make in-court identifications, 60 and at the trial itself the four eyewitnesses testified frankly that they were not certain of their identifications of the accused. In light of the Supreme Court standard the exact degree of identification established by each witness is of considerable importance, hence it is set forth in pertinent detail below. 61 The witness who had been outside in the automobile and had the opportunity to see both men fleeing without a mask on was the most firm in her identification. Neither of the four witnesses was questioned by the prosecutor concerning the previous photographic identifications of the appellant, although counsel for defendant Bailey brought out from one witness that she had been unable the day before to identify Bailey's picture in the group of five. After colloquy at the bench, all parties, including appellant's own trial counsel, then stipulated all five color photographs could be received in evidence for the jury. 124