Court Opinion

ID: 9708962
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:36:39.417951+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:44.984635
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE SIMON dissenting: Judges must be concerned over the danger that single-witness identification on occasion may result in conviction of innocent persons. This is true notwithstanding our obligation to follow the well-established rule, relied upon by this court in the direct appeal in this case, that identification by a single witness whose testimony is positive and credible is sufficient to sustain conviction. (See People v. Henderson, 36 Ill. App. 3d 355, 344 N.E.2d 239.) To avoid mistake in cases of single-witness identification, the accused should be afforded every opportunity possible to test the reliability of the identification. I do not take issue with the majority’s approval of the pretrial photographic identification procedures. I dissent because the State through negligence, carelessness or oversight withheld from the defendant information favorable to him. The information withheld was that one of the 18 photographs presented by the State to its identification witness, Carter Russell, during the pretrial identification procedures and offered by the State at trial was incorrectly labeled. Each of the 18 photographs had a name on the back which presumably was the name of the person in the photograph. One of the photographs was inadvertently mislabeled by the police with the name Douglas Streeter. After trial and a direct appeal, it was discovered that this photograph was actually a photograph of the defendant taken 6 months before another photograph of the defendant included in the 18 offered. The more recent photograph of the defendant was correcdy labeled and was identified by the witness as the assailant. The witness failed to select the earlier photograph as one of the assailant. The record does not show that the defendant examined the photographs before the evidence was discovered. Russell was the only witness who placed the defendant at the scene of the murder, and identified him. The only other State witness, the deceased’s mother, testified only to his excellent health prior to the shooting and to the date of his death. The State established no motive for the killing; there was no evidence that the victim knew the defendant and five or six men who Russell testified accompanied the defendant at the time of the murder, and no hint was given as to their identity or fate; no murder weapon was produced; neither an individual who accompanied the defendant and the witness to the tavern where the murder took place and who was there at the time nor any other persons who may have been in the tavern were called as witnesses. Russell’s credibility and perceptive powers were the only real issues in the case. When defense counsel failed to impeach Russell, the defendant had little hope of acquittal. In explaining at the end of the trial the decision he reached, the trial judge commented that Russell “was so unshaken he was not impeached.” This appraisal of the witness was quoted by this court in its opinion on direct appeal. However, the discovery that the photograph labeled Douglas Streeter was actually a photograph of the defendant indicates that the unshaken witness may have some infirmities. Russell when shown the mislabeled picture at trial testified he did not know who the person was. He also testified that although the mislabeled picture looked similar to the defendant, there was just one picture of the defendant in the group of 18 photographs he was shown, the one he selected. Had the State disclosed that both photographs were of the defendant, his counsel could have cross-examined Russell on his failure to identify both photographs as the assailant. It is not possible, of course, to know retrospectively how Russell would have reacted when confronted with this fact on cross-examination. He might have emerged unscathed or even strengthened. But, the mislabeled photograph, in the hands of skillful counsel, might have affected the positiveness of Russell’s identification. Confronted by persistent cross-examination revealing that the photograph of the person he testified he did not know and was not the defendant was in fact the defendant, Russell demeanor and testimony might have become uncertain and confused rather than remaining positive, unshaken and unimpeached. Notwithstanding the detailed explanation in the majority opinion of the differences the majority observes between the photograph Russell identified as the defendant and the mislabeled one, there is no certainty that Russell’s explanation on cross-examination would have been equally persuasive, certain or articulate. If, instead of being misled by the State’s error, defense counsel was armed with knowledge that both photographs were of his client, there is a possibility that he could have shattered Russell’s claim that he could positively identify the assailant. I disagree with the majority view that cases such as Brady v. Maryland (1963), 373 U.S. 83,10 L. Ed. 2d 215, 83 S. Ct. 1194, “cast little light upon the issues in this case.” Brady and the cases which rely and expand upon it are at the very heart of the issue raised by this post-conviction petition. (Levin v. Katzenbach (D.C.Cir.1966), 363 F.2d 287, 290; Barbee v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary (4th Cir. 1964), 331 F.2d 842, 846.) The inadvertently omitted evidence had a bearing on Russell’s credibility. It could have been helpful in cross-examining him, and thus was favorable to the defendant within the requirements of Brady. (People v. Dixon (1974), 19 Ill. App. 3d 683, 312 N.E.2d 390.) Failure of police to reveal material evidence in their possession is harmful to a defendant when it is negligently as well as purposefully withheld. Barbee v. Warden of Maryland Penitentiary (4th Cir. 1964), 331 F.2d 842, 846. The majority opinion seizes upon language in United States v. Fried (2d Cir. 1973), 486 F.2d 201, 203; United States v. Kahn (2d Cir. 1973), 472 F.2d 272, 287; United States v. Miller (2d Cir. 1969), 411 F.2d 825; and United States v. Keogh (2d Cir. 1968), 391 F.2d 138,148, as authority for placing a burden on the defendant to show that had information withheld as the result of inadvertence or error been available at trial the outcome would have been different. All that