U.S. v. Books

In prosecution on bank robbery charge, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s pre-trial motion to exclude testimonies from two bank tellers, who identified defendant as culprit, even though defendant argued that said witnesses based their identifications on information supplied by police officials. Dist. Ct. could properly find that witnesses based their identifications of defendant on their first-hand knowledge of robbery, where witnesses at no point wavered in their confidence that defendant was robber, and both testified that they were familiar with defendant based on their interactions with defendant as bank customer. Moreover, defendant waived any error under Wilson, 307 F.3d 596, regarding Dist. Ct.’s ruling that govt. could impeach defendant with evidence obtained during illegally coerced confession if defendant took witness stand, where defendant never testified at trial, since defendant’s claim of error would be based on too much speculation as to how his testimony and related questioning would have played out at trial. Ct. further noted that evidence against defendant was strong, such that any error in Dist. Ct.’s ruling was harmless beyond reasonable doubt.