UNITED STATES of America v. Edward KEMPER, a/k/a Elwood Kemper, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America v. Joseph N. RICHARDSON, Appellant.
Nos. 22558, 22559
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.
Argued June 13, 1969. Decided July 10, 1970.
1153
Mr. Sandor Frankel, Asst. U. S. Atty., with whom Messrs. David G. Bress, U. S. Atty., at the time the brief was filed, Frank Q. Nebeker, Asst. U. S. Atty., at the time the brief was filed, and Nicholas S. Nunzio, Asst. U. S. Atty., were on the brief, for appellee. Messrs. Thomas A. Flannery, U. S. Atty., and Roger E. Zuckerman, Asst. U. S. Atty., also entered appearances for appellee.
Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and TAMM and ROBINSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
These are appeals from convictions, after trial by a jury, of two of five alleged participants in the holdup of a grocery store. Appellant Kemper was found guilty of robbery,1 and appellant Richardson of armed robbery,2 robbery,3 and assault with a dangerous weapon.4 Richardson seeks reversal on the ground that the trial judge erred in permitting his intrial identification by a witness with whom there had been a pretrial confrontation lacking in due process.5 Kemper contends that his conviction — for aiding and abetting the commission of the hold-
I
On a cold January morning, two men entered a Safeway store and, after a short period, one approached the manager, Dennis R. Bailey, at a cash register. The man asked for cigarettes and, as Bailey handed him the cigarettes, the second man approached with a drawn gun. The men took the money in the cash register and ordered Bailey to open a safe; after he complied, they helped themselves to the money inside. They then escorted Bailey toward an exit, but he managed to break away, and the two men ran from the store.
Bailey fetched the assistant manager, Keith D. Soltes, from the rear of the store in time for him to see the robbers approach a Ford parked across the street. Evidently realizing that they were being observed, they did not enter the car, but continued away on foot. The Ford also departed, chased by Soltes and a customer who wrote down its license number and was stopped a few minutes later by a police cruiser. The vehicle was owned by its then driver, Earl Brooks,6 and Kemper was the only other occupant. Another man, Jerry Burke, was arrested a short distance from the store, and still another, Clifton Bullock, was apprehended somewhat later.7
Within ten minutes after the holdup, police officers arrived at the store, and Bailey gave them descriptions of the men who had accosted him. He could not describe anyone else, and Soltes was unable to describe anyone at all. Two suspects were presented to Bailey at the store, but he stated that he did not recognize either.
At about the same time, another police officer, responding to a complaint of a housebreaking, came across Richardson in an apartment building located near the store. He was wearing only a sleeveless shirt and slacks, although it was a cold day, and the party he claimed to be looking for did not live in the building. Richardson accompanied the officer to a stationhouse,8 and there Brooks identified him as one of the participants in the holdup.9
The police then returned to the apartment building where Richardson had been found and recovered from an incinerator a hat and a raincoat fitting the description of apparel worn by one of the bandits. In a pocket of the raincoat was $92, including part of a torn dollar bill which matched another part Soltes found in the store‘s cash register. In the pocket was also a package of cigarettes, of the brand requested in the store, on which Safeway‘s special identifying number was stamped.
About an hour after the holdup, Bailey and Soltes came to the stationhouse, and Bailey again described his assailants. They were ushered into a room, wherein Richardson and the other three arrestees were, to ascertain whether Bailey could make an identification. All four wore the clothing in which they had been arrested, which included coats for all but Richardson, who remained in the sleeveless shirt and slacks. Bailey looked at the four but did not identify anyone;10
At some point prior to this identification — the record leaves uncertain just when — Bailey was shown the raincoat found in the apartment building,11 and he acknowledged that it was similar to that worn by the robber who first approached him. He was also shown the torn dollar bill found in the pocket of the raincoat, and in his presence Soltes connected it with the remnant left in the cash register. So it was that when the last confrontation occurred, Bailey could have believed that the police had in custody the person from whom those items had been removed. Moreover, the identification was made when Richardson, initially the only coatless member of the group, was garbed in the incriminating raincoat.
Richardson, Kemper and Burke were tried jointly.12 Burke was acquitted on all counts.13 As the offenses occurred after the decisions in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 (1967)14 and Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263 (1967),15 the requirement that the criminally accused be afforded the right to counsel at lineups was fully applicable. Since Richardson was without benefit of counsel when the stationhouse confrontation occurred, the trial judge conducted a hearing, in the absence of the jury, at which its legality was comprehensively explored. The judge ruled that Richardson had knowingly waived his right to counsel,16 but that the confrontation was so unduly suggestive as to amount, under the doctrine enunciated in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 302 (1967),17 to a denial of due process of law.
This ruling, of course, precluded the Government from presenting evidence of Bailey‘s identification of Richardson at the stationhouse.18 It was, however, accompanied by a finding “that Mr. Bailey‘s identification had sufficient independent origin as to permit his present in-court identification of [Richardson].” With the jury recalled, Bailey was permitted to identify Richardson from the witness stand as a member of the robbery team and, as we have stated, it is this that both appellants now question. Thereafter, defense counsel, on cross-examination, went into the details of the
II
Stovall recognized that an identification confrontation may be “so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that [the accused is] denied due process of law.”20 The trial judge felt that the two-stage confrontation between Bailey and Richardson at the stationhouse was of that character, barring testimonial reference to the identification ensuing there,21 and we have no reason to doubt
During the course of the holdup, Bailey had a good opportunity to scrutinize the two men who partook of the contents of the cash register and safe.26 He con-
So also were the descriptive details Bailey supplied at the trial, which included additionally a reference to “some type of scars on his face”31 — a reference
Quite obviously, the trial judge‘s ruling on independent source was tantamount to a general affirmation of Bailey‘s credibility, and again the record lends support. At the hearing on suppression of the identification, Bailey maintained firmly, despite rigorous cross-examination, that Richardson was one of the two robbers in the store.34 Bailey had already demonstrated an abil-
These circumstances provided an ample evidentiary showing that Bailey had obtained and retained a mental image of the suspect prior to the suggestive stationhouse confrontation, and that this image paralleled Richardson‘s appearance quite well.36 On this basis, the Government met its burden of producing “clear and convincing evidence” of an independent source for Bailey‘s courtroom identification of Richardson.37 And extending to the trial judge‘s ruling on independent source the deference due,38 particularly with the jury‘s affirmation after an opportunity to evaluate itself the
The convictions of both appellants are accordingly
Affirmed.
BAZELON, Chief Judge (concurring):
The District Court ruled that witness Bailey‘s stationhouse confrontation with appellant Richardson was “unnecessarily suggestive,”1 but it permitted Bailey to identify Richardson during the trial because it found an “independent source” for the in-court identification in Bailey‘s “ample opportunity to recognize Richardson at the scene of the crime.”2 I concur in the affirmance of the convictions in this case because immediately after the crime (and prior to the tainted lineup) Bailey also gave the police a description of the robbers which was recorded on PD Form 251, and which fits Richardson well.3 In my view, the total evidence supplied “clear and convincing evidence that the in-court identifications were based upon observations of the suspect”4 other than the constitutionally defective ones. Accordingly, I need not reach the difficult question whether an “opportunity to observe the alleged criminal act”5 could, standing alone, provide
