State v. Howard Jones(073827)
128 A.3d 1096
| N.J. | 2016Background
- Victim (C.W.), a 14-year-old, reported being flashed while walking to school; she described the perpetrator chiefly by a blue-and-white plaid jacket and a yellow ski mask.
- Officer Olschewski and witness Leonard Wimbush chased and detained Howard Jones about 1.5 hours later; Jones was not wearing the plaid jacket when arrested (he wore a gray sweatshirt).
- Police located a plaid jacket near where Jones had been; before or during a showup at the school officers placed the jacket on Jones and presented him to C.W. through glass doors; C.W. testified she recognized the jacket and then "realized" it was him, but also said she never saw his face.
- Defense moved to strike the identification as suggestive; trial court denied the motion, relying in part on corroborating testimony (Wimbush and officers) and timing; defendant convicted of child endangerment and criminal sexual contact.
- Appellate Division affirmed, finding the suggestive showup reliable in context (considering circumstantial evidence of guilt); Supreme Court of New Jersey granted certification.
- The Supreme Court reversed: it held the showup was impermissibly suggestive, the reliability analysis improperly relied on extrinsic guilt evidence, and the identification testimony should have been excluded; remanded for retrial and directed that disorderly persons lewdness be charged as a lesser-included offense on retrial.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admissibility of showup identification | Identification admissible because C.W. merely identified the distinctive jacket; totality of evidence (officers/Wimbush) supports reliability | Showup was suggestive (only one person shown; police told C.W. they had the suspect; officers put jacket on defendant) and identification unreliable | Showup was impermissibly suggestive; admissibility requires Manson indicia of reliability and must not consider extrinsic guilt evidence; identification unreliable and should have been excluded |
| Role of extrinsic corroborating evidence in reliability analysis | Circumstantial evidence of guilt (defendant’s statements/flight, jacket found nearby, officers’ accounts) may inform reliability | Reliance on extrinsic guilt evidence conflates due-process admissibility with harmless-error analysis | Extrinsic evidence of guilt must not be considered in the Manson/Madison reliability inquiry; reliability assessment limited to witness’s perception/memory |
| Identification of clothing vs. person | Identification of an inanimate object (jacket) does not raise same due-process concerns; testimony about jacket admissible | Placing the jacket on a detained suspect to facilitate recognition effectively converts object-ID into person-ID and is suggestive | Where police put distinctive clothing on a detained person during a showup, due-process concerns are implicated and Manson/Madison analysis applies |
| Lesser-included offense instruction (lewdness) | State: lewdness contains an element (sexual purpose) not in the charged offenses; not a lesser-included offense | Jones: testimony (flashing vs. handling genitalia) supports instruction on lewdness as lesser-included | Court directs that disorderly persons lewdness should be charged as a lesser-included offense of criminal sexual contact on retrial (Zeidell reasoning extended) |
Key Cases Cited
- Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (reliability is linchpin for admissibility; extrinsic guilt evidence should not be part of reliability inquiry)
- Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293 (recognizes near-the-scene showups may be permissible in exigent circumstances)
- Wade v. United States, 388 U.S. 218 (lineup procedures and related identification issues)
- State v. Madison, 109 N.J. 223 (adopts Manson framework for New Jersey identifications)
- State v. Herrera, 187 N.J. 493 (one-on-one showups are inherently suggestive; near-scene identifications sometimes allowed)
- Raheem v. Kelly, 257 F.3d 122 (2d Cir.) (extrinsic guilt evidence cannot be used to establish independent reliability of a suggestive identification)
- United States v. Greene, 704 F.3d 298 (4th Cir.) (same principle: exclude extrinsic evidence when assessing reliability)
- State v. Zeidell, 154 N.J. 417 (fourth-degree lewdness is a lesser-included offense of sexual-assault statutes; reasoning extended here to criminal sexual contact)