Opinion ID: 1939276
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: In-court identifications of Jones.

Text: Even though the Milwaukee lineup identifications of Jones are ruled out, it is still necessary, in view of the new trial at which the issue of identification will again be raised, to consider whether the state-produced, in-court identification testimony was from a source sufficiently independent of the defective lineups. While both St. Elizabeth's employees Heiden and Kane testified that they identified Jones at the lineups, they also testified to an independent in-court identification of Jones based on an eye defect which they claimed they had noticed at the time the crime was committed. We are thus presented with a situation in which it is to be determined whether this identification has come about by exploitation of the unfair lineup, or `by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.' Maguire, Evidence of Guilt, 221 (1959). [14] Under this test, such things as the prior opportunity to observe the alleged criminal act, any discrepancy between the pretrial description and the defendant's actual description, identification of defendant by picture prior to the lineup, failure to identify the defendant on a prior occasion and the lapse of time between the alleged act and the lineup identification, [15] are pertinent for this court's consideration. Both Heiden and Kane were eyewitnesses to the robbery which lasted approximately five minutes. Immediately after the crime, Heiden told the police that he would not be able to identify the participants, but later he gave the police a general description that the robbers were Negro males between 5 and 6 feet tall, and between twenty and twenty-five years old. Karen Kane said the robbers were Negro males between eighteen and twenty years old. Neither Heiden nor Kane identified the defendant from any photographic source. Neither witness identified Jones at the first lineup although witness Kane later indicated she recognized him immediately upon seeing him. In addition, there was approximately a twenty-six day lapse of time between the robbery and the lineup at which defendant was seen by the witnesses. These factors indicate that the in-court identifications of defendant here arose solely from the improper lineup and that no independent source existed for the identifications. Yet both witnesses testified that they based their in-court identification of Jones on his noticeable eye defect. Both witnesses had the opportunity to see what was described as bulging of defendant's eye at the time the robbery occurred. Both testified that they again observed this eye defect at the lineup and based their identification there upon this factor. We do not think this is a reasonable basis for concluding there was an independent source for the identifications of Jones. On the contrary, it would seem that since no mention of the eye defect was contained in the description given to the police by the witnesses immediately after the robbery, the lineup which was fatally suggestive was the sole basis for the in-court identification of the defendant. There was no independent origin as contemplated in Wade and Gilbert, and therefore the in-court identification in this case should not have been allowed. [16] This does not preclude the state on the new trial in this matter from attempting to establish an identification of the defendant sufficiently independent of the tainted lineups to be free of constitutional invalidity. [17]