Opinion ID: 599061
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Eyewitness Identification

Text: 5 Miller contends that as a matter of law the evidence identifying him as the gun dealer was not sufficient and his conviction should be reversed. As we noted in United States v. Duprey, 895 F.2d 303 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 906, 110 S.Ct. 1927, 109 L.Ed.2d 291 (1990), a defendant challenging the sufficiency of the evidence bears a heavy burden. For in our evaluation of such a claim, we must review the evidence and all reasonable inferences which can be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the Government. After so doing, we ask whether any rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence and inferences as we have, could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 310. Only when the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, may an appellate court overturn the verdict. Brandom v. United States, 431 F.2d 1391, 1400 (7th Cir.1970), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1022, 91 S.Ct. 586, 27 L.Ed.2d 634 (1971); accord United States v. Crockett, 979 F.2d 1204, 1212 (7th Cir.1992). 6 Defendant argues the jury was irrational in believing that Detective Dine could accurately identify Miller as the gun dealer, based on a ten-minute, face-to-face transaction. Defendant, however, fails to cite any authority for the proposition that ten minutes of observation is insufficient to support an identification. To the contrary, this court has supported convictions based on identifications made after much shorter periods of observation. See, e.g., United States v. Johnson, 859 F.2d 1289, 1296 (7th Cir.1988) (two minutes observation sufficed for tellers to identify bank robber). 7 Detective Dine testified at trial; the Defendant attacked Dine's credibility on cross-examination; the jury chose to believe the detective. Based on our review of the record, we cannot say the jury acted irrationally, and we therefore reject Defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the identification evidence.