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Many moons ago when I worked in New Orleans as a prosecutor I would from time to time visit a line up. Everyone has seen one on TV. You put a suspect with a group of a half dozen or so others and see if the victim can pick him out.
Putting a proper line up together is a bit more tricky that it sounds. Say for instance the victim claims she was mugged by a young black male who was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds. The police had to find a half dozen or so fill ins at least close to that description. If not, the line up would not hold up in court. If the victim describes the perp as being short and you have a suspect in a lineup with a bunch of six foot fill ins, the ID will get thrown out.
On the other hand, police do not want to find six twins for the suspect. Line up ID's sound great in court but they can be very unreliable. Think of how many times you mistake someone for an old friend. Then imagine seeing someone holding you up for all of fifteen seconds and identifying him a month later. Fortunately, for the guy to be in a line up in the first place there is usually some other evidence linking him to the crime. As a side note I have watched many line ups and it was always interesting to watch. Some victims would gasp when they saw the guy and point him out right away. Others would point out the wrong guy, or at least who we thought was the wrong guy. Many would look to the police investigator for help, a big no no as you might imagine.
But I digress. I read today about this guy who was impilcated in a crime by his lip tattoo. Having helped police put togehter many line ups, the first thought I had was how challenging it would be to find fill ins for this line up. My second thought was that if I decide to turn to a life of crime I am not going with an eastside lip tattoo.
http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1673
Putting a proper line up together is a bit more tricky that it sounds. Say for instance the victim claims she was mugged by a young black male who was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds. The police had to find a half dozen or so fill ins at least close to that description. If not, the line up would not hold up in court. If the victim describes the perp as being short and you have a suspect in a lineup with a bunch of six foot fill ins, the ID will get thrown out.
On the other hand, police do not want to find six twins for the suspect. Line up ID's sound great in court but they can be very unreliable. Think of how many times you mistake someone for an old friend. Then imagine seeing someone holding you up for all of fifteen seconds and identifying him a month later. Fortunately, for the guy to be in a line up in the first place there is usually some other evidence linking him to the crime. As a side note I have watched many line ups and it was always interesting to watch. Some victims would gasp when they saw the guy and point him out right away. Others would point out the wrong guy, or at least who we thought was the wrong guy. Many would look to the police investigator for help, a big no no as you might imagine.
But I digress. I read today about this guy who was impilcated in a crime by his lip tattoo. Having helped police put togehter many line ups, the first thought I had was how challenging it would be to find fill ins for this line up. My second thought was that if I decide to turn to a life of crime I am not going with an eastside lip tattoo.
http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1673
