Witness identification of a suspect is very important to investigations and is compelling evidence in a criminal trial. We have all seen the police lineups in movies, in which individuals are led into a room to stand facing a two-way mirror, allowing a victim or a witness to pick out the individual he or she saw at the scene of the crime. The people in the lineup are selected to closely match the

Question

physical characteristics of the suspect, and the procedure must not be unduly suggestive as to which individual is the suspect. However, sometimes the police take a suspect to a victim's hospital room or bring a suspect to a crime scene, and show the suspect to witnesses. This show-up usually occurs immediately or shortly after a crime has occurred. This procedure is certainly more suggestive than a lineup, since there is only one person being brought before the witness or victim.

Why do you think the courts allow show-ups, but will review lineups to make sure they are not too suggestive? Is this really fair?

Answer 1

Show-ups are a valuable and practical tool for apprehending criminals. If a witness affirmatively identifies a suspect as the perpetrator of a crime, police can detain the suspect without delay to serve the interests of public safety. If a witness fails to identify the subject as the criminal, the show-up will result in the quick release of the innocent suspect and allow police to redirect their efforts. There are very few judicial restraints on this method of identification of a criminal suspect, and it is used quite frequently by law enforcement. However, in Stovall v. Denno (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure is a violation of due process, and evidence from such an identification should be excluded from a trial of the suspect. This shows tension between the need for the police to be efficient in identifying perpetrators and the need to be fair under the Sixth Amendment regarding pre-indictment identification. On the face of it, these show-ups are blatantly unfair, but they allow the police to get the job done efficiently. Is this a fair trade-off? It is not an easy question, and the student should be able to wrestle with this and see that there is a problem.