State of Iowa v. Michael Tierre O'brien, 16-1068

Victim Christopher Cortez was robbed by three men after giving them a ride from a motel party; his ATM card was used at a nearby gas station shortly after the robbery.
Police obtained gas-station surveillance video showing three individuals using Cortez’s card; a still photo from that video was shown to Cortez four weeks after the robbery, and he identified the individuals.
Tips from the public led officers to suspect Michael O’Brien; a six-person photo array (including O’Brien) was shown to Cortez two weeks after the still-photo showing, and Cortez identified O’Brien.
O’Brien was charged with second-degree robbery and moved to suppress Cortez’s identification, arguing the earlier showing of the still photograph was impermissibly suggestive and tainted the later photo-array ID.
The district court denied the motion to suppress; O’Brien waived a jury trial, was convicted following a bench trial, and appealed the denial of the suppression motion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether pretrial identification procedures were impermissibly suggestive and required suppression	State: Even if earlier still-photo was shown, totality supports reliability so ID is admissible	O’Brien: Showing still photograph was unnecessarily suggestive and tainted the later photo array	Court: Assuming the still-photo was suggestive, the subsequent ID was reliable under totality of circumstances, so no due-process violation

State v. Folkerts, 703 N.W.2d 761 (Iowa 2005) (frames two-step due-process test for suggestive identifications and reliability factors)
State v. Webb, 516 N.W.2d 824 (Iowa 1994) (discusses burden to show a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification)