Opinion ID: 658545
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Rodriguez's Challenge to Identification Testimony

Text: 36 Cooperating witness Kenneth Colon had been a high-ranking member of the Organization who was in charge of, inter alia, picking up packaged narcotics from the Organization's mills. Sigfredo Pacheco had been a mill supervisor. These two witnesses, along with others, identified Rodriguez as an Organization millworker. Rodriguez complains that he was not given advance notice that identification testimony would be given, and he contends that their in-court identifications of him were tainted because they had been shown a photographic array containing his picture shortly prior to trial. We reject these contentions. 37 A defendant's right to due process includes the right not to be victimized by suggestive police identification procedures, including suggestive displays of photographs, that create a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 971, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); see also Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 105 n. 8, 114, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2249 n. 8, 2253, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 198, 93 S.Ct. 375, 381, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972); Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377; Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d 34, 40-41 (2d Cir.1986). The fairness of a photographic array depends on a number of factors, including the size of the array, the manner of presentation by the officers, and the array's contents. Concepcion, 983 F.2d at 377. If there is nothing inherently prejudicial about the presentation, such as use of a very small number of photographs, see, e.g., United States v. Bennett, 409 F.2d 888, 898 (2d Cir.) (array of six not so small as to be impermissibly suggestive), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 852, 90 S.Ct. 113, 24 L.Ed.2d 101 (1969), or the use of suggestive comments, the principal question is whether the picture of the accused, matching descriptions given by the witness, so stood out from all of the other photographs as to 'suggest to an identifying witness that [that person] was more likely to be the culprit,'  Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d at 41 (quoting United States v. Archibald, 734 F.2d 938, 940, modified on other grounds, 756 F.2d 223 (2d Cir.1984)). 38 In this case, one month prior to trial, Colon was shown a photo spread of six Organization members and was asked if he could name them. At a Wade hearing (United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967)), held after Colon had begun to testify at trial, a government agent testified that Colon had proceeded to identify five of the six by their names or nicknames, including Rodriguez, who was known as Richie. Colon testified slightly differently, stating that though he had not identified Rodriguez by name, he had identified Rodriguez as one of the workers he had seen at Organization mills. Pacheco, just prior to trial, was shown the same six-picture photo spread. At a second mid-trial Wade hearing, just prior to his testimony, the evidence was that Pacheco had been asked whether he could pick out Hector and Richie; he had identified Hernandez as Hector and Rodriguez as Richie. 39 The district court correctly ruled that these procedures were not unduly suggestive. The photographic array was not impermissibly small, and Rodriguez has not contended that his picture bore any identifying marks. The government agent did not suggest any names to Colon and did not suggest to Pacheco which photos were those of Hector or Richie. We conclude that the incourt identifications of Rodriguez were not tainted. 40 Finally, whatever the disadvantage to defendants in this case from not having advance notice that certain witnesses would identify them at trial, we cannot conclude that there was any undue prejudice. Defendants had been given notice that Colon and Pacheco would be witnesses at trial. After it became clear that these two witnesses would identify some or all of the defendants, the Wade hearings were held in order to determine whether there had been suggestive pretrial identification procedures. The Wade hearings sufficed in the circumstances; if notice was required, the lack of notice here provides no ground for reversal.