Court Opinion

ID: 9454407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:45:53.909707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:06.556672
License: Public Domain

J. SKELLY WRIGHT,
Circuit Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part):
I agree with much of Judge MeGOW-AN’S well reasoned and well written opinion. The general statement of the issues certainly delineates the contours of the Stovall1 problem, and the treatment of the circumstances surrounding each case is admirable. In my view, however, the discussion in Clemons casts the analysis of pre-Stovall cases into an awkward and somewhat nebulous mold. I think that analysis, and the result reached in the case, give too little weight to the fact that unnecessarily suggestive confrontations are constitutional violations, and testimony concerning them is constitutional error; accordingly I dissent in that case. I concur fully in Clark, and I concur in the treatment of Hines with the one exception hereinafter noted.

Clemons v. United States

The evidence against Malcus Clemons included his identification by three witnesses — Wilson, Charles and Raniecky. Wilson and Charles identified Clemons’ picture immediately after the robbery; they were shown only Clemons’ picture. All three subsequently viewed Clemons alone in his cellblock. At trial all three testified on direct examination to the cellblock confrontation, and each made an in-court identification of Clemons. I would:
(1) Hold as a matter of law that the cellblock viewing by all three and the picture identification by Charles and Wilson were unnecessarily suggestive confrontations, violative of due process. Therefore, the admission of testimony relating to the cellblock viewing and the admission of any in-court identifications tainted by the pre-trial confrontations was constitutional error.
(2) Remand to the trial court to determine whether the testimony about the cellblock viewing was harmless error under the traditional harmless error standard, as enunciated in Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). That standard is whether the judge can say with fair assurance (reasonable probability) that the verdict of the jury was not substantially swayed by the error.
(3) Remand to the trial court to determine whether the in-court identifications were tainted by the suggestive pretrial confrontations. The burden here is on the Government to show by clear and convincing evidence that the in-court identifications had an independent source.
(4) Remand to the trial court to determine whether, if any of the in-court identifications were tainted, their admission was nonetheless harmless error under the traditional Kotteakos test.
*1253If the trial court cannot find that the admission of testimony about the cell-block viewing and the admission of any tainted in-court identification was harmless, then a new trial is required.
This case arose before the Wade 2 Gilbert3-Stovatt trilogy. Had it come afterward, the majority would apply an analysis similar to the one just outlined. The majority recognizes that the sequence outlined in Gilbert for dealing with violations of the right to counsel will apply in the future for Stovall violations of due process as well. Specifically, this would mean: First, the circumstances of each pre-trial confrontation would be examined to determine whether it was unnecessarily suggestive. The majority goes over many of the relevant factors to be considered (see, e. g., footnote 16). Second, if a confrontation is found to be suggestive, the burden shifts to the Government to show by clear and convincing evidence that an in-court identification was the product of an independent source, untainted by the invalid confrontation. And last, if the tainted identification was allowed, or testimony elicited as to an invalid confrontation, the reviewing court would determine whether the error was harmless. Here, for future cases, the very strict standard of harmless error used in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), would apply — the conviction is reversed unless the court is “able to declare a belief that it was harmless [error] beyond a reasonable doubt.” 4
For pre-Stovall cases I would follow this approach as well, with one exception. Because prior to Wade the police and prosecutors were on less notice of the dangers inherent in lineups and other confrontations, and because there may be large numbers of people who can raise a colorable claim that they were subjected to unnecessarily suggestive procedures. I would not apply the strict Chapman test. Even though the error is constitutional, out of recognition of the police notice consideration, and in the interest of not unduly disrupting the efficient administration of the criminal process, I would apply the less stringent traditional Kotteakos harmless error test.5
The majority opinion goes a different route. It abandons the three-step analy*1254sis in pre-Stovall cases and applies instead an “independent source” test for all confrontations, pre-trial as well as in-court. Thus the majority holds it ■was not error to have admitted even direct testimony about a “defective” confrontation (such as the cellblock viewing in Clemons) if the court can find that the witness had other, non-suggestive, chances to view the defendant. This approach makes it unnecessary, in Clemons, to reach the question of harmless error.
Conceptually, the majority approach is sound. However, I believe that it suffers from two drawbacks. First, there is obviously a need here for guidelines for the trial courts. I think it is more clear to keep the same analysis for all cases, pre- and post-Stovall, changing only the harmless error test. This breaks down the inquiry into discrete steps. The majority, by introducing a different approach for pr e-Stovall cases, introduces a needless confusion in this area.
