Court Opinion

ID: 9456445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:53:18.642228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:58.900973
License: Public Domain

McCREE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result of the court on the facts of this case, but I disagree with the restriction the opinion places upon the trial role of counsel who observes a lineup identification procedure. I would hold that counsel present at a lineup may testify to any departure from essential fairness which he may have observed in the conduct of the lineup and to any other aspects of that procedure which bear upon the probative value to be accorded the in-court identification of the defendant by persons who observed the lineup, including the failure by other witnesses to the crime to identify the defendant at the lineup. Cf. United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967).
In this case, counsel sought to testify that there were present at the lineup persons, not subsequently called as witnesses, who did not identify defendant. If this offer of proof had included a showing that these persons had been in a position at the situs of the crime to have observed the perpetrators, I would regard its exclusion as error. However, there was no such offer, and it appears that Gholston was also suspected of two other crimes. The persons who did not identify him at the lineup were not necessarily concerned with the crime for which Gholston was convicted. The apparent refusal by the police officers conducting the lineup to allow defense counsel to talk to witnesses at the police station may have contributed to the fact that the offer of proof did not include this information. Such restrictions upon counsel at lineups should receive this court’s careful scrutiny and on a clearer record might require a different result. On this record, however, I cannot conclude that the exclusion of the attorney’s testimony was prejudicially erroneous.