Opinion ID: 613009
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Request a Misidentification Instruction

Text: Wright next complains of his trial counsel's failure to request a jury instruction on misidentification. He contends that such an instruction was necessary for the jury to understand that the caller who confessed to the murder might not have been Wright. Clearly Turner's testimony about the phone confession was a crucial piece of evidence in the case. Wright claims that Turner may have misidentified the caller because of pressure from the police to name Wright and because Turner was exhausted-he had been in a car accident and slept very little the night before he signed the police statement. Therefore, Wright argues that trial counsel's failure to request a jury instruction on misidentification amounted to deficient performance that affected the outcome of his trial. Wright cites to United States v. Kavanagh, 572 F.2d 9 (1st Cir.1978), and to cases from other circuits to support his argument that a misidentification instruction was necessary. See United States v. Greene, 591 F.2d 471, 476-77 (8th Cir. 1979); United States v. Hodges, 515 F.2d 650, 653 (7th Cir.1975); United States v. Holley, 502 F.2d 273, 275 (4th Cir.1974); United States v. Telfaire, 469 F.2d 552, 555 (D.C.Cir.1972). These decisions note the importance of charging the jury on the possibility of misidentification in cases where the evidence suggests a possible misidentification. See Kavanagh, 572 F.2d at 10. However, these cases are easily distinguished on the facts, because they all involve identification of a stranger rather than identification of a person with whom the witness was well-acquainted. See Greene, 591 F.2d at 473; Kavanagh, 572 F.2d at 10-11; Hodges, 515 F.2d at 651; Holley, 502 F.2d at 274; Telfaire, 469 F.2d at 554-56. Identification evidence, including voice identifications, must be received with caution and scrutinized with care. United States v. Angiulo, 897 F.2d 1169, 1204-05 (1st Cir.1990) (quoting proposed jury instruction, which the court found to be substantively correct). These concerns are lessened substantially, however, when the identification is based on a witness's pre-existing relationship with a defendant. See United States v. Gilbert, 181 F.3d 152, 163 (1st Cir.1999) (analyzing admissibility of voice identification by witnesses familiar with the defendant's voice); see also Commonwealth v. Pressley, 390 Mass. 617, 618, 457 N.E.2d 1119, 1120 (1983). At the time Turner identified Wright as the caller, they had known each other for more than three years, living in the same household for part of that time. Although Wright stresses that their relationship was hostile, that they had never spoken over the phone, that Turner was exhausted when he received the phone call, and that Turner eventually expressed doubt about his identification of Wright as the caller, none of these change the fact that Turner knew Wright well enough to identify his voice as he had heard Wright's voice in person many times. Although by the time of trial Turner equivocated as to whether he recognized the voice of the caller, there was enough in the record about his prior contacts with Wright from which the jury reasonably could infer that Turner recognized the caller's voice as Wright's. But in any event, Turner testified that he identified the caller as Wright because the caller said he was Ed, and Turner did not know anyone else with that name. Jury instructions also must be viewed as a whole, not as individual provisions in isolation. Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 72, 112 S.Ct. 475, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991). We have upheld the refusal to give a misidentification instruction in a voice identification case when the issue was substantially covered in the more general jury instructions. Angiulo, 897 F.2d at 1205-06. As was true in Angiulo, the charge in this case included general instructions on witness credibility and the commonwealth's burden of proof which emphasized the requirement that the jury scrutinize all of the witnesses' testimony carefully. Ultimately we need not decide whether trial counsel's failure to request a misidentification instruction was deficient performance because Wright has failed to show a reasonable probability that it affected the outcome of his trial. See Tevlin, 621 F.3d at 66. If trial counsel had requested a misidentification instruction, the trial judge would not have been required to give it because Turner's identification was based on the caller's self-identification and on Turner's prior relationship with Wright. And even if the trial court had given such an instruction, Wright has failed to show a reasonable probability that the jury would not have convicted him. If the jury had been specifically instructed to scrutinize identification testimony, most likely he would still have been convicted based on the strength of the other evidence against him, including evidence that he had been seen entering Anderson's apartment with her on the night she was killed, that traces of blood were found in the car he drove that night, that a bloody shoe print at the scene could have been made by his sneakers, that phone records showed that a call had been made from Wright's sister's house to Turner's house that afternoon, and the similarity between Wright's description of the victim when he was arrested and the caller's description of the victim. Accordingly, he has failed to show prejudice under the Strickland standard, and that failure dooms his second ineffective assistance claim.