State of Louisiana in the Interest of L.R..

• Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
• Decided: December 13, 2019
• Docket: 2019-CA-0843
• Status: Published

Opinion

STATE OF LOUISIANA IN * NO. 2019-CA-0843 THE INTEREST OF L.R. * COURT OF APPEAL

. * FOURTH CIRCUIT

* STATE OF LOUISIANA

*

* *******

LOMBARD, J., CONCURS IN RESULT WITH THE REASONS SET FORTH BY J. BROWN AND ASSIGNS ADDITIONAL REASONS,

In light of the increasing evidence undermining the reliability of eyewitness

testimony, this case concerns me: (1) there is no physical evidence connecting the

juvenile to the crime; (2) the incident occurred in the dark of night; DNA

potentially connected to the perpetrator was gathered by the police, but was never

tested; (3) two eyewitnesses to the crime identified different people as the

perpetrator in photographic line-ups presented to them immediately after the

incident; (4) the conflict in identification was resolved only when, contrary to his

initial identification of someone else in a photographic line-up, one of the

witnesses identified L.R - the sole juvenile in the courtroom and sitting next to his

counsel – as the perpetrator.

Nonetheless, because our current jurisprudence holds that the identification

by one eyewitness constitutes sufficient evidence, I concur in the result.