Court Opinion

ID: 9712964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:04:03.715561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:15.501503
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in result).
The majority opinion determined the identification procedure used by the police was proper based on a right to counsel analysis and the exceptions this Court has carved thereunder. However, it is not ap*454pellant’s right to counsel, but his general right to due process which is at issue in this instance. Disposition, therefore, rests on a different analysis, i.e., whether the procedure was impermissibly suggestive and unreliable.
The trial court held that the identification procedure employed by the police was not impermissibly suggestive. I cannot agree. Without doubt, the identification procedure employed by the State was impermissibly suggestive. The police shined a spotlight on the only non-uniformed person (appellant) and he was brought closer for a better view. Reider, the witness, said appellant looked like one of the robbers, but he was not sure. One robber was dark-haired and thin, the other being a larger man with blond hair. It was not until pressed by police for a yes or no answer that Reider said appellant was indeed one of the two robbers. Appellant fit the description of the dark-haired robber.
A confrontation staged in this manner is impermissibly suggestive because of a tendency to pinpoint an individual and as much as say “this is the one.” Procedures such as this are disapproved, not merely because they are suggestive, but because they increase the likelihood of misidentifi-cation. It is this likelihood which violates a defendant's right to due process. Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 198, 93 S.Ct. 375, 382, 34 L.Ed.2d 401, 411 (1972). Thus, the rule for testing out-of-court identification procedures is not merely to determine whether the procedure was suggestive but, further, whether “under the ‘totality of the circumstances’ the identification was reliable even though the confrontation procedure was suggestive.” 409 U.S. at 199, 93 S.Ct. at 382.
The length of time between the crime and the confrontation, a deciding element in the majority opinion, is only one of the factors to be considered in determining reliability. Other factors to be considered in the evaluation “include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness’ degree of attention, the accuracy of the witness’ prior description of the criminal, [and] the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the confrontation .... ” Id.
Applying this criteria to the facts herein, I find the in-court identification was not tainted. There was sufficient indicia of reliability attached to the out-of-court procedure so as to minimize the likelihood of misidentification and thereby comport with due process. “[Reliability is the linchpin in determining the admissibility of identification testimony_” Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 114, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2253, 53 L.Ed.2d 140, 154 (1977). Despite the impermissive suggestiveness of the out-of-court procedure, admission of the identification was warranted. Reider was an eyewitness to the crime; Reider saw appellant and he had immediate attention to the robbery being committed before his eyes; Reider, in approximately one-half hour from the commission of the crime, identified appellant as the dark-haired robber.