Gibson v. State

Murphy, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellant was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of daytime housebreaking and assault and was thereafter sentenced to concurrent six-year terms under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction. Pie contends on this appeal that his identification by the victim of the crime was conducted under conditions so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identity that he was denied due process of law. The evidence adduced at the trial showed that at approximately 3 :00 p.m. on April 19, 1967, a Negro male entered the home of Margie Jacobs without invitation, grabbed her leg, threw her backwards against the wall or window, reached down and felt between her legs and then, pursued by the victim’s screams, ran from the house toward the rear of a Jumbo Supermarket located near the Jacobs’ home.

A young Negro man wearing a blue jacket wTas observed by David Eggleston fleeing from the general direction from whence the screams emanated, but he was unable to identify the individual whom he observed. ³²² Mrs. Jacobs testified at the trial that she first observed her assailant standing on the porch of her home through a glass storm door; that she was only about ten feet from him and that he stood on her porch for about a minute before entering her house; and that after he had fled the crime scene, she immediately phoned the police and described him as a Negro male, about 5'9" tall, of slight build, 19 or 20 years of age, and wearing a navy blue coat and dark slacks. She further testified that on April 27, 1967, she identified appellant as her attacker from among four photographs shown to her by the police and also identified him at a two-man lineup held at the Hyattsville Police Station on May 1, 1967. She made an in-court identification of the appellant at the trial, testifying that there was no doubt in her mind that he was the person who broke into her home and assaulted her. During her testimony, Mrs. Jacobs stated that she had never seen appellant before the crime, that she did not know where he was employed, and had never seen him working at the Jumbo Supermarket.

Detective Joseph Vasco testified that he obtained a description of the suspect by phone from Mrs. Jacobs on the day of the crime; that two days later Mrs. Jacobs phoned and told him that the individual who broke into her house “resembled a boy she had seen on the parking lot on previous occasions around the Jumbo,” and that his name was Gibson, a fact which she had “apparently” elicited from the manager of the Jumbo Supermarket; that as a result of this information, he then phoned the Supermarket manager and gave him a description of the suspect and learned from the manager that appellant had been employed there at one time and “had returned for a pay check”; that after this conversation he secured appellant’s photograph from police records and after going through some 50 to 75 other photographs, selected three others, showing the four photographs to Mrs. Jacobs at her home on April 27; that Mrs. Jacobs made a positive identification of appellant at that time; that thereafter on May 1, 1967, he phoned appellant’s home in the District of Columbia and spoke with his mother, telling her that he wanted to see the appellant at the Hyattsville Police Station in connection with a rape case; that appellant came to the ³²³ Station that same day with his mother and was placed in a room with another young Negro male of similar appearance; and that Mrs. Jacobs identified appellant as her assailant at that time. Appellant testified in his own behalf, stating that he had been fired from his job at the Jumbo store and was awaiting a ride home from his friend, an employee of Jumbo, at or about the time the crime was committed. Evidence was adduced by stipulation that appellant’s friend would testify that he saw appellant on April 19, 1967 at 2:55 p.m. at the Jumbo store and drove home in his company at 3 :00 p.m. that same day. There was testimony from appellant that Detective Vasco had coached Mrs. Jacobs at the lineup by telling her that “some changes have been made” in appellant’s appearance, but the substance of this statement was denied by both Detective Vasco and Mrs. Jacobs.

We think it clear that any confrontation between a victim of a crime and the accused for identification purposes, including a photographic identification, may be conducted under conditions so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification as to constitute a denial of due process of law. See Simmons v. United States, 390 U. S. 377 ; Stovall v. Denno, 388 U. S. 293 ; Palmer v. Peyton, 359 F. 2d 199 (4th Cir.); Tyler v. State, 5 Md. App. 265 . Whether the accused’s right to due process of law was violated in the conduct of such a confrontation depends on the totality of the