Opinion ID: 2316663
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: secretion of exculpatory evidence

Text: Ranieri claims that the lost picture of Henry is exculpatory because originally Picard identified Henry as the assailant using that picture. Ranieri's argument is that Picard's original description of the assailant, given at the scene, was that the assailant was a tall man in his twenties, with a moustache. Picard is six feet and one inch tall. He testified that on the night of the crime he was standing on some rags, which would bring his height to over that figure. Picard testified that while standing on the rags, he looked down just slightly and could see the upper lip of the assailant. Ranieri claims this description fits the description of Henry but varies rather significantly from Ranieri, who is five-feet-six-inches tall, weighs 150 pounds, is eighteen years old, and has a short peach fuzz moustache. [7] Picard's oral description and on-scene identification preceded the publication of Ranieri's photograph in the Journal. Hence Ranieri claims that Picard changed his description of the assailant after seeing Ranieri's picture in the Journal and after seeing him in person. The defendant says that if he had the original photograph of Henry, he could demonstrate to the jury the disparity in descriptions given by Picard, which would undercut any identification given by Picard. The prosecution originally gave a police photo of Henry to the defense, representing that that photo was the photo supplied to the police by Lisa. When Picard was shown this photo at a pretrial suppression hearing, he said he had never seen the person in the picture before. To defense counsel's consternation, the prosecution had supplied the wrong photo of Henry (not the photo supplied by Lisa). Apparently the two photos of Henry differed so widely that Picard could state that the photos were not of the same person. The prosecution then represented that the police had given Lisa back the picture and that Lisa was not able to be located. The defendant's counsel on his own searched for and located Lisa. He got Lisa to testify in court that the police had never returned the photo to her and that in fact she had unsuccessfully attempted in the past to retrieve it from the police. The prosecution argued in rebuttal to defendant's motion to dismiss for failure to provide this evidence that there was no bad faith in failing to provide the photo. The trial court agreed and on that basis denied the motion to dismiss. While we are not completely satisfied that the prosecution made diligent efforts to provide defendant with accurate information, we decline to disturb the trial justice's finding that there was no bad faith. The prosecution also argues before this court that whatever assistance the picture may have offered to the defense, its absence is ameliorated in that defendant's cross-examination of Picard admittedly succeeded in destroying the credibility of Picard's identifications of Ranieri. We disapprove of the prosecution arguing that its negligence is cured by the exceptional legal skills of defense counsel. Perhaps the next defendant will not have such able representation. Nevertheless, we agree with the prosecution that the extraordinary sanction of dismissal is not warranted for any prosecutorial misconduct that may have occurred in this case. See State v. Chiellini, 557 A.2d 1195, 1199 (R.I. 1989).