Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
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Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
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This compendium includes significant criminal cases by the U.S. Supreme Court & N.C. appellate courts, Nov. 2008 – Present. Selected 4th Circuit cases also are included.
Jessica Smith prepared case summaries Nov. 2008-June 4, 2019; later summaries are prepared by other School staff.
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The Due Process Clause does not require a preliminary judicial inquiry into the reliability of an eyewitness identification when the identification was not procured under unnecessarily suggestive circumstances arranged by law enforcement. New Hampshire police received a call reporting that an African-American male was trying to break into cars parked in the lot of the caller’s apartment building. When an officer responding to the call asked eyewitness Nubia Blandon to describe the man, Blandon, who was standing in her apartment building just outside the open door to her apartment, pointed to her kitchen window and said the man she saw breaking into the car was standing in the parking lot, next to a police officer. Petitioner Perry, who was that person, was arrested. About a month later, when the police showed Blandon a photographic array that included a picture of Perry and asked her to point out the man who had broken into the car, she was unable to identify Perry. At trial Perry unsuccessfully moved to suppress Blandon’s identification on the ground that admitting it would violate due process. The Court began by noting that an identification infected by improper police influence is not automatically excluded. Instead, the Court explained, the trial judge must screen the evidence for reliability pretrial. If there is a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification, the judge must disallow presentation of the evidence at trial. But, it continued, if the indicia of reliability are strong enough to outweigh the corrupting effect of the police-arranged suggestive circumstances, the identification evidence ordinarily will be admitted, and the jury will ultimately determine its worth. In this case, Perry asked the Court to extend pretrial screening for reliability to cases in which the suggestive circumstances were not arranged by law enforcement officers because of the grave risk that mistaken identification will yield a miscarriage of justice. The Court declined to do so, holding: “When no improper law enforcement activity is involved . . . it suffices to test reliability through the rights and opportunities generally designed for that purpose, notably, the presence of counsel at postindictment lineups, vigorous cross-examination, protective rules of evidence, and jury instructions on both the fallibility of eyewitness identification and the requirement that guilt be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” Justice Thomas filed a concurring opinion. Justice Sotomayor dissented.
Two men were angry about being cheated in a drug deal. They approached a house and shot two other men – one fatally – who they thought were involved in the rip-off. The victims were on the front porch at the time of the shooting. Two women who were also on the porch viewed photo lineups in an attempt to identify the perpetrators. They both identified one suspect. Neither identified the defendant as the other man, though one said that his picture “looked like” the suspect. The defendant was charged with murder and other offenses. Several years later, a legal assistant with the district attorney’s office asked the women to come to the office for trial preparation. The legal assistant showed the women part of the defendant’s video-recorded interview with police as well as updated pictures of the defendant. One of the women looked out the window and saw the defendant, in a jail uniform and handcuffs, being led into the courthouse for a hearing. She immediately stated that he was one of the killers. The other woman came to the window and also saw the defendant. Both women later identified the defendant at trial as one of the perpetrators. The defendant argued that the identification was tainted by what he contended was a suggestive identification procedure conducted by the legal assistant. The trial judge found that the procedure was not unduly suggestive, and that in any event, the women’s in court testimony was based on their independent recollection of the events in question. The defendant was convicted and appealed. The court of appeals found the procedure to be impermissibly suggestive and reversed the defendant’s conviction. The State appealed, and the supreme court ruled: (1) The trial preparation session was an “impermissibly suggestive” identification procedure. Given that the women had not previously identified the defendant as a participant in the crime, the legal assistant’s “actions in showing [the women] the video of [the defendant’s] interview and recent photographs of [the defendant and the co-defendant] are exactly the kind of highly suggestive procedures that have been widely condemned as inherently suggestive” and amounted to improper “witness coaching.” (2) However, the procedure did not give “rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification . . . because the trial court’s findings of fact support the legal conclusion that [one of the women’s] in-court identification of defendant was of independent origin and sufficiently reliable.” Among other factors, the court highlighted the woman’s proximity to the perpetrators, her opportunity to observe them, and the fact that when she saw a picture of the defendant online shortly after the crime – wearing his hair in a style different from his lineup photo and apparently more similar to his appearance at the time of the crime – she identified him as a perpetrator. (3) Because one of the women made a valid in-court identification, any error in admitting the other woman’s identification of the defendant was harmless. Three Justices, dissenting in part, would not have addressed whether the procedure at issue was unduly suggestive and would have decided the case based only on the “independent origin” holding.