Second, and much more important, I think the majority approach sells short the gravity of the problem. The approach I have taken first focuses on the confrontation. If it was unnecessarily suggestive, then it is a violation of due process, and the introduction of testimony about that confrontation is error— constitutional error. Recognizing it as such, I would then have the court determine whether it permeated the trial to an extent sufficient to warrant reversal. The majority cuts off the inquiry at its source, because even as suggestive a procedure as the cellblock viewing in Clemons is redeemed if the court can find an independent source for the identification made at it. If this is so, I can see no reason why the same should not be true in post-Stovall cases; an “independent source” means that it is likely that they got the right man, and if the independent source is all the inquiry that needs to be made in a Stovall problem then the same approach should apply in all cases. Yet the majority will not apply the same approach in post-Stovall cases, no doubt because it feels that the Supreme Court in Stovall had in mind a more searching inquiry along the lines set out in Gilbert, one which views with a more jaundiced eye a suggestive pretrial confrontation. This, in my judgment, is the approach that should be taken in pr e-Stovall cases as well.
I recognize the elusiveness of capturing an attitude in words. However, my difference with the majority’s approach is more than a matter of semantics. In its application to this case the difference is substantial. For I cannot see how, on this record, we can rest easy with the conviction of Malcus Clemons without further inquiry into the disturbing identification problems so clearly raised. I think that, by applying my approach to the facts in Clemons in more detail, the import of the test I have formulated will become more clear.
A. Suggestibility of the pre-trial confrontations.
Subsequent to a robbery of the driver (Darby) and passengers (including Charles, Wilson and Raniecky) of a bus, these four witnesses identified Clemons as one of the robbers at various pre-trial proceedings and at the trial itself. Raniecky, Wilson and Charles viewed Clemons at a one-man showup which the court finds, on the Government’s own testimony, to be an a fortiori violation of Stovall, given the treatment of similar showups in Hines and Clark. In addition, each identified Clemons’ picture immediately after the robbery, Raniecky from a group of five pictures, and Charles and Wilson after being shown only Clemons’ picture. As with one-man lineups, one-man picture viewings, especially where the officers had other pictures readily available, are also to be viewed suspiciously. I would find that the picture identifications by Charles and Wilson were also unnecessarily suggestive. See Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968).
Darby did not participate in the picture viewing or the cellblock confrontation. He did pick Clemons out of a room *1255in which Clemons was being presented for a preliminary hearing. I agree with the court’s cautious affirmance of the validity of that procedure in this case. Because of the invalid cellblock confrontation and the suggestive picture viewing, however, the burden shifts to the Government to prove an independent source for the in-court identifications by Ranieeky, Charles and Wilson.
B. The issue of taint.
For Charles and Wilson the only independent source for their identifications could be the robbery itself. As the court notes, the bus was well lighted, and I agree that the opportunity which these witnesses had to observe the robber may have been good. However, we know very little of what observations each of them actually made. I note that two passengers, despite the good opportunity, were unable to identify Clemons. Nor do we know much about the description of the robber that Charles and Wilson were able to give the police. For example, the scant testimony bears the inference that Charles did not notice much about the robber except that he was definitely wearing either a sweater or a shirt. Under these circumstances,6 there should be a remand to determine whether either Charles’ or Wilson’s observations at the time of the robbery were sufficiently clear to provide an independent source for their in-court identifications. The trial court has not made this determination and I doubt that we should make it, particularly on a record where the issue has not been fully developed.
I would be unwilling to order a remand solely on the basis of the testimony of Ranieeky, because he was able to pick Clemons out of five pictures. However, since there should be a remand for taint as to Charles and Wilson, and since we know equally little about Raniecky’s observations at the time of the robbery (we do know that he sat in the front of the bus and did not look at the robber as he passed down toward the rear of the bus), the judge on remand should make an “independent source” determination for Ranieeky as well.
C. Harmless error.
Ranieeky, Charles and Wilson all testified on direct examination to the invalid cellblock showup. In addition, as noted above, the in-court identifications by Charles and Wilson, and to a lesser extent Ranieeky, may have been tainted by their pre-trial confrontations. Thus in a case based solely on identification, three of four witnesses may have given tainted and impermissible testimony. To me this raises a grave and close question whether the conviction can stand. But despite the testimony as to the cell-block showing, and despite the lack of knowledge as to taint, the majority, applying its taint test on an incomplete record, affirms Clemons’ conviction. I would leave it to the trial judge in the first instance to develop and weigh the factors going to taint, and to consider the issue of harmless error under the standard: was it reasonably probable that the jury was swayed by the invalid testimony? Accordingly, I would remand.

