Tabb v. Christianson

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his attempted murder conviction on grounds that victim’s identification of defendant as culprit during lineup was unreliable, that govt. withheld favorable evidence establishing that said identification via lineup was unreliable, and that govt. destroyed notes of investigators that contained material exculpatory evidence about said identification process. Record contained insufficient evidence to show that police manufactured suggestive lineup, where wife of victim could only testify that: (1) she, as opposed to victim, saw defendant’s picture on stack of police files prior to victim’s lineup identification of defendant; and (2) police never told victim that he selected correct person in lineup. Also, defendant failed to show that govt. had destroyed investigators’ notes in bad faith, where record showed that destruction of notes was routine practice where, as here, substance of notes had been typed into summary reports at time of their destruction. Moreover, defendant had failed to establish that notes contained exculpatory evidence.