Court Opinion

ID: 9516081
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:34:00.073154+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:22.087462
License: Public Domain

*1352PIVARNIK, Justice,
Concurring in result only.
I concur, in result only, in this opinion, because I do not agree with the majority's analysis of the allegedly impermissibly suggestive pretrial confrontation in Issue II. The majority indicates that the one-on-one confrontation was unnecessary and involved a procedure disapproved of by this Court. I would not so characterize the confrontation between the defendant and the victim in this case. It is my view this Court has approved of an immediate confrontation by the victim on many occasions. In Whitlock v. State (1981), Ind., 426 N.E.2d 1292, 1293, this Court found:
"Confrontations between eyewitnesses and suspects immediately after the commission of a crime are permitted for the reason that it is valuable to have witnesses view a suspect while the image of the offender is fresh in their minds. Rogers v. State (1979) [272] Ind. [65], 396 N.E.2d 348; Williams v. State (1979), [271] Ind. [656], 395 N.E.2d 239; McPhearson v. State (1969), 253 Ind. 254, 253 N.E.2d 226. Whether any particular one-on-one confrontation is unduly suggestive is dependent upon the circumstances in which it is conducted."
Here, the defendant was apprehended minutes after his attempt to enter the victim's home. He was immediately returned to the presence of the victim where she identified him as the person who had tried to enter her home on the first burglary attempt. The majority concedes the record shows the officers were unaware the victim had not observed the perpetrator during the course of the second burglary attempt. I do not see this as an unnecessary confrontation that merits disapproval by this Court. The defendant had left the victim's property only minutes before, and the police were unaware that she had not seen the perpetrator on this second attempt as she had on the first attempt four days before. Thus, it seems the police had a very good basis for believing the victim had a fresh image of the perpetrator in mind. As a matter of fact, she did have the ability to identify him from the first attempted burglary and she was able to identify the keys found on his person. I therefore do not find the confrontation procedure used by the police here to be unduly suggestive. I concur in the result reached by the majority in this opinion.
GIVAN, J., concurs.