Opinion ID: 678812
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sufficiency of the Evidence on the Bank Robbery Counts.

Text: 12 The evidence against Brewer consisted primarily of evidence recovered from the Car and statements made by the Identifying Witnesses while viewing the photo arrays. The statements of the Identifying Witnesses were admitted both through their own testimony, and through the testimony of McCabe, pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(1)(C). 2 See United States v. Marchand, 564 F.2d 983, 996 (2d Cir.1977) ( 'Rule 801(d)(1)(C) should ... be interpreted as allowing evidence of prior identification by the witness of a photograph of the person whom he had initially perceived.' ) (quoting 4 Weinstein & Berger, Commentary on Rules of Evidence for the United States Courts and Magistrates 801-107 to 108 (1976) (alteration in Marchand )), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1015, 98 S.Ct. 732, 54 L.Ed.2d 760 (1978). 13 Brewer contends that this evidence is insufficient to prove his participation in the Bank Robbery because: (1) the statements of the Identifying Witnesses were not actual identifications since, even if credited, they established only that Brewer resembled one of the bank robbers; and (2) the evidence recovered from the Car connected Brewer to the Car, but not to the Car on the date of the robbery. 14 Eight witnesses to the Bank Robbery viewed a series of four photo arrays two weeks after the robbery. After being asked if they recognized any of the bank robbers in the array containing photographs of Brewer and five other men, five of the witnesses did not select any photograph from that particular array, although one of the five selected another person, Kenneth Williams, from an array that did not include a photograph of Brewer. The Identifying Witnesses selected Brewer's photograph, and no other. After selecting Brewer's photograph, each of the Identifying Witnesses wrote a statement on the back of the photograph 3 of Brewer that they had just selected from the array. Cassiliano wrote: May resemble man at door with machine gun. Charzewski wrote: It resembles man at front door with machine gun, black cap, black coat. Marrano wrote: This may be the man that was in the bank on 1/29/92 that inquired about a business account and the one on 1/30/92, the day of the robbery with the big gun. 15 Brewer argues primarily that the witnesses' statements tended to show only that he resembled or looked like one of the bank robbers, and were accordingly insufficient to sustain his conviction on the Bank Robbery Counts. The settled law, however, is that the certainty of a witness' identification is only a factor in determining its reliability. See Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 114-16, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2253, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977) (listing as factors opportunity to view, degree of attention, accuracy of description, level of certainty, and the time between the crime and the confrontation). Most of these factors argue in favor of the reliability of the statements by the Identifying Witnesses. Further, in the absence of  'a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification[,]' ... [identification] evidence is for the jury to weigh. Id. at 116, 97 S.Ct. at 2253 (quoting Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 971, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968) (alteration added)); see also Marchand, 564 F.2d at 996 (Protection against identifications of questionable certainty is afforded by the requirement that the declarant be available for cross-examination; questions of the probative value of the testimony are thus for the jury.) (citations omitted). 16 Furthermore, we are not required to pass upon the sufficiency of identification evidence standing alone, because the Identifying Witnesses' identification of Brewer as one of the bank robbers was significantly corroborated by evidence recovered from the Car. See Marchand, 564 F.2d at 1000-01 (evidence sufficient to support conviction even though identifying witness was asked to select photograph that most closely resembled defendant, because of corroborating evidence). Although conceding at oral argument that the evidence recovered from the Car has some corroborative value, Brewer contends that this evidence does not establish his presence in the Car on the day of the bank robbery. 17 Calvanese's essentially unchallenged testimony established that the Car was used for the escape from the bank robbery. The Car was linked to Brewer by his fingerprints, which were found on items in both the trunk and the interior of the car, an envelope addressed to Anthony J. Brewer, and the Car's registration to a person with Brewer's date of birth at an address that Brewer had acknowledged as his residence. Concededly, this evidence, standing alone, does not establish that Brewer was in the bank on the occasion of the robbery, but it certainly reinforces the identifications that placed him there. 18 Brewer also asserts that his conviction is undermined by: (1) the inherent unreliability of eyewitness testimony in general and photo arrays in particular; (2) the ratio of witnesses who did not select Brewer's photograph from the array to those who did (5:3); and (3) the inability of the Identifying Witnesses to identify Brewer at a lineup nineteen months after the robbery. Although these arguments might be viewed by a trier as weakening the identification evidence, they do not as a matter of law undermine the sufficiency of the evidence supporting Brewer's conviction. See Foster v. California, 394 U.S. 440, 442 n. 2, 89 S.Ct. 1127, 1128 n. 2, 22 L.Ed.2d 402 (1969) (The reliability of properly admitted eyewitness identification ... is a matter for the jury.); United States v. Matthews, 20 F.3d 538, 547 (2d Cir.1994) (same) (citing Foster, 394 U.S. at 442 n. 2, 89 S.Ct. at 1128 n. 2); Jarrett v. Headley, 802 F.2d 34, 42 (2d Cir.1986) (same) (collecting cases, including Foster); Marchand, 564 F.2d at 996 (same). 19 In sum, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and drawing all reasonable inferences in its favor, and in the absence of any claim that the procedures which elicited the statements by the Identifying Witnesses were suggestive or improper, we conclude that the evidence at trial sufficed to sustain Brewer's conviction on the Bank Robbery Counts. 20