State v. Newton
State v. Newton
Opinion of the Court
The defendant was convicted at a jury trial of aggravated robbery of a pharmacy in violation of U.C.A., 1953, § 76-6-302. The only issue here is the correctness of the method employed to obtain identification of the defendant by the pharmacist, one Hunter, and another witness to the crime, one Shepard.
During the robbery a hidden camera was triggered and from the pictures taken, an officer assigned to the case recognized one Bradford as one of the robbers. Other law enforcement officers recognized Bradford as one who “ran around” with the defendant. The officer prepared an array of pictures, including one of the defendant. Both of the eyewitnesses picked defendant’s picture as one of the men who, at gunpoint, had robbed the store. The pharmacist had twice seen the person he identified in the picture: once, a short time before the robbery when defendant came in and was sold some merchandise, at which time Hunter observed defendant at a distance of 2 or 3 feet over a several-minute time period; and again, while the pharmacist was being forced to obtain and place bottles of narcotics in a bag held by the robber. Shepard also saw the same person during the robbery, which lasted about 4 or 5 minutes. The two witnesses’s identifications were positive and unequivocal. Significantly, the picture they chose from the array fairly reflected, and matched, the description given by the pharmacist to the police at the time of the robbery. On the witness stand, the defendant admitted that it was a photograph taken of him on the occasion of his conviction for a prior felony.
In an effort to support a claim of error in permitting the identifications by the two witnesses, counsel for defendant sets the tone of his thesis when, in his brief, he says that “[t]he inherent dangers of eyewitness identifications has [sic] provided ample grist for the mills of legal scholars.”
The defendant refers to several of our own precedents where we said the trial court, in a particular case, should carefully scrutinize identification evidence to detect if it is prejudicially “suggestive.”
The defendant cites with approval the dissent in our recent case of State v. Malm-rose.
The test here is not what the officer thought or did, but the question as to suggestiveness is whether the totality of circumstances incident to the identification is reliable and conducive to probative trustworthiness.
In State v. Perry, supra, we said that examining pictures in an array has been a method of long-standing for seeking the truth, which method has been proved to be practical and legitimate. If the method is not abused, it is an appropriate instrument employed by peace officers in investigating crime and in identifying those responsible for its commission.
The verdict and judgment are affirmed.
. Citing articles in 29 Stanford L.Rev. 969 (1977); 26 Kan.L.Rev. 461 (1978); 7 No.Ky.L. Rev. 407 (1980); 3 Nat.J.Crim.Def. 219 (1977) and 21 Crim.L.Q. 361 (1979).
. State v. Perry, 27 Utah 2d 48, 492 P.2d 1349 (1972).
. 28 Utah 2d 295, 501 P.2d 1084 (1972).
. Utah, 523 P.2d 1232 (1974).
. Utah, 649 P.2d 56 (1982).
. Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972).
. Citing State v. McCumber, Utah, 622 P.2d 353 (1980).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Utah, and v. Jay Richard NEWTON, and
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published