The Colorado Supreme Court issued its opinion in Garner v. People on Monday, March 18, 2019.
Eyewitnesses—Identification Evidence and Procedures—In-Court Identification.
The supreme court reviewed whether due process or the Colorado Rules of Evidence required the exclusion of victim-witnesses’ in-court identifications of defendant, where each witness had failed to identify defendant in a photographic array before trial and almost three years had elapsed between the crime and the confrontations. The court held that where an in-court identification is not preceded by an impermissibly suggestive pretrial identification procedure arranged by law enforcement, and where nothing beyond the inherent suggestiveness of the ordinary courtroom setting made the in-court identification itself constitutionally suspect, due process does not require the trial court to prescreen the identification for reliability. Here, because defendant alleged no impropriety regarding the pretrial photographic arrays, and the record revealed nothing unusually suggestive about the circumstances of the witnesses’ in-court identifications, the in-court identifications did not violate due process. The court further held that defendant’s evidentiary arguments were unpreserved, and the trial court’s admission of the identifications was not plain error under CRE 403, 602, or 701. Accordingly, the court affirmed the court of appeals’ judgment.
Summary provided courtesy of Colorado Lawyer.
