State v. Harris
Opinion
PALMER, J.
**95The sole issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court deprived the defendant, Ernest Harris, of his right to due process under the federal and state constitutions when it denied his motion to suppress an out-of-court and subsequent in-court identification of him by an eyewitness to the crimes of which the defendant was convicted. The defendant was charged with felony murder and first degree robbery, among other crimes, after he and an accomplice, Emmitt Scott, allegedly robbed Ruben Gonzalez (victim) and Jose Rivera at gunpoint and Scott shot and killed the victim. The trial court denied the defendant's pretrial motion to suppress an identification that Rivera had made of the defendant while the defendant was being arraigned in an unrelated robbery case, as well as any in-court identification that Rivera might later be asked to make of the defendant. Following a trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of one count each of felony murder and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, and two counts of robbery in the first degree.1
*123On appeal,2 the defendant claims that the trial court violated his due process rights under the federal constitution3 by denying his motion to suppress Rivera's out-of-court and in-court identifications of him because, contrary to the conclusion of the trial court, the former was the product of an unnecessarily suggestive procedure and neither was reliable. The defendant further claims that, even if the state's use of Rivera's out-of-court and in-court identifications did not violate his **96due process rights under the federal constitution, the admission of those identifications violated his due process rights under the state constitution, which, the defendant contends, are more protective than his federal due process rights. Although we agree with the defendant that the out-of-court identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive, we also conclude that Rivera's identification of the defendant was nevertheless sufficiently reliable to satisfy federal due process requirements. Accordingly, for purposes of the federal constitution, the defendant was not entitled to suppression of those identifications. We further conclude that the due process guarantee of the state constitution in article first, § 8,4 provides somewhat broader protection than the federal constitution with respect to the admissibility of eyewitness identification testimony but that, in the present case, the trial court's failure to apply the state constitutional standard that we adopt today was harmless because the court reasonably could not have reached a different conclusion under that more demanding standard. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of the defendant's claims.5 After working together during the night shift at a warehouse in the town of Newington, the victim drove Rivera back to Rivera's home in the Fair Haven section of the city of New Haven, arriving at about 3 a.m. on July 31, 2012. The victim and Rivera were rolling a blunt in the victim's car when the defendant and Scott approached on either side of the vehicle. Scott, who was standing on the passenger side, demanded that Rivera roll down the **97window, and both the victim and Rivera were then ordered out of the car. The victim and Rivera initially refused to exit the car but did so after Scott struck Rivera on the head with his gun. After the defendant and Scott searched the victim and Rivera for cash and valuables, the defendant rummaged through the car's interior for two to three minutes, during which Scott kept his gun pointed at Rivera. When the defendant found $600 and a cell phone in the center console, he said "[b]ingo," and he and Scott began to walk away. As they were leaving, the victim shouted from behind them, "I'll remember your face," whereupon Scott turned and shot the victim twice, killing him. The entire incident lasted approximately ten minutes. *124Jeffrey King, an officer with the New Haven Police Department (department), was the first officer on the scene, arriving at approximately 3:30 a.m. At that time, Rivera provided King with a description of the shooter, Scott. With respect to the lighting, the crime scene was so well lit by nearby streetlamps and house lights that King did not need to use a flashlight in connection with his investigation, despite the early morning hour.
Rivera was then taken from the crime scene to police headquarters, where he was interviewed by Detective Nicole Natale. At that time, Rivera described the shooter's accomplice-who had been standing on the driver's side of the vehicle and whom he would later identify as the defendant-as an African-American male with a thin build, approximately six feet, one inch, or six feet, two inches, in height, approximately twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with short cropped hair, and as wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans.
Eight days later, on August 8, 2012, after learning that Scott was a suspect in several Fair Haven robberies, Natale performed a sequential photographic lineup for Rivera that included Scott's photograph. Rivera failed to identify Scott as one of the assailants. Later that day, **98a fingerprint found on the front driver's side door of the victim's car was identified as belonging to the defendant. Although Natale used the fingerprint to obtain a photograph of the defendant through a police database, she never presented the defendant's photograph to Rivera in a lineup procedure or otherwise. On August 10, 2012, a fingerprint found on the front passenger's side door of the victim's car was identified as belonging to Scott.
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PALMER, J.
