Court Opinion

ID: 9706205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:34:30.01002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:20.147780
License: Public Domain

*210JUSTICE ALBIN,
concurring.
In State v. Herrera, 187 N.J. 493, 902 A.2d 177 (2006), this Court determined that it would continue to adhere to the federal standard for determining the admissibility of an out-of-court identification until “convinced that a different approach is required after a proper record has been made in the trial court.” Id. at 504, 902 A.2d 177. The federal standard, and therefore our current state standard, requires “the [trial] court first to ascertain whether the identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive, and, if so, whether the impermissibly suggestive procedure was nevertheless reliable.” Id. at 503-04, 902 A.2d 177. Applying that governing standard, I concur with the majority that despite the highly suggestive nature of the out-of-court identification procedures employed by the police, sufficient credible evidence in the record supported the trial court’s finding that “the identifications were reliable” and therefore admissible in court. Ante at 206, 943 A.2d at 863.
However, I stand by my dissent in Herrera, supra, in which I stated that “[i]t is time for this Court to announce that the use of unnecessarily suggestive identification procedures violates the due process guarantees of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution.” 187 N.J. at 528, 902 A.2d 177 (Albin, J., dissenting). “The current standard permits highly suggestive identification procedures, however unnecessary, so long as a court later ratifies the identification as otherwise reliable.” State v. Romero, 191 N.J. 59, 81, 922 A.2d 693 (2007) (Albin, J., dissenting). The photographic show-up procedure used by the police in this case has been described as “ ‘the most grossly suggestive identification procedure now or ever used by the police.’ ” Herrera, supra, 187 N.J. at 525, 902 A.2d 177 (Albin, J., dissenting) (quoting Patrick M. Wall, Eye-Witness Identification in Criminal Cases 28 (1965)). A photographic show-up—the displaying of a single suspect’s photograph to a witness—is an effective technique for securing an identification, but also the most conducive technique for securing a misidentification. In turn, misidentification is the *211single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in this country. See Herrera, supra, 187 N.J. at 520, 902 A.2d 177 (Albin, J., dissenting) (citing State v. Dubose, 285 Wis.2d 143, 699 N.W.2d 582, 592 (2005)).
This Court should not only send a signal, but adopt a standard that discourages law enforcement from unnecessarily using a technique that maximizes the potential for mistaken identifications and wrongful convictions. I am prepared today, based on the arguments made to our Court, to prohibit highly suggestive identification procedures, such as the showing of a single suspect photograph to a witness, except when necessary due to an exigency. The majority has insisted that a proper record be developed at the trial level before consideration is given to altering our present law. Because the majority has left the door open, the day will soon come, with the proper record, for our Court to articulate a standard in identification cases that minimizes, rather than exponentially increases, the likelihood of misidentifications and wrongful convictions.
Justice LONG joins in this opinion.
For affirmance—Chief Justice RABNER and Justices LONG, LaVECCHIA, ALBIN, WALLACE, RIVERA-SOTO and HOENS—7.
Opposed—None.