Opinion ID: 1379871
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Claimed Doyle violation.

Text: Lord points out that, on re-direct examination of Detective Hatch, Mr. Henry three times asked Detective Hatch whether Lord had identified himself when Hatch met Lord on the day of the arrest. Lord contends that these questions constituted an improper attempt to draw attention to Lord's post-arrest silence, in violation of Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). Here, however, unlike the cases in which we have found reversible error upon a Doyle violation, the questions went only to Lord's failure to identify himself, not his failure to give an exculpatory story. More important, the prosecutor never once attempted to argue or in any way refer back to this brief testimony. In all, while a defendant's failure to identify himself could be used improperly to call attention to post-arrest silence, this was not done in the present case and, hence, this questioning did not rise to the level of a Doyle violation.