Reyes v. Nurse

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder, attempted murder and home invasion convictions on grounds that police used improperly suggestive procedures over five photo arrays to finally obtain statement from victim that defendant was one of two shooters during incident. While Ct. of Appeals agreed with defendant that procedures used during photo arrays were unnecessarily suggestive, where victim failed to identify defendant as shooter until fifth photo array, under circumstances where victim had previously indicated that another individual “looked like“ shooter, and where the police removed said individual’s photo from subsequent photo arrays until victim identified defendant as shooter. Defendant, though, failed to establish any prejudice arising out of admission of said identification evidence, where: (1) jury had adequate evidence to convict defendant of charged offenses without putting any stock in victim’s identification; and (2) jury was fully aware of defendant’s contention that identification was flawed, and yet still found defendant guilty on charged offenses.