Allison v. State
Allison v. State
Opinion
The appellant was indicted for first degree robbery in violation of §
On November 16, 1984, Cynthia Barber was shopping for groceries with her three-year-old son at a Winn-Dixie store in Huntsville, Alabama. Mrs. Barber was waiting in the check-out line when she noticed a black man with a moustache standing beside her. She testified that the man was wearing a green jacket and had on a black hat with a "Playboy bunny" emblem on the front. After paying for the groceries, Mrs. Barber and her son left the store and walked to her automobile. As she was unlocking her car door she felt a knife pressed to the back of her neck and heard someone say, "Give me your purse or I will kill you." She turned around and saw that the assailant was the black man who had been standing beside her in the grocery store. The man held a knife to her son's face and again threatened to kill them unless Mrs. Barber gave him her purse. The man then grabbed her purse and ran down the street. The Huntsville police were called and arrived shortly thereafter. Mrs. Barber gave them a detailed description of the robber. Mrs. Barber also told police that the knife used by the man had a white bone handle and that the tip of the blade was broken. After questioning several people in the vicinity about the robbery, the police learned that the appellant had been seen earlier that evening wearing a green jacket and a black "Playboy hat." Acting upon this information, the police went to a nearby house where the appellant was living and arrested him for the robbery. In the appellant's pocket they found a knife fitting the description given by Mrs. Barber. The appellant was handcuffed and taken back to the grocery store for a show up identification by Mrs. Barber. At this *Page 801 show-up, which occurred approximately two hours after the robbery, Mrs. Barber identified the appellant as the man who had robbed her.
The only issue raised by appellant on appeal is whether the show-up conducted by the police was unduly suggestive. "In determining the constitutional adequacy of pretrial identification, the central question is whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the identification was reliable."Brazell v. State,
We affirm the judgment of the circuit court.
AFFIRMED.
All the Judges concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Michael Allison v. State.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published