Court Opinion

ID: 9737750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:33:44.008123+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:00.199782
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE STOUDER, specially concurring: While I agree with the result reached by the majority, I believe that the issue of whether or not the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to strike the witness’ in-court identification should have been decided on the merits rather than procedurally. The majority holds that because the defendant did not move to suppress the eyewitness identification prior to trial the defendant’s motion was untimely and, therefore, there was no error in denying it. I believe this analysis is improper for three reasons. First, the State waived any objection to the timeliness of the motion. The trial court ruled on the motion on its merits, and there is no evidence in the record that the State ever objected to the motion on the ground that it was untimely. In view of this failure to object, the State has clearly waived this point and may not raise the issue for the first time on appeal. As a consequence, the majority cannot dispose of the issue on procedural grounds and should decide the issue on its merits. However, regardless of whether or not the State waived the issue of timeliness, the test adopted by the majority for determining timeliness requires a finding that defendant’s motion was in fact timely. The majority adopts the test stated in People v. Bracy (1973), 14 Ill. App. 3d 495, 501, 302 N.E.2d 747, in which the court held that under section 114 — 12(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 114 — 12(c) “[a] motion to suppress eyewitness identification must be made before trial unless the opportunity therefor did not exist or the defendant was not aware of the grounds for the motion.” The majority contends that since the pretrial uncertainty of identification and suggestive police practices were known to defense counsel prior to trial, defendant was obliged to move to suppress the identification prior to trial. While I believe the rule in Bracy is the proper one, the majority has misapplied it in the present case. Had the defendant known prior to trial that the witness would be able to make a positive identification, he might have been required to make the motion prior to trial. However, in the present case, defendant could not know prior to trial that the witness would make a positive in-court identification. At the photo showup and the lineup prior to trial the witness was unable to positively identify the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime. Thus defendant had no way of knowing before the trial that the witness would make a positive in-court identification. In the absence of such knowledge, defendant cannot be required to make a pretrial motion. The rule in Bracy contains the exception that where defendant has no opportunity before trial to move to suppress, then a motion made during the trial is timely. Until the witness made her positive in-court identification, there was nothing to suppress. Therefore, defendant could not move to suppress prior to trial and such a motion made during the trial was timely if made as promptly as the circumstances of the individual case allow. (See People v. Thomas (1967), 88 Ill. App. 2d 71, 232 N.E.2d 259.) In the instant case defendant objected immediately after the identification was made. Thus, under the rule in Bracy the motion was timely made and should be considered on its merits. The final reason for deciding the defendant’s motion on its merits is that the trial court decided the issue on its merits. Disregarding the fact that the State waived any procedural objections it may have been entitled to raise, where the trial court decided the issue on its merits I can see no reason for disposing of it on a procedural ground. To dispose of a case on a claimed procedural deficiency when the record contains adequate information to resolve the issue on its merits is to invite trouble unnecessarily. In the instant case, to insist that the motion to suppress must be made prior to trial means that in the future any defendant whose attorney failed to make such a motion might request a new trial on the grounds of ineffective counsel. I can see no reason to invite this problem where the record is adequate to permit us to decide the question on its merits. Despite the fact that for the above mentioned reasons I believe the issue of suppression of the in-court identification should have been decided on the merits rather than on procedural grounds, it would serve no useful purpose to discuss the merits of the issue in a separate opinion and, therefore, I concur in the result.