Court Opinion

ID: 9453921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:28:27.305613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:52.241969
License: Public Domain

ALDRICH, Chief Judge, and COFFIN, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
While agreeing with the substance of this opinion, disposing of the appeal on the basis of Count 1 (the Brennan identification), we do not think that the case should be passed without some comment upon the circumstances of the Steeves identification introduced to support Count II. Had the latter been the only count, or were there good reasons to suppose that the evidence introduced thereunder contributed to the conviction under the first count, we might have reached a different result.
The spread of police photographs shown to Steeves contained only one photograph of a man with markedly gray hair, or wearing a parka — as defendant had been described. When this spread was shown to Steeves, a young woman, the agents simply, so she testified, “asked me to look through the pictures and identify this person.” The gray hair made it easy to select the identifying photograph. The only attempt made by the prosecution to establish that Steeves relied on other factors was a conclusory question inquiring if she relied only on hair. The simple answer “No” was not followed up by any further interrogation. Steeves’ in-court identification was admittedly made with the photograph she had previously identified “a little bit” in mind.
We have serious doubts whether, cumulatively, these circumstances meet the standards governing identification based on out-of-court use of photographs as set forth in Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 383, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L. Ed.2d 1247 (1968). We would not wish *401this opinion to be construed as encouraging the kind of selection of photographs for a spread, of preliminary comment by agents to the witness, and of inadequate attention to the necessity of establishing a recollection independent of any impermissible suggestions which tainted Steeves’ testimony in this case.