United States Fourth Circuit

In appeal from conviction of armed bank robbery, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, judgment is affirmed, where: 1) the government's effort to craft a freestanding "resemblance testimony" carve-out from settled eyewitness evidence jurisprudence is unavailing; 2) the government's examination of the witness regarding resemblance resulted in the elicitation of unnecessarily suggestive evidence of identification wholly lacking reliability; however, 3) though it was plain error to admit the witness' testimony, it is not reversible error; and 4) district court did not err in failing to give a Holley-Telfaire instruction regarding eyewitness identification.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/03/2013
• Published 01/03/2013

Judges

• DAVIS

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel