Court Opinion

ID: 9454372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:44:48.770309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:05.687521
License: Public Domain

WINTER, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
While I agree with the Court’s disposition of defendant’s contention concerning the legality of his arrest and the seizure of certain evidence, and the alleged violation of the sequestration order, I am constrained to dissent from its conclusion that Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967), renders United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967), and Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178 (1967), inapplicable to this case. I would hold them both applicable, and I would remand this case for further proceedings on their authority. I would not at this point reach the question of whether the totality of circumstances surrounding the identification denied defendant’s rights under the due process clause, as enunciated in Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1967), and Stovall v. Denno, supra. See also, United States v. Quarles, 387 F.2d 551 (4 Cir. 1967).
The operative facts described in the majority opinion may be briefly summarized: Defendant was charged in Baltimore, Maryland, and arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 11, 1966. Counsel was appointed for him in Lexington; a preliminary hearing was held in Lexington on April 4; and he was *652thereafter returned to Baltimore, where he was held in custody. Preceding the April 4 hearing, while defendant was in custody and while he had counsel, the witness Doyle was shown photographs, in Baltimore, of the defendant by the FBI.1 Doyle testified that he had these photographs, as well as the sketch which he was also again shown, “in mind” when he went to Lexington.
On April 15, 1966, after defendant had been returned to Baltimore, while he was in jail and before counsel had been appointed to represent him in Baltimore, the F.B.I. showed photographs of defendant and other individuals to four tellers who had witnessed the robbery. All of the pictures, except those of defendant, were typical “mug-shots;” those of defendant were typical snapshots. All pictures were admitted into evidence.
Defendant’s Kentucky counsel was not given notice that the F.B.I. intended to display photographs for the purpose of obtaining an identification of defendant to Doyle or the bank tellers, or given an opportunity to be present or to arrange for associate counsel. Doyle and four tellers testified at defendant’s trial and identified him as the person who committed the crime charged. Doyle and three of the tellers also testified, on cross-examination, that they had identified him from photographs shown to them before trial. Other details concerning the identification from photographs were not developed at the trial.
Wade and Gilbert both decided that the Sixth Amendment right of an accused to counsel attached when he was in custody after indictment, and when his person was exhibited in a lineup for purposes of identification. Stated otherwise, denial of the right to counsel at a police lineup, absent waiver of the right, was held to render inadmissible the in-court identification of a witness who had identified the accused at the lineup. Of course, the Simmons case, decided the next term, held that an identification which occurred before an accused was in custody, and which, incidentally, was made from photographs, was a circumstance to be considered as part of the totality of surrounding circumstances to determine if due process rights had been violated.2
Wade and Gilbert both announced a new rule of constitutional law. The rule was predicated upon considerations of fairness and the possibility that risks of suggestion, direct or indirect, could be made by police officers to witnesses,3 as well as the difficulty of reconstructing later at trial exactly what was said and done at the identification procedure, so *653that the fairness and accuracy of the identification could be determined.4 Because of the grave potential for prejudice, intentional or not, which may not be capable of reconstruction at trial, and since the presence of counsel itself can often avert prejudice and assure a “meaningful confrontation” at trial, the Court laid down the rule that, unless effectively waived, the presence of counsel at the lineup was the sine qua non to permitting a witness to make an in-court identification when the identification was based upon a previous lineup.
I cannot read Wade and Gilbert to express considerations substantially less applicable to identification by the exhibition of photographs than to identification by exhibition of the person. It is true that if the photographs shown to a witness who makes an identification are preserved, what the witness saw in making an identification can be later demonstrated in court. It is true, also, that the use of photographs eliminates or diminishes some potential unfairness present in the use of a lineup, such as using persons who have marked differences in height. Yet, photographs present other dangers, one of which is present in this case, of a markedly different pose of the defendant from the poses of other individuals whose photographs are exhibited, which may have the effect of placing greater emphasis on the photograph of the defendant, because of its uniqueness, than on the others. With the use of photographs, many of the potential dangers present at a lineup where counsel is absent are also present. Aside from direct prejudicial oral communications between police officers and a witness asked to make an identification, an unscrupulous police officer, or even a scrupulous police officer, unwittingly, may influence the identification by the manner in which the photographs are spread out, or the order in which they are handed to the witness — in short, by any of the myriad forms of suggestion possible in the context of an in camera identification.
To my mind, the slight diminution of possible prejudice by the use of photographs is about equal to the additional possibilities for suggestion, direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional, in the use of photographs, so that I would hold the doctrine announced in Wade and Gilbert applicable to identification by photograph when the identification occurs after the accused is in custody.5 Although Wade and Gilbert were decided in the context of a post-indictment lineup and the opinion in Wade speaks of a post-indictment lineup, I see no reason to differentiate between post-indictment and other post-custody identifications. After a defendant is in custody, the incentive to the police by intentional or *654unintentional influence to etablish that the correct defendant has been apprehended and the crime has been correctly-solved is equally great whether there has been time for the return of an indictment.
Whether one disagrees with Wade and Gilbert or willingly embraces their doctrine, I am of the view that an identification properly conducted and arrived at by confrontation with the person identified carries with it a higher degree of accuracy than an identification based solely upon the examination of photographs. To hold that a post-custody identification by resort to photographs without counsel, absent the waiver of counsel is constitutionally permissible would be to invite law enforcement officers to avoid the presence of counsel by resort to identification by photographs. This would be an unfortunate consequence of declining to extend Wade and Gilbert, because the quest for the ultimate truth, the basic purpose of a criminal trial, would be relegated to secondary sources.
Stovall, to my mind, is no answer to defendant’s contention in this case; it appears to me to be only a convenient device to avoid an issue that the Court should squarely face. It is true that the Stovall case held that only the defendants Wade .and Gilbert, and other defendants identified by means of a lineup after June 12, 1967, the date on which Wade and Gilbert were decided, should have the benefit of the rule set forth in those cases. The reasons for allowing Wade and Gilbert to have the benefit of the decisions were that under the Constitution courts decide concrete cases and do not pass upon constitutional questions as mere dictum, and counsel must be given the incentive to advance contentions requiring a change in the law. Id., 388 U.S. 301, 87 S.Ct. 1967. Because I am of the view that the rule of Wade and Gilbert should extend to identifications by photograph, I am led to the conclusion that defendant should be the beneficiary of this new adjudication, (a) because I should not express my view as dictum, and (b) because the diligence and astuteness of defendant’s counsel to advance a constitutional contention, not obvious on its face and not a simple application of Wade and Gilbert, should be recognized so as to promote similar commendable conduct on the part of other members of the bar. Presumably, in the light of the Stovall decision, if my views on the disposition of the ease at bar were to prevail, they could not be availed of by any other defendants whose trials began any earlier than the date of this decision. Certainly, they could not be availed of by persons whose convictions had become final before the date of decision and who sought to assert them in applications for post-conviction relief.
A word must be said as to the form of relief to which I think the defendant is entitled. In Wade the conviction was vacated and the case remanded to the district court for hearing and a determination of whether the in-court identification had an independent source, or whether the introduction of the evidence was harmless error. The authority of the district court to reinstate the conviction or order a new trial, as may be proper after development of the record, was recognized. Similar relief was granted in Gilbert.6 Since the record in this case, understandably because it was made before the decision in Wade and Gilbert, leaves unanswered so many aspects of the photographic identification *655and its bearing, if any, on the in-court identifications, I would vacate defendant’s conviction and remand the case with the same direction and same recognition of the district court’s authority on remand as those given in Wade.

. Doyle was also shown a sketch of the alleged perpetrator of the crime. The sketch had been prepared, prior to the time that defendant was taken into custody, from descriptions furnished by Doyle and other bank employees. Since the initial exposure of Doyle and the other bank employees, who testified at the trial, to the picture was prior to defendant’s being taken into custody, the sketch, for reasons set forth infra in the text, need not be further considered.

. The opinion of the Court expressly set forth that Simmons asserted no Sixth Amendment right. “Simmons * * * does not contend that he was entitled to counsel at the time the pictures were shown to the witnesses.” Id., 390 U.S., p. 383, 88 S.Ct., p. 970.

. “[T]he confrontation compelled by the State between the accused and the victim or witnesses to a crime to elicit identification evidence is peculiarly riddled with innumerable dangers and variable factors which might seriously, even crucially, derogate from a fair trial. * * * A major factor contributing to the high incidence of miscarriage of justice from mistaken identification has been the degree of suggestion inherent in the manner in which the prosecution presents the suspect to witnesses for pretrial identification. * * * Suggestion can be created intentionally or unintentionally in many subtle ways. * * * Lineups * * * present a particular hazard that a victim’s understandable outrage may excite vengeful or spiteful motives. * * * neither witnesses nor lineup participants are apt to be alert for conditions prejudicial to the suspect.” United States v. Wade, supra, 388 U.S., pp. 228-231, 87 S.Ct., p. 1933.

. “What facts have been disclosed in specific cases about the conduct of pretrial confrontations for identification illustrate both the potential for substantial prejudice to the accused at that stage and the need for its revelation at trial.” United States v. Wade, supra, p. 232, 87 S.Ct., p. 1935. “Since it appears that there is grave potential for prejudice, intentional or not, in the pretrial lineup, which may not be capable of reconstruction at trial, and since presence of counsel itself can often avert prejudice and assure a meaningful confrontation at trial, there can be little doubt that for Wade the post-indictment lineup was a critical stage of the prosecution at which he was ‘as much entitled to such aid [of counsel] * * * as to the trial itself.’ ” Id., p. 236, 87 S.Ct., p. 1937.

. I would reject the government’s argument that defendant’s failure to object to the identification testimony forecloses his pressing this conclusion on appeal. Wade and Gilbert had not been decided when defendant’s trial was held. I deem this case within the “plain errors or defects affecting substantial rights” provisions of Rule 52, F.R.Crim.P. “Appellate courts often notice error not objected to below when, under the law existing at the time of the trial, objection would have been futile and when error was asserted on review on the basis of a subsequent appellate decision.” United States v. Indiviglio, 352 F.2d 276, 280 n. 7 (2 Cir. 1965).

. It should be noted in Gilbert that the testimony of the bank manager who testified at the trial that he had identified Gilbert at the lineup was held not susceptible of the Wade type inquiry and per se was excludable. A close reading of Wade discloses similar testimony on cross-examination but different relief prescribed. Although not absolutely clear, the difference would appear to be that in Gilbert the testimony in question was given on direct examination. In the case at bar, the testimony was given on cross-examination or on redirect after the subject had been introduced on cross.