Opinion ID: 2065404
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Line-up Procedure

Text: We find the line-up procedure employed in this case to have been unnecessarily suggestive, tending to direct the attention of the witness to appellant. While the prosecutrix watched from the stand, seven men, not including appellant, were arranged in a line-up. The prosecutrix was then removed from the courtroom, and appellant brought in and placed approximately in the middle of the line. The witness was returned to the courtroom and confronted with the line-up. The line-up which she had seen organized had now been changed by the addition of appellant. Compare, State v. Boucher, supra, at 480. More suggestive than this physical arrangement, however, was the sequence of questioning that followed. Although he attempted to phrase his question impartially, [4] the presiding Justiceperhaps inadvertentlyadded his prestigious weight to the forces pressuring the witness to make an identification. The urging by the Clerk of Court to [p]oint to the man that did it was likewise suggestive, particularly inasmuch as the witness had been left in her custody during the trial recess, and she was, therefore, a somewhat familiar figure. Thus, in rapid succession, the prosecutrix was urged to identify the man that did it by the Court, the Assistant District Attorney, and the Clerk. The pressure of such authority upon a frightened 5-year old was a formidable force. Added to the import of the conversation, just earlier, with her father, the danger of impermissible suggestion was too great for us to now condone. We are particularly concerned, also, with the suggestiveness of this procedure as it may have affected the jury. The jury had heard the prosecutrix fail repeatedly to identify the perpetrator on the stand. The line-up procedure, coupled with the nature of the questioning by the Court, the Clerk, and the Assistant District Attorney, cumulatively presented the danger that the jury would infer a conviction on the part of the court personnel of appellant's guilt, and adopt that conviction as evidence. Such active participation, in such unusual circumstances, is impermissible. In these circumstances the jury was forced to choose between the witness's failure to identify appellant during her testimony on the stand and her later identification of him in the line-up. The prosecutrix having failed to testimonially indicate appellant as her assailant, the conducting of a suggestive line-up may have indicated to the jury that the Court was unsatisfied with her earlier testimony, and that they should not accept it as true and complete. The jury, in addition, was unaware of the conversation between the prosecutrix and her father during the recess, and of the fact that she had been present when the first seven men were arranged in the line-up; the credibility of her identification was enhanced by this ignorance.