Hines v. United States

I concur in the court’s disposition of Hines with the exception of one witness, Mrs. Florence Steele. I agree, of course, that for each witness:
“ * * * The court should then, on facts elicited outside the presence of the jury, rule upon whether a pre-trial identification by the same eyewitness is violative of due process. If a violation is found, the court should then decide whether the in-eourt identification is still admissible because it has an independent source * *
In the case of the witness Florence Steele, the facts as developed by the trial court in the Stovall hearing 7 in my *1256judgment require the conclusion that her testimony identifying the defendant should not have been admitted. Therefore, if a new trial is held, she should not be allowed to so testify.
The first and only time Mrs. Steele identified the defendant before the trial was at the eellblock confrontation where Hines, locked alone in his cell, was displayed by the prosecutor to four of the ladies who knew he had been charged with the crime. The trial court, and this court, aptly characterize this proceeding as bringing Hines “into a focus unacceptably antithetical to the lineup principle.” This confrontation was thus ruled invalid under Stovall.
Since Mrs. Steele did not see any pictures, or have any other opportunity to identify Hines, the only “independent source” for her identification could be the robbery itself. She testified that the robbery lasted three to four minutes, and that she saw Hines enter the shop and also looked at him as she handed him some money. However, her testimony is severely undercut by her statements that:
“I had a slight blackout.
•* * * -X- * *
“I was looking at his face when I was sitting in the chair. I felt this seizure coming on — this blackout coming on and I just slumped into the chair.”
She did pass out, and was revived by Mrs. Reid, who rubbed her face with a wet towel.
The description of the robber which Mrs. Steele gave the police does not demonstrate that she had an adequate independent source for her identification. Following the robbery she described him to the police as a “small faced, dark fellow” wearing “khaki pants or something and this dark straw hat,” either “dark blue or dark gray”; further, the robber had on a “soiled sweatshirt,” later described as a soiled “T shirt.” From this very general description it is hard to conclude that she carefully observed and remembered what the robber looked like. And even in this description she failed to tell the police, as she later testified, that the robber was wearing sunglasses.
Finally, at the Stovall hearing she testified that she remembered the robber because “[h]e has a very unusual face,” “I mean the structure of his nose and lips and eyes and hairline.” However, no one else testified that Hines’ face was unusual. And whether Mrs. Steele actually noticed the eyes and hairline of a robber who wore sunglasses and a hat is doubtful.
At the Stovall hearing Mrs. Steele stated that she “certainly” could have recognized the robber even without having seen him at the eellblock confrontation. The trial court relied on her credibility in allowing her testimony. In upholding the trial court, this court states:
“* * * [A] Ithough the positiveness of the witness about an independent base for an in-court identification is a relevant factor, it is to be weighed warily and in the realization that the most assertive witness is not invariably the most reliable one. * * * ”
I would agree that the positiveness of a witness is a factor to be considered, and weighed warily, by the trial judge, and his consideration is to be given weight by this court on review. Further, since it is relevant, in a close case it can be controlling. We should not, though, give the trial court unreviewable discretion in the matter. However little guidance Stovall gives us, it does place upon us a responsibility to review an identification as a matter of law. Here the case was not close with regard to Mrs. Steele. Her sole pre-trial identification was based on an unnecessarily suggestive confrontation, and her independent source for identification in the robbery itself was at best limited. Thus however much the trial judge believed her, as a matter of law her testimony should not have been admitted. Since the Government’s confession requires a new trial, *1257we do not have to decide whether her erroneously admitted testimony would require reversal; if a new trial is held, however, in my judgment her testimony should be excluded.

. Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967).

. United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1027 (1967).

. Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178 (1967).

. Or, as formulated in Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 86-87, 84 S.Ct. 229, 230, 11 L.Ed.2d 171 (1963), the case relied upon in Chapman:
“ * * * We are not concerned here with whether there was sufficient evidence on which the petitioner could have been convicted without the evidence complained of. The question is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction. * * * ft
The Chapman Court then equated the “reasonable possibility” with a belief “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

. This standard was described by the Court as follows:
“ * * * [T]lie question is, not were they [the jury] right in their judgment, regardless of the error or its effect upon the verdict. It is rather what effect the error had or reasonably may be taken to have had upon the jury’s decision. The crucial thing is the impact of the thing done wrong on the minds of other men, not on one’s own, in the total setting. * * *
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“If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand * * *. But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand.” 328 U.S. at 764-765, 66 S.Ct. at 1248. (Citations omitted.)

. It should be borne in mind that the trial in demons was conducted before Stovall and that consequently counsel and the trial court understandably did not focus with particularity on Stovall considerations.

. Unlike demons, the trial court in Hines did conduct a Stovall hearing.