State v. Clark

437 So. 2d 879
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 15, 1983
Docket15465-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 437 So. 2d 879 (State v. Clark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Clark, 437 So. 2d 879 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

437 So.2d 879 (1983)

STATE of Louisiana, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Tracy Glenn CLARK, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 15465-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 15, 1983.
Rehearing Denied September 29, 1983.
Writ Denied November 28, 1983.

*881 James L. Davis, Dist. Atty., Many and Abbott J. Reeves, Asst. Dist. Atty., Gretna, for plaintiff-appellee.

James E. Franklin, Jr., Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.

Before HALL, JASPER E. JONES and NORRIS, JJ.

NORRIS, Judge.

Tracy Glenn Clark appeals a conviction of aggravated rape and the resulting mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence after a bench trial. Finding no merit to the ten assignments of error, we affirm the conviction and the sentence.

CONTEXT FACTS

On September 10, 1980, the victim of this crime was at home with her three minor children. She was approximately nine months pregnant with her fourth child and had experienced false labor pains the night before. Her husband, an offshore worker away seven days at a time, had left that morning for work. At approximately 9:30 p.m., the victim received a phone call from an individual who identified himself as "Tracy" the son of John A. Clark, the defendant's father. The caller inquired as to whether or not the victim's husband was at home and was told by the victim that her husband would return shortly.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on September 11, 1980, the victim, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the living room of her mobile home, was awakened by a black male who put a gun to her head and told her to be quiet or be killed. The perpetrator of the crime then proceeded to rape the victim, who admitted that she did not physically resist the act for fear of endangering her life, as well as the lives of her unborn child and three daughters who were asleep in a bedroom. After the rape, the victim heard one of her children cry and went to the bedroom to check on the child. The black male followed her down the hall and stopped in a location near the bathroom where he could be observed by the victim in the light of the bathroom. Thereafter, he left via the door of the mobile home.

The victim then secured the mobile home, notified the police, and called her father-in-law who lived nearby. The victim was taken to her obstetrician for examination. The physician was furnished with a rape kit and certain vaginal swabs and washings were made. Also, slides and test tubes containing specimens were given to a deputy sheriff for transmittal to the Northwest Louisiana Criminalistic Laboratory in Shreveport. The investigation at the scene of the crime yielded no physical evidence other than a seminal stain on the bedsheet of the victim's bed. This sheet was also transmitted to the crime laboratory.

Based upon the information received from the victim regarding the earlier phone call, the DeSoto Parish deputies assembled five photographs obtained from a local high school yearbook which included a picture of the defendant and showed them to the victim later on the day of the rape. Upon viewing this photographic line up, the victim indicated that the defendant and one other individual resembled her attacker.

*882 While she was reasonably certain that the defendant was the perpetrator of the crime, she asked for a more recent photograph which showed more of the body to insure the correctness of her identification. Consequently, the deputies went to the home of the defendant where they photographed him in the yard. While the deputies were taking defendant's picture, the victim and her husband drove by, stopped and talked to one of the deputies who was present. A second photographic line up was assembled and shown to the victim. At this line up, the victim identified the defendant as her assailant. Based upon this identification, the defendant was arrested and thereafter placed in a physical line up where he and the other participants were asked to speak certain phrases. The victim again identified the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime.

Approximately two years later, the defendant, age nineteen at the time of the trial, was tried by bench trial and convicted of aggravated rape.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In this assignment of error, the defendant argues that the trial judge committed error in denying the motion to suppress photographs and the victim's out of court identification of the defendant prior to trial. Defendant strenuously contends that the various photographic and physical line ups were so suggestive as to lead the victim to identify the defendant as her attacker when she was in reality uncertain of the perpetrator's identity. Particularly because of the lack of physical evidence on the scene to connect the defendant with the crime, the defendant contends that the totality of the circumstances present in this case make the identification procedures utilized so suggestive as to render them violative of the defendant's due process rights because a substantial likelihood of an irreparable misidentification exists.

In determining the constitutionality of an out of court identification, several factors must be considered. First, the suggestiveness of the identification procedure itself must be evaluated. State v. Guillot, 353 So.2d 1005 (La.1977). In the instant case, the procedure utilized in formulating the pictorial and physical line ups was not suggestive. The pictures utilized do not bear identifying marks and the procedure used to present the physical line up was appropriate.

Next, it must be determined whether or not the pictures or the persons in the line up display the defendant so singularly that the witness' attention was focused on the defendant. While a strict identity of characteristics among the participants is not required, it is necessary that a sufficient resemblance be present to reasonably test the identification. State v. Guillot, supra; State v. Gray, 351 So.2d 448 (La.1977). This determination is made by examining the articulable features of the pictures or persons used. State v. Guillot, supra. A line up is unduly suggestive if a sufficient resemblance of characteristics and features of the individuals in the line up does not exist to reasonably test the identification. State v. Davis, 385 So.2d 193 (La.1980).

In the first pictorial line up, the participants meet all of the characteristics of an acceptable line up; they are all young black, clean shaven males who closely resemble each other. The second pictorial line up is somewhat less uniform in characteristics in that all of the participants, with the exception of the defendant, have some degree of facial hair. However, three only have faint traces of a mustache. One participant has a more apparent mustache and one has a heavier mustache as well as a goatee. Otherwise, the participants are markedly similar in appearance. Furthermore, the facial hair is not so abundant that it affects facial conformation or features. See State v. Gipson, 359 So.2d 87 (La.1978). We conclude from our inspection of the photographs that no impermissive suggestion resulted from the participants' facial hair. See State v. Brooks, 350 So.2d 1174 (La.1977). The same analysis is applicable to the physical line up conducted at the courthouse. While three of the participants in this line up had some facial hair, it was *883 not so abundant that it affected their facial conformation or features. The participants were otherwise similar in appearance.

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437 So. 2d 879, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-clark-lactapp-1983.