is necessary to bring Brady into play is that the evidence be favorable to the accused and material; when those requirements are satisfied it is of no consequence whether the withholding was in good faith or in bad faith. The language quoted by the majority from Fried, Kahn, Miller and Keogh is not helpful in disposing of the post-conviction petition in this case without a detailed analysis of the facts in each case which are completely different than those presented in this case. Suffice it to say that in Miller, the case relied on by the majority with facts most similar to those in this case, the court granted a new trial on the ground of nondisclosure of evidence after stating that it could not “confidently say what effect it might have had on the outcome of the trial.” The court pointed out that had the undisclosed evidence been available to counsel there was a possibility that “the sanctity of the oath and effective cross-examination might lead” the witness to recant his identification or at least to admit doubt. The court recognized the difficulty of speculating whether the undisclosed evidence could have brought about a different result in the following remarks which are responsive to the approach the majority has taken in this case: “We have reached this conclusion with some reluctance, particularly in light of the considered belief of the able and conscientious district judge, who has lived with this case for years, that review of the record in light of all the defense new trial motions left him ‘convinced of the correctness of the jury’s verdict.’ We, who also have had no small exposure to the facts, are by no means convinced otherwise. The test, however, is not how the newly discovered evidence concerning the hypnosis would affect the trial judge or ourselves but whether, with the Government’s case against Miller already subject to serious attack, there was a significant chance that this added item, developed by skilled counsel as it would have been, could have induced a reasonable doubt in the minds of enough jurors to avoid a conviction. We cannot conscientiously say there was not. With the panoply of rules that our legal system has devised to insure fairness in criminal trials, the least appropriate instance for a grudging attitude in applying them would be one where a defendant 0 0 0 has steadfastly asserted that the prosecution got the wrong man * * * .” United States v. Miller (2d Cir. 1969), 411 F.2d 825, 832. Neither can I conscientiously say that there was not a “significant chance” that Russell, who admitted he panicked immediately after seeing the defendant and hit the floor and was unable to describe in any detail the men he claimed were defendant’s accomplices, would have been shaken on cross-examination or that he might have admitted doubt about the identification after learning that a photograph he had testified was not that of the defendant was in fact the defendant. It should also be noted that Russell never saw the defendant before the murder, and the episode lasted only a few minutes. That the majority believes Russell had “excellent powers of observation” and was intelligent does not serve as a satisfactory substitute for cross-examination which would have revealed the certainty and honesty of his identification when confronted by the errors in his testimony. Any conclusion by this court or the trial judge that confrontation of Russell with the truth about the mislabeled photograph would have made no difference in the positiveness of his identification is speculative. (Levin v. Clark (D.C.Cir. 1967), 408 F.2d 1209, 1212, 1215.) The question is not whether, as the majority opinion states, there was any significant chance that the erroneous labeling when disclosed to the trial judge could have induced a reasonable doubt in his mind, but whether additional cross-examination to which Russell was never subjected might have induced such doubt. As this court pointed out in People v. Dixon (1974), 19 Ill. App. 3d 683, 688: “The defense had a right, as noted above, to have this evidence made available to it at the time of the request. It is not this court’s purpose to speculate as to what use the defense could or would have put the evidence in question, or what additional evidence it may or may not have led to, had it been turned over prior to trial.” An ironic feature of this unusual case is that the mislabeled photograph was pointed to by the trial court to buttress the conclusion that Russell was a stellar identification witness. In fact, comment was made on Russell’s perceptiveness in being able to discern between the similar appearance of the individuals portrayed in the two photographs. Had the error been known to defense counsel, the mislabeling instead of bolstering Russell’s positiveness in the eyes of the court might have destroyed his testimony. Since there is no way other than by speculating that the trial judge or this court can conscientiously say there was no significant chance this may not have happened, the defendant should be granted a new trial. The majority’s view that the issues raised by the post-conviction petition were disposed of in the denial of the defendant’s section 72 motion overlooks the difference in standards applicable to a motion for a new trial and a claim of violation of constitutional rights by withholding information under the test of Brady. In the former, the court decides whether with the new evidence before it the decision would have been different. In the case of this post-conviction petition based upon a claimed constitutional deprivation, the issue raised is whether disclosure of the withheld information prior to trial could have enabled the defendant to develop additional testimony not presented to or considered by the trial court which could have affected the posture of the case. Thus, for the purpose of the section 72 motion the court could properly decide whether having in evidence the fact that the mislabeled photograph was one of the defendant would have affected the court’s belief that the conviction was proper. The issue to be decided in this post-conviction petition is whether knowledge that the mislabeled photograph was defendant’s might have enabled the defendant to develop additional evidence which has not been presented to the court and which might have affected the outcome of the case. The doctrine of collateral estoppel is, therefore, not applicable.