Court Opinion

ID: 9454123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:36:57.793777+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:58.793925
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(dissenting):
I believe that due process is violated whenever the police unjustifiably fail to hold a lineup. Since mistaken identifications are probably the greatest cause of erroneous convictions,1 we must require the fairest identification procedures available under the circumstances. With the stakes so high, due process does not permit second best.
I think this is what the Supreme Court meant in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967) and United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967). In Stovall it held that a defendant was entitled to show that the confrontation in his case “was so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that he was denied due process of law.” 388 U.S. at 301-302, 87 S.Ct. at 1972 (emphasis supplied). The Court went on to say that “The practice of showing suspects singly to persons for the purpose of identification, and not as a part of a lineup, has been widely condemned.” It affirmed defendant’s conviction only because the record revealed that “the showing of Stovall to [the eyewitness-victim] in an immediate hospital confrontation was imperative.” Id. at 302, 87 S.Ct. at 1972 (emphasis supplied).
The clear thrust of Stovall is that, without justifying circumstances, a one-man showup is too unnecessarily suggestive to satisfy due process. A lineup must be conducted unless it will necessitate a delay which is likely to make identification impossible or less reliable;2
In Wade the Court pointed out that cross-examination at trial “cannot be viewed as an absolute assurance of accuracy and reliability [in courtroom identifications]. Thus, in the present context, where so many variables and pitfalls exist, the first line of defense must be the prevention of unfairness and the lessening of the hazards of eyewitness identification at the lineup itself.” 388 U.S. at 235, 87 S.Ct. at 1936. In other words, we must insist on the fairest feasible identification procedures and not rely on the courts’ ability to gauge the psychological effects of more suggestive procedures.
In light of Stovall and Wade, I must reject the majority’s assertion that I am making a new “constitutional pronouncement.” 3 I would remand to the District Court to give the Government an opportunity to show that the failure to hold a lineup was justified. Due process requires this showing.

. See United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 229-230, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967) and materials cited therein.

. In Stovall there was a substantial likelihood that in the time needed to arrange a lineup in the hospital room the eyewitness might die. In Wise v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 279, 383 F.2d 206 (1967), the police .captured the suspect a minute or so after the offense and immediately brought him back to be identified by the victims. This one-man show-up was justifiable because, as the court suggested, the fresh identification promoted fairness by assuring reliability. 383 F.2d at 209. Moreover, the identification took place at the scene of the offense rather than in the suggestive atmosphere of a police station.

. Supra p. 1261 n. 28.