Court Opinion

ID: 9463522
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:09:24.852386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:09.541981
License: Public Domain

CELEBREZZE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I cannot reconcile the majority view with our prior decisions which have sustained the constitutionality of post-Stovall, one-on-one identifications procured under circumstances no more inherently suggestive than those of the show up employed here. Hastings v. Caldwell, *1088480 F.2d 1202, 1203 (6th Cir. 1973); Holland v. Perini, 512 F.2d 99, 103-104 (6th Cir. 1975); Heltzel v. Cowan, 518 F.2d 851, 852-853 (6th Cir. 1975). In each of these cases we tacitly declined to impose upon the states a per se rule which would exclude evidence of any suggestive, out-of-court identification not justified by exigent circumstances.
Although the majority appears to favor a strict exclusionary rule turning upon the extent to which resort to impermissible identification procedures was compelled by necessity, it honors these precedents by continuing to adhere to the standard of review suggested in Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972). However, in applying Biggers’ five criteria to “the totality of the circumstances” of the instant case, I disagree with the conclusion reached by the majority. The identifications were not so tainted by the apparent suggestiveness of the custodial environment or the statements made by the police as to invoke a palpable likelihood of misidentification. Independent indicia of reliability present here are no less persuasive than they were in the prior cases where we found no denial of due process.
The majority fails to expose any clear error in the factual finding made by the District Court that “there is nothing to indicate that either witness was subjected to or responded to official suggestions in the pre-trial identification.” In the absence of that, I see no basis for our substitution of judgment. I would therefore affirm the denial of the writ of habeas corpus.