Court Opinion

ID: 9739382
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:13:40.246572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:11.924426
License: Public Domain

R. L. Ziolkowski, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the majority that any error in the admission of the photographic show-up evidence was harmless and did not deny defendant a fair trial by its admission.
However, I am not persuaded that defendant was not readily available to participate in a corporeal lineup. People v Derbeck, 202 Mich App 443, 445; 509 NW2d 534 (1993). Therefore, I must dissent.
Defendant had agreed to and did participate in several corporeal lineups where he was tentatively identified. The prosecutor, apparently dissatisfied with the quality of the identification, conducted a photographic show-up, without counsel, while defendant was present at the police station and without advising defendant.
Though defendant was not in custody as defined by case law, he nonetheless had agreed to and did participate in several corporeal lineups. Therefore, defendant should be characterized as being readily available for a corporeal lineup and receive its safeguards.
To establish a precedent that the police may take and use photographs for identification purposes where a suspect, albeit not in custody, consents to participate in a corporeal lineup and is present seems inappropriate in light of this Court’s ruling in People v Cotton, 38 Mich App 763; 197 NW2d 90 (1972). Notwithstanding that corporeal identification is superior to a photographic identification, Simmons v United States, 390 US 377, 383; 88 S Ct 967; 19 L Ed 2d 1247 (1968), the majority would permit the police to exercise unfettered discretion over which type of identification to em*106ploy, thus affording an opportunity to circumvent the protection of a corporeal lineup.
Nevertheless, I believe the error in the admission of this evidence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt in light of the other, overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt. People v Kurylczyk, 443 Mich 289; 505 NW2d 528 (1993), cert den — US —; 114 S Ct 725; 126 L Ed 2d 689 (1994).