Court Opinion

ID: 9698235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:45:29.899288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:39.532624
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
dissenting:
Appellant contends that the lower court erred in denying his motion to suppress an out-of-court identification. I agree and, therefore, dissent.
Appellant argues that he was denied his right to counsel at a one-on-one, post-arrest show-up at a hospital. U. S. v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), and Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972) establish that after the initiation of the adversarial process against a defendant, he is entitled to have counsel present at a lineup or showup. In Commonwealth v. Richman, 458 Pa. 167, 320 A.2d 351 (1974), our Supreme Court *304held that in Pennsylvania the initiation of judicial proceedings begins with arrest because the policy behind Wade applies to all confrontations conducted after arrest. The Supreme Court did note that an exception to this requirement occurs in the case of a prompt, on-the-scene identification. Subsequent Pennsylvania cases have approved the exception for two reasons. First, if the on-the-scene confrontation fails to result in an identification, the person is free again and the police may quickly resume their search. Second, there is a high degree of reliability in identifications made close in time and place to the crime. Commonwealth v. Turner, 454 Pa. 520, 314 A.2d 496 (1970); Commonwealth v. Jenkins, 232 Pa.Super. 523, 335 A.2d 463 (1975); Commonwealth v. Santiago, 229 Pa.Super. 74, 323 A.2d 826 (1974).
In the instant case, the denial of counsel at the identification cannot be upheld under either rationale. Preliminarily, it is apparent that the identification took place one and one half hours after the incident; and it did not occur at the scene but at a hospital. As stated in Commonwealth v. Hall, 217 Pa.Super. 218, 228, 269 A.2d 352, 358 (1970):
“While on-the-scene confrontations may well be permissible without the benefit of counsel, when the scene changes or when the time becomes late, our view must be governed by Wade. When an identification takes place at a hospital, the victim no longer has the scene clearly in view. The background has changed, the lighting is different, the suspect against the bland walls is more vivid. The fact that the police have thought enough of the suspect to take him to the hospital bears on the victim’s mind. In short, the possibility of both suggestion and misidentification increase perceptibly. Where the victim is not in extremis, there is no reason not to wait until a formal line-up with counsel can be arranged at the hospital or, as in this case, until the victim can be brought to the police station where a formal line-up with counsel can be held.”
In the instant case, the Commonwealth does not argue nor is there any evidence, that the victims were in extremis or even in critical condition so as to require an immediate *305identification. I believe that the identification in the instant case was not a prompt, on-the-scene identification so as to fall within an exception to Richman, nor was it justified as an emergency.
Additionally, the police arrested appellant prior to conducting the identification. By arresting appellant the police indicated that they had probable cause independent of any subsequent identification. Therefore, they had no need to take him to the hospital and subject him to such an inherently prejudicial confrontation.
I conclude that because of the delay and the change of scene from the street to the hospital, appellant had the right to a counselled line-up. Therefore, I dissent.1

. The lower court did not confront the issue of whether evidence of the out of court identification although unconstitutionally obtained, could still be admitted at trial due to its inherent reliability. See: Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972). Without an evidentiary hearing on this issue, I would not address it.