Court Opinion

ID: 9634475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:14:21.162411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:03.609391
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
Lawyers and judges are most familiar with the truism that “hard cases make bad law.” When, however, the courts rise to the occasion by fostering more just procedures as the result of sound and effective advocacy, hard cases present excellent opportunities to make good law.
Appellant argues that a defendant should be entitled, upon request, to a pre-trial lineup. Why not? Many of the miscarriages of justice brought to light result from misidentifications. One-on-one identifications in the highly suggestive atmosphere of the courtroom where the identity of the accused is continually spotlighted should not be permitted without prior evidence of a pre-trial lineup at which the accused has been identified. I realize the United States Supreme Court has not yet mandated that such a procedure is required to conform with due process requirements under the federal constitution. Yet, I have no doubt that some day they will so mandate. In the meantime, this Court should independently recognize that the requirement for a lineup would impose minimal burdens on our system of *28justice, while on the other hand, introduce a quality of fairness long overdue in trials involving an identification issue.
The independent basis exception should be very limited to persons who have known each other for a long period of time. To speak of an independent basis when the basis for the identification is a matter of seconds or even minutes is to ignore the reality of the risk, in many cases, of misidentification.
In this case the independent basis is highly tenuous even without the alleged out-of-court taint. When the out-of-court taint is considered, the identification in court should be absolutely rejected.
The damage in this case has been done and cannot be undone. The identification “witness” has now had the opportunity to sit in the courtroom for a long period of time receiving the image of the accused. There can be no assurance that a lineup at this point that results in identification of defendant will not be tainted by - both, the out-of-court and in-court identifications.
The judgment of sentence should be reversed and defendant discharged.