In this New Hanover County case, defendant appealed her convictions for felony forgery of endorsement and felony uttering a forged endorsement, arguing error in (1) denying her motion to dismiss the uttering a forged instrument charge due to a flawed indictment, and (2) admitting an out-of-court identification based on a photograph in violation of the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act (EIRA), or in the alternative, (3) ineffective assistance of counsel. The Court of Appeals found no error and no ineffective assistance of counsel, but remanded to correct the judgment’s clerical error of a guilty verdict as opposed to a guilty plea.
On February 7, 2019, defendant was assigned as a home care assistant for the victim’s husband, who had dementia. On that day, the victim went out to run errands while defendant was at home with her husband. The following day, the victim noted two checks were missing, and reported this to defendant’s employer, as well as to her bank. In August of 2019, the victim received a notice regarding one of the checks she had reported stolen; Wilmington police later determined the check was made out to one of defendant’s aliases.
Beginning with (1), the Court explained that defendant’s argument was “that the indictment fails to allege the facts and elements of the crime of felony uttering a forged endorsement with sufficient precision, leaving her without notice of the offense being charged and unable to prepare a defense.” Slip Op. at 6. This was a nonjurisdictional defect under recent North Carolina Supreme Court precedent, so defendant had to show a statutory or constitutional defect that prejudiced her defense to prevail. The court did not see any such statutory or constitutional issue after examining the elements of the offense and the indictment, concluding “Count III of the indictment is facially valid, having sufficiently alleged each essential element of [G.S.] 14-120.” Id. at 8.
Moving to (2), the court first explained that “the EIRA bans photographic show-ups; however, not all out-of-court identifications are show-ups as defined in and subject to the EIRA.” Id. at 9 (cleaned up). Here, the victim identified defendant in an out-of-court photograph, but this identification was after the victim had already identified defendant as a possible perpetrator to the police. Since the identification was not intended to identify defendant as the perpetrator, “the EIRA [was] inapplicable here.” Id. at 13. The court also determined that the identification did not violate defendant’s due process rights, declining to invoke Rule of Appellate Procedure 2 to consider her argument.
Because the court did not establish any error in (2), the court likewise found no ineffective assistance of counsel for (3). Even though defense counsel failed to move to suppress the out-of-court identification on EIRA and due process grounds (although counsel did object to testimony on EIRA grounds), based on the analysis above, these arguments lacked merit.
In this Mecklenburg County case, defendant appealed his conviction for possession of a firearm by a felon, arguing error in (1) denying his request for a special instruction, (2) allowing a witness to testify regarding pretrial identification of defendant, and (3) failing to intervene ex mero motu during the prosecutor’s closing argument. The Court of Appeals found no prejudicial error.
In February of 2020, a man was sitting in his apartment when he heard a loud noise and saw an intruder with a shotgun standing in his doorway. The intruder asked for money and jewelry, and the man complied. At that point, a struggle ensued, and the man was shot in the stomach while escaping with the shotgun. After an investigation, police arrested defendant as the likely intruder. During defendant’s bond hearing, the man was present, and approached the prosecutor to say he recognized defendant based on his appearance. The man gave a statement to the prosecutor confirming defendant was the intruder at his home that night. Defendant eventually came for trial on charges of robbery, burglary, assault, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury convicted defendant of possession of a firearm by a felon but acquitted him of the other charges.
Taking up (1), the Court of Appeals explained that defendant’s requested instruction focused on the palm print from the shotgun. Defendant argued that the jury should be instructed that it could only consider “evidence about fingerprints” if the jury determined the fingerprints were found in the place the crime was committed and put there when the crime occurred. Slip Op. at 9. The court pointed out that defense counsel did not submit the requested instruction in writing as required by N.C. Rule of Civil Procedure 51(b). The court went on to conclude that even if the special instruction was properly submitted, it “was not a proper application of the law to the facts of this case,” as the instruction was not clearly targeted at the possession of a firearm charge and the nature of that offense did not require the jury to find that defendant possessed the firearm at the time of the other alleged offenses related to the home invasion. Id. at 18.
