Court Opinion

ID: 9425399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:36.159497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:55.316496
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
concurring in the judgment.
The issue in the present case is whether, under the Sixth Amendment, a person who has been indicted is entitled to have a lawyer present when prosecution witnesses are shown the person’s photograph and asked if they can identify him.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” This Court’s decisions make it clear that a defendant is entitled to the assistance of counsel not only at the trial itself, but at all “critical stages” of his “prosecution.” See Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U. S. 1; United States v. Wade, 388 U. S. 218; Gilbert v. California, 388 U. S. 263; Hamilton v. Alabama, 368 U. S. 52. The requirement *322that there be a “prosecution,” means that this constitutional “right to counsel attaches only at or after the time that adversary judicial proceedings have been initiated against [an accused]. . . “It is this point . . . that marks the commencement of the ‘criminal prosecutions’ to which alone the explicit guarantees of the Sixth Amendment are applicable.” Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U. S. 682, 688, 690 (plurality opinion). Since the photographic identification in the present case occurred after the accused had been indicted, and thus clearly after adversary judicial proceedings had been initiated, the only question is whether that procedure was such a “critical stage” that the Constitution required the presence of counsel.
In United States v. Wade, supra, the Court determined that a pretrial proceeding is a “critical stage” if “the presence of . . . counsel is necessary to preserve the defendant’s . . . right meaningfully to cross-examine the witnesses against him and to have effective assistance of counsel at the trial itself.” 388 U. S., at 227. Pretrial proceedings are “critical,” then, if the presence of counsel is essential “to protect the fairness of the trial itself.” Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U. S. 218, 239; cf. Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U. S. 1, 27-28 (Stewart, J., dissenting).
The Court held in Wade that a post-indictment, pretrial lineup at which the accused was exhibited to identifying witnesses was such a critical stage, because of the substantial possibility that the accused’s right to a fair trial would otherwise be irretrievably lost. The hazard of unfair suggestive influence at a lineup, which, because of the nature of the proceeding, could seldom be reconstructed at trial, left little doubt, the Court thought, “that for Wade the post-indictment lineup was a critical stage of the prosecution at which he was ‘as much entitled to such aid [of counsel] ... as at the trial itself.’ ” 388 U. S., at 237.
*323The Court stressed in Wade that the danger of mistaken identification at trial was appreciably heightened by the “degree of suggestion inherent in the manner in which the prosecution presents the suspect to witnesses for pretrial identification.” Id., at 228. There are numerous and subtle possibilities for such improper suggestion in the dynamic context of a lineup. Judge Wilkey, dissenting in the present case, accurately described a lineup as:
“a little drama, stretching over an appreciable span of time. The accused is there in the flesh, three-dimensional and always full-length. Further, he isn’t merely there, he acts. He walks on stage, he blinks in the glare of lights, he turns and twists, often muttering asides to those sharing the spotlight. He can be required to utter significant words, to turn a profile or back, to walk back and forth, to doff one costume and don another. All the while the potentially identifying witness is watching, a prosecuting attorney and a police detective at his elbow, ready to record the witness’ every word and reaction.” 149 U. S. App. D. C. 1, 17, 461 F. 2d 92, 108.
With no attorney for the accused present at this “little drama,” defense counsel at trial could seldom convincingly discredit a witness’ courtroom identification by showing it to be based on an impermissibly suggestive lineup. In addition to the problems posed by the fluid nature of a lineup, the Court in Wade pointed out that neither the witnesses nor the lineup participants were likely to be alert for suggestive influences or schooled in their detection. “In short, the accused’s inability effectively to reconstruct at trial any unfairness that occurred at the lineup may deprive him of his only opportunity meaningfully to attack the credibility of the witness’ courtroom identification.” 388 U. S., at 231-232.
*324The Court held, therefore, that counsel was required at a lineup, primarily as an observer, to ensure that defense counsel could effectively confront the prosecution’s evidence at trial. Attuned to the possibilities of suggestive influences, a lawyer could see any unfairness at a lineup, question the witnesses about it at trial, and effectively reconstruct what had gone on for the benefit of the jury or trial judge.*
A photographic identification is quite different from a lineup, for there are substantially fewer possibilities of impermissible suggestion when photographs are used, and those unfair influences can be readily reconstructed at trial. It is true that the defendant’s photograph may be markedly different from the others displayed, but this unfairness can be demonstrated at trial from an actual comparison of the photographs used or from the witness’ description of the display. Similarly, it is possible that the photographs could be arranged in a suggestive manner, or that by comment or gesture the prosecuting authorities might single out the defendant’s picture. But these are the kinds of overt influence that a witness can easily recount and that would serve to impeach the identification testimony. In short, there are few possibilities for unfair suggestiveness — and those rather blatant and easily reconstructed. Accordingly, an accused would not be foreclosed from an effective cross-examination of an identification witness simply because his counsel was *325not present at the photographic display. For this reason, a photographic display cannot fairly be considered a “critical stage” of the prosecution. As the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit aptly concluded:
“If . . . the identification is not in a live lineup at which defendant may be forced to act, speak or dress in a suggestive way, where the possibilities for suggestion are multiplied, where the ability to reconstruct the events is minimized, and where the effect of a positive identification is likely to be permanent, but at a viewing of immobile photographs easily reconstructible, far less subject to subtle suggestion, and far less indelible in its effect when the witness is later brought face to face with the accused, there is even less reason to denominate the procedure a critical stage at which counsel must be present.” United States ex rel. Reed v. Anderson, 461 F. 2d 739, 745.
Preparing witnesses for trial by checking their identification testimony against a photographic display is little different, in my view, from the prosecutor’s other interviews with the victim or other witnesses before trial. See United States v. Bennett, 409 F. 2d 888, 900. While these procedures can be improperly conducted, the possibility of irretrievable prejudice is remote, since any unfairness that does occur can usually be flushed out at trial through cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses. The presence of defense counsel at such pretrial preparatory sessions is neither appropriate nor necessary under our adversary system of justice “to preserve the defendant’s basic right to a fair trial as affected by his right meaningfully to cross-examine the witnesses against him and to have effective assistance of counsel at the trial itself.” United States v. Wade, supra, at 227.

1 do not read Wade as requiring counsel because a lineup is a “trial-type” situation, nor do I understand that the Court required the presence of an attorney because of the advice or assistance he could give to his client at the lineup itself. Rather, I had thought the reasoning of Wade was that the right to counsel is essentially a protection for the defendant at trial, and that counsel is necessary at a lineup in order to ensure a meaningful confrontation and the effective assistance of counsel at trial.