Frensley v. State

724 S.W.2d 165, 291 Ark. 268, 1987 Ark. LEXIS 1950
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 23, 1987
DocketCR 86-182
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 724 S.W.2d 165 (Frensley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frensley v. State, 724 S.W.2d 165, 291 Ark. 268, 1987 Ark. LEXIS 1950 (Ark. 1987).

Opinion

Robert H. Dudley, Justice.

A jury found appellant guilty of one count of aggravated robbery and five counts of kidnapping. He appeals from the judgments of conviction. We affirm.

Appellant’s first two points of appeal are that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress the identification of appellant because (a) the pre-trial lineups were suggestive, and (b) the photo spread was unduly suggestive. The trial judge examined the out-of-court identification procedures to see if there were suggestive elements to either the lineup or the photo spread which made it all but inevitable that the victims would identify appellant as the perpetrator of the crimes. This preliminary ruling was a ruling on a mixed question of law and fact, and we do not reverse the ruling unless it is clearly erroneous. Cook v. State, 283 Ark. 246, 675 S.W.2d 366 (1984). Factors to be considered in lineup identification cases are set out in both federal and state law. See Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98 (1977); Cook v. State, 283 Ark. 246, 675 S.W.2d 366 (1984). These factors include the opportunity of the victim to observe the crime and its perpetrators; the lapse of time between the crime and the lineup; discrepancies between descriptions given the police and the defendant’s true physical characteristics; the occurrence of pretrial misidentification; the certainty of the witnesses in identifying the accused; and the totality of the facts and circumstances regarding the identification.

In this case the opportunity to observe the criminal was great. Some of the victims observed him at close range for more than an hour in a well lit room. Four of them viewed the lineup within five weeks and made positive identification. The fifth victim viewed the photographic spread five months after the commission of the crimes and made a positive identification. The descriptions by all five of the victims may be fairly said to be reasonably accurate, although they do vary. These descriptions were given immediately after the robbery. There was no misidentification and the victims were certain that appellant was the culprit. Finally, the totality of the circumstances shows that the lineup was not unduly suggestive.

Appellant contends that the lineup was tainted because the five victims discussed among themselves the description of the perpetrator, that they knew a suspect was in custody when they made their identifications, that there were discrepancies in the descriptions, and that one of the five victims knew that another victim had already identified someone. These credibility factors, when considered in the totality of the circumstances, are not sufficient to make the trial court’s ruling clearly erroneous. As we have frequently said, it is for the trial court to weigh the evidence and resolve the credibility of the witnesses. Girdner v. State, 285 Ark. 70, 684 S.W.2d 808 (1985).

The photographic spread contained five pictures. Each was of a white male with a mustache and beard, each one fitting the general physical description and age of appellant. None of the photographs suggested appellant as the criminal, and none of the testimony at the pre-trial hearing suggested that the police attempted to influence the victim’s identification.

Appellant’s next assignment of error concerns the trial court’s requiring his presence at the in-court identification hearing. Obviously, he did not want to be identified. His attorney waived any constitutional objections which might arise because of his proposed absence. The trial court declined the motion and ordered the appellant to be present so that he could be observed. The ruling was correct. While we are unable to find an Arkansas case precisely in point, the issue is not new or novel in other jurisdictions. In fact, it is the subject of an A.L.R. Annotation. See Annot., 171 A.L.R. 1144 (1974), and see in particular, §§ II.a.3. and II.b.2. The annotation cites numerous federal and state authorities holding that a defendant in a felony case has the duty of attending his own trial by being personally present in the courtroom within view of the judge and jury. Among the cases cited is People v. Gardner, 144 N.Y. 119, 38 N.E. 1003 (1894), in which the court wrote: “it is the right of the prisoner to be in the presence and view of the jury, and it is the right of the prosecution to have him in the view of the presiding judge and jury and the counsel engaged in the trial.” No contra holdings are listed.

The annotation provides:

It would seem that requiring a defendant in a criminal case to attend his own trial and be present in the courtroom, within view of the court and jury, and of witnesses testifying in the case, could not in any sense be considered violative of the defendant’s constitutional privileges. Note this relevant comment by Professor Wigmore: “If an accused person were to refuse to be removed from the jail to the courtroom for trial, claiming that he was privileged not to expose his features to the witnesses for identification, it is not difficult to conceive the judicial reception which would be given to such a claim. And yet no less a claim is the logical consequence of the argument that has been frequently offered and occasionally sanctioned in applying the privilege to proof of the bodily features of the accused.” 8 Wigmore, Evidence 3d ed. p. 374, § 2265.

Accordingly, the trial court did not commit error in requiring the appellant to be present for in-court identification.

The appellant next contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the testimony about his arrest and the items which were seized at the time of the his arrest. Again, the trial court was correct in its ruling because the evidence showed a plan of criminal operation, or modus operandi. It had independent relevance. See Alford v. State, 223 Ark. 330, 266 S.W.2d 804 (1954).

The evidence showed that appellant was a former employee of one of the Long John Silver’s restaurants in Tennessee. In the case at bar, he committed the. robbery and kidnappings by entering the Long John Silver’s restaurant in Fort Smith at about 10:00 p.m. He sat in a particular seat, labeled the “hot seat” by the employees, because it was where would-be robbers always sat. He ordered a meal but did not eat it. He went into the restroom for about thirty minutes, came back to the “hot seat,” pulled a dark .38 caliber revolver, and announced he was there to commit a robbery. By this time he had on brown jersey work gloves. He pulled some tape from his pocket, with the tape bound the hands of four of the employees behind their backs, and made them lie on the floor. He then forced the fifth employee to give him the money, bound him with tape, made him lie on top of the other four employees and left them all bound and on the floor. After finally getting loose, all of the victims immediately made written notes describing the robber’s physical appearance. In the following week three of the victims worked with a police artist to compile a composite sketch of the robber.

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Bluebook (online)
724 S.W.2d 165, 291 Ark. 268, 1987 Ark. LEXIS 1950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frensley-v-state-ark-1987.