Court Opinion

ID: 9454195
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:38:56.17766+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:00.537699
License: Public Domain

STALEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I repectfully dissent. In my opinion, the totality of the circumstances in this case does not warrant the granting of another hearing to relator because, in my view, relator’s due process claim concerning the alleged tainted hospital identification was considered and decided adversely to relator at his state court habeas corpus hearing.
Concededly, the state court did not have the benefit of the guidelines announced by the Supreme Court in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926 (1967), and Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967 (1967), but a reading of its opinion indicates to me that it must have considered those factors deemed relevant by the Supreme Court in its Wade and Stovall decisions. As can be seen from its opinion, the state court quite clearly considered the possibility that the police might have improperly obtained relator’s identification at the hospital, and yet it found that there was an “independent identification” by the victim of relator at the trial. To me, implicit in this finding is the determination that the trial identification was independent of, and did not result from, any impropriety that might have occurred at the hospital. And, as noted by the majority at footnote 5, there is indeed ample evidence in the trial record to support a finding that the trial identification had its etiology in the robbery itself rather than in the hospital confrontation.
When the state court’s finding is viewed in the context of the trial identifications of relator by three witnesses, other than the victim, who had previously identified relator at a lineup, and the fact that the victim undoubtedly viewed his assailant when he was shot at point-blank range and then gave chase, I think the record before us does not permit of another hearing under either 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) or the decisional law.
Accordingly, I would affirm.