Court Opinion

ID: 9583091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:34:43.99109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:12.820141
License: Public Domain

*677McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
This case involves the in-court identification of the defendant by two bystander witnesses who had observed the robbery and who also identified the defendant as the perpetrator. The majority here has vacated the judgment and remanded the case, contending that the prosecutor may have violated the Sixth Amendment right of the defendant in the presentation of the defendant to these witnesses in the trial court prior to trial as being unduly suggestive which can lead to a mistaken identification of the defendant as having committed the crime. These witnesses observed the robbery taking place by a black male whom they had never seen before. Just prior to trial the prosecutor asked each of them if she could identify the assailant from among a group of black male defendants seated in the jury box, and each chose the defendant.
The majority is of the opinion that the trial court may have erred in admitting these witnesses’ testimony over defendant’s objection and motion for excluding this in-court identification prior to trial. The majority seeks also to distinguish Prater v. State, 148 Ga. App. 831, 841 (7) (253 SE2d 223), wherein three judges of this court discussed what is described as an in-court and an out-of-court identification made of the defendant without the assistance of counsel wherein the witnesses were told that court proceedings were to be held at which some men, who might be connected with a certain robbery and who had been arrested in Tennessee, would be present. A special prosecutor suggested they might attend court and might be able to identify the man who had robbed the victim at gunpoint. No identification procedure was arranged, but the state witnesses separately attended court proceedings and immediately recognized two men involved in the robbery.
In Prater v. State, 148 Ga. App. 831, supra, at page 842, this court held as follows: “Each of the above situations is completely devoid of suggestive undercurrents. The two men were never singled out or conspicuously presented in any way. There was no line-up or parading of suspects; indeed, the identifications were accomplished quite apart from any police procedures. We conclude, as the trial court did, that these out-of-court identifications were not line-ups, one-on-one confrontations, or any other officially orchestrated identification procedure to which attach the right-to-counsel considerations of United States v. Wade, 388 U. S. 218 (87 SC 1926, 18 LE2d 1149) . . . and its progeny.”
Here the in-court identifications were at the time of trial and, in my opinion, free from impermissible suggestiveness. Compare Hampton v. State, 238 Ga. 608, 610 (234 SE2d 521). Furthermore, I have examined the contents of Moore v. Illinois, 434 U. S. 220, *678224-225 (98 SC 458, 54 LE2d 424), and find nothing in that decision which would require a remand of this case.
What other procedure should the prosecutor have used? Should he have approached defense counsel and advised defense counsel that he (prosecutor) had two possible eyewitnesses who have never before identified the defendant, and he was having them observe the defendant in the jury box along with others charged with crime to see if they could identify the defendant? If so, defense counsel could only object to the suggestiveness as to identification, which he was allowed to do here at trial which immediately followed. If counsel was required to be made aware of the proposed observance in the courtroom, I see no harmful error which requires reversal. See United States v. Wade, 388 U. S. 218, 239-243, supra; Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18 (87 SC 824, 17 LE2d 705), as to whether there was harmless or harmful error in the identification process. All the persons in the jury box were seated, and all (5 or 6) were black males. Both witnesses generally identified the defendant as being a slim black male, “in his twenties,” wearing a shirt and blue jeans, with a gun, with medium black hair, brushed back. Counsel for defendant was asked (while the jury was absent) as to how the procedure was highly suggestive. He replied that “no other person over there . . . matched the same characteristics, facial characteristics, color, height, weight as my client, and . . . there should have been some similarity in the subjects that were going to be viewed.” This was not a one-on-one identification, defendant was not paraded, orchestrated, or conspicuously presented in any way. I see no error, but if erroneous, it was not harmful error. I would not vacate and remand the case for another hearing but would affirm the judgment. The trial court has already considered the objection made to the observation by the eyewitnesses of the defendant in the courtroom prior to trial, and a thorough and sifting cross examination of these witnesses was allowed.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Deen and Judge Sognier join in this dissent.