Moving to (2), the court noted the substance of defendant’s argument dealt with the witness’s testimony that he identified defendant prior to the trial. Here, the court pointed out the required analysis under State v. Harris, 308 N.C. 159 (1983), regarding impermissibly suggestive pretrial identification procedures. The trial court identified several factors suggesting the information, specifically the name, provided by law enforcement to the witness set up a procedure improperly suggesting defendant was the perpetrator. Despite determining the pretrial identification procedure contained elements that were impermissibly suggestive, the trial court subsequently allowed the witness to testify. The court determined this was error, explaining that “the trial court’s factual findings did not support its conclusion of law that [the witness’s] testimony regarding pretrial identification was admissible.” Id. at 33. Despite the trial court’s attempts to separate the concept of an in-court identification from the pretrial identification, the court concluded “we are constrained to hold the trial court erred in prohibiting an in-court identification but thereafter allowing testimony about the pretrial identification.” Id. at 34. However, the court determined that this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt due to the evidence in the record, such as the palm print on the shotgun and other supporting circumstantial evidence.
Finally, in (3) the court rejected defendant’s argument that the trial court should have intervened in closing argument when the prosecutor mentioned photographs of defendant holding a firearm that the trial court had previously prevented the jury from viewing. The court noted that defense counsel did not object during the closing argument, and a detective had previously testified about the existence of the photographs, even though the trial court had ruled against admitting them due to their potential prejudicial effect. As a result, the court did not see grossly improper statements that would justify the trial court’s ex mero motu intervention.
In this Duplin County case, defendant appealed his convictions for sale and delivery of cocaine, arguing error (1) in denying his motion to suppress certain eyewitness testimony for due process violations, (2) denying the same motion to suppress for Eyewitness Identification Reform Act (“EIRA”) violations, (3) in permitting the jury to examine evidence admitted for illustrative purposes only, and (4) in entering judgment for both selling and delivering cocaine. The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion and found no plain error with the jury examining illustrative evidence, but remanded for resentencing due to the error of sentencing defendant for both the sale and delivery of cocaine.
In December of 2017, the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office had confidential informants performing drug buys from defendant in a trailer park. The informants purchased crack cocaine on two different days from defendant, coming within three to five feet of him on clear days. At a trial preparation meeting in October of 2020, the prosecutor and a detective met with the lead informant; at the meeting, the informant saw a DMV picture of defendant with his name written on it, and responded “yes” when asked if that was the person from whom the informant purchased cocaine. No other pictures were shown to the informant at this meeting. Defense counsel subsequently filed a motion to suppress the testimony of the informant based on this meeting, as well as motions in limine, all of which the trial court denied.
The Court of Appeals first considered (1) the denial of defendant’s motion to suppress, where defendant argued that the identification procedure violated his due process rights. The due process inquiry consists of two parts: whether the identification procedure was “impermissibly suggestive,” and if the answer is yes, “whether the procedures create a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification” after a five-factor analysis. Slip Op. at 9-10, quoting State v. Rouse, 284 N.C. App. 473, 480-81 (2022). Applying the Rouseframework and similar circumstances in State v. Malone, 373 N.C. 134 (2019) and State v. Jones, 98 N.C. App. 342 (1990), the court determined that “[the informant] seeing the photo of Defendant in the file during the trial preparation meeting was impermissibly suggestive,” satisfying the first part. Id. at 18. However, when the court turned to the five-factor analysis, it determined that only the third factor (accuracy of the prior description of the accused) and the fifth factor (the time between the crime and the confrontation of the accused) supported finding of a due process violation. The court concluded that “[b]ecause there was not a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification, the identification did not violate due process.” Id. at 24.
The court also considered (2) defendant’s argument that the EIRA applied and supported his motion to suppress. After reviewing the scope of the EIRA, the court applied State v. Macon, 236 N.C. App. 182 (2014), for the conclusion that a single-photo identification could not be a lineup for EIRA purposes. Slip Op. at 28. The court then considered whether the procedure was a show-up:
In contrast to our longstanding description of show-ups, the procedure here was not conducted in close proximity to the crime and, critically, it was not conducted to try to determine if a suspect was the perpetrator. The identification here took place during a meeting to prepare for [trial]. As a result, the State, both the police and the prosecution, had already concluded Defendant was the perpetrator. The identification acted to bolster their evidence in support of that conclusion since they would need to convince a jury of the same. Since the identification here did not seek the same purpose as a show-up, it was not a show-up under the EIRA.
Id. at 30. The court emphasized the limited nature of its holding regarding the scope of the EIRA, and that this opinion “[did] not address a situation where the police present a single photograph to a witness shortly after the crime and ask if that was the person who committed the crime or any other scenario.” Id. at 32.
Moving to (3), the court rejected defendant’s argument of plain error in allowing the jury to review his DMV photograph as substantive evidence when it was admitted for illustrative purposes, pointing to the “overwhelming evidence” of defendant’s guilt in the record, including other photographs and recordings of defendant. Id. at 34.
Finally, the court considered (4) the sentencing issues by the trial court. Here, the trial court improperly sentenced defendant for both selling and delivering cocaine. The court explained that while “a defendant can be tried for both the sale and delivery of a controlled substance, he cannot be sentenced for ‘both the sale and the delivery of a controlled substance arising from a single transfer.’” Id. at 35, quoting State v. Moore, 327 N.C. 378, 382-83 (1990). This error required remand to the trial court for resentencing in keeping with only one conviction for sale or delivery.
In this murder and attempted murder case, an officer responded to the shooting at the victim’s apartment. Upon arrival, he saw a man running with a towel in his hands and gave chase. The officer could not catch the man and instead found one of the victims, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend. She was able to describe the assailant and provide his name. The officer then located a DMV picture of the suspect and identified the defendant as the person he saw running earlier. The defendant sought to suppress this identification as a violation of the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act (“EIRA”). Specifically, the defendant argued the officer failed to conduct the “show-up” in accord with EIRA procedure. The trial court denied the motion and the court of appeals affirmed. The EIRA applies to “live lineups, photo lineups, and show-ups.” “Here, the inadvertent out-of-court identification of defendant, based on a single DMV photo accessed by an investigating officer, was neither a lineup or a show-up under the EIRA, and thus not subject to those statutory protections.” Even if the identification was suggestive, there was no substantial likelihood of misidentification under the facts of the case, and the denial of the motion was affirmed.
The trial court did not err by admitting in-court identification of the defendant by two officers. The defendant argued that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the officers’ in-court identifications because the procedure they used to identify him violated the Eyewitness Identification Reform Act (EIRA) and his constitutional due process rights. After the officers observed the defendant at the scene, they returned to the police station and put the suspect’s name into their computer database. When a picture appeared, both officers identified the defendant as the perpetrator. The officers then pulled up another photograph of the defendant and confirmed that he was the perpetrator. This occurred within 10-15 minutes of the incident in question. The court concluded that the identification based on two photographs was not a “lineup” and therefore was not subject to the EIRA. Next, the court held that even assuming the procedure was impermissibly suggestive, the officers’ in-court identification was admissible because it was based on an independent source, their clear, close and unobstructed view of the suspect at the scene.
The court rejected the defendant’s argument that a photographic lineup was impermissibly suggestive because the defendant’s photo was smaller than others in the array.
The trial court’s admission of photo identification evidence did not violate the defendant’s right to due process. The day after a break-in at her house, one of the victims, a high school student, became upset in school. Her mother was called to school and brought along the student’s sister, who was also present when the crime occurred. After the student told the Principal about the incident, the Principal took the student, her sister and her mother into his office and showed the sisters photographs from the N.C. Sex Offender Registry website to identify the perpetrator. Both youths identified the perpetrator from one of the pictures. The mother then contacted the police and the defendant was eventually arrested. At trial, both youths identified the defendant as the perpetrator in court. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the Principal acted as an agent of the State when he showed the youths the photos, finding that his actions “were more akin to that of a parent, friend, or other concerned citizen offering to help the victim of a crime.” Because the Principal was not a state actor when he presented the photographs, the defendant’s due process rights were not implicated in the identification. Even if the Principal was a state actor and the procedure used was unnecessarily suggestive, the procedure did not give rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification given the circumstances of the identification. Finally, because the photo identification evidence was properly admitted, the trial court also properly admitted the in-court identifications of defendant.
(1) The trial court properly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress asserting that an eyewitness’s pretrial identification was unduly suggestive. The eyewitness had the opportunity to view the defendant at close range for an extended period of time and was focused on and paying attention to the defendant for at least fifteen minutes. Additionally, the eyewitness described the defendant by name as someone he knew and had interacted with previously, and immediately identified a photograph of him, indicating high levels of accuracy and confidence in the eyewitness’s description and identification. Although, the eyewitness stated that he recognized but could not name all of the suspects on the night of the attack, he named the defendant and identified a photograph of him the next day. (2) No violation of G.S. 15A-284.52 (eyewitness identification procedures) occurred. The eyewitness told the detective that he had seen one of the perpetrators in a weekly newspaper called the The Slammer, but did not recall his name. The detective allowed the eyewitness to look through pages of photographs in The Slammer, and from this process the eyewitness identified one of the defendants. The detective did not know who the eyewitness was looking for and thus could not have pressured him to select one of the defendants, nor does any evidence suggest that this occurred.