**95The sole issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court deprived the defendant, Ernest Harris, of his right to due process under the federal and state constitutions when it denied his motion to suppress an out-of-court and subsequent in-court identification of him by an eyewitness to the crimes of which the defendant was convicted. The defendant was charged with felony murder and first degree robbery, among other crimes, after he and an accomplice, Emmitt Scott, allegedly robbed Ruben Gonzalez (victim) and Jose Rivera at gunpoint and Scott shot and killed the victim. The trial court denied the defendant's pretrial motion to suppress an identification that Rivera had made of the defendant while the defendant was being arraigned in an unrelated robbery case, as well as any in-court identification that Rivera might later be asked to make of the defendant. Following a trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of one count each of felony murder and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, and two counts of robbery in the first degree.1
*123On appeal,2 the defendant claims that the trial court violated his due process rights under the federal constitution3 by denying his motion to suppress Rivera's out-of-court and in-court identifications of him because, contrary to the conclusion of the trial court, the former was the product of an unnecessarily suggestive procedure and neither was reliable. The defendant further claims that, even if the state's use of Rivera's out-of-court and in-court identifications did not violate his **96due process rights under the federal constitution, the admission of those identifications violated his due process rights under the state constitution, which, the defendant contends, are more protective than his federal due process rights. Although we agree with the defendant that the out-of-court identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive, we also conclude that Rivera's identification of the defendant was nevertheless sufficiently reliable to satisfy federal due process requirements. Accordingly, for purposes of the federal constitution, the defendant was not entitled to suppression of those identifications. We further conclude that the due process guarantee of the state constitution in article first, § 8,4 provides somewhat broader protection than the federal constitution with respect to the admissibility of eyewitness identification testimony but that, in the present case, the trial court's failure to apply the state constitutional standard that we adopt today was harmless because the court reasonably could not have reached a different conclusion under that more demanding standard. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of the defendant's claims.5 After working together during the night shift at a warehouse in the town of Newington, the victim drove Rivera back to Rivera's home in the Fair Haven section of the city of New Haven, arriving at about 3 a.m. on July 31, 2012. The victim and Rivera were rolling a blunt in the victim's car when the defendant and Scott approached on either side of the vehicle. Scott, who was standing on the passenger side, demanded that Rivera roll down the **97window, and both the victim and Rivera were then ordered out of the car. The victim and Rivera initially refused to exit the car but did so after Scott struck Rivera on the head with his gun. After the defendant and Scott searched the victim and Rivera for cash and valuables, the defendant rummaged through the car's interior for two to three minutes, during which Scott kept his gun pointed at Rivera. When the defendant found $600 and a cell phone in the center console, he said "[b]ingo," and he and Scott began to walk away. As they were leaving, the victim shouted from behind them, "I'll remember your face," whereupon Scott turned and shot the victim twice, killing him. The entire incident lasted approximately ten minutes. *124Jeffrey King, an officer with the New Haven Police Department (department), was the first officer on the scene, arriving at approximately 3:30 a.m. At that time, Rivera provided King with a description of the shooter, Scott. With respect to the lighting, the crime scene was so well lit by nearby streetlamps and house lights that King did not need to use a flashlight in connection with his investigation, despite the early morning hour.
Rivera was then taken from the crime scene to police headquarters, where he was interviewed by Detective Nicole Natale. At that time, Rivera described the shooter's accomplice-who had been standing on the driver's side of the vehicle and whom he would later identify as the defendant-as an African-American male with a thin build, approximately six feet, one inch, or six feet, two inches, in height, approximately twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with short cropped hair, and as wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans.
Eight days later, on August 8, 2012, after learning that Scott was a suspect in several Fair Haven robberies, Natale performed a sequential photographic lineup for Rivera that included Scott's photograph. Rivera failed to identify Scott as one of the assailants. Later that day, **98a fingerprint found on the front driver's side door of the victim's car was identified as belonging to the defendant. Although Natale used the fingerprint to obtain a photograph of the defendant through a police database, she never presented the defendant's photograph to Rivera in a lineup procedure or otherwise. On August 10, 2012, a fingerprint found on the front passenger's side door of the victim's car was identified as belonging to Scott.
Thereafter, the police learned that both the defendant and Scott were due to be arraigned on unrelated charges in court in New Haven on August 13, 2012. Robert Lawlor, an inspector with the state's attorney's office in the judicial district of New Haven, accompanied Rivera to the courthouse on that day so that Rivera could observe the arraignments and possibly identify the two men who had accosted him and the victim. Although Lawlor knew that the defendant and Scott were to be arraigned, he did not inform Rivera of that fact, and he never made Rivera aware of the defendant's name. The defendant and Scott were among fourteen arraignees who were being detained pending arraignment; the other twenty arraignees who appeared that day had not been in custody prior to their arraignment. Lawlor and Rivera both sat in the front row of the courtroom's public gallery, with Lawlor seated six seats away from Rivera. From his vantage point, Rivera watched the defendant, Scott, and the twelve other custodial arraignees-all of them handcuffed and surrounded by marshals-enter the courtroom single file through a door located only five feet away from him. Rivera recognized the defendant and Scott "as soon as they walked through the door."6 Once he was outside **99the courtroom, Rivera told Lawlor with "[n]o hesitation" that he was "100 percent positive those are the two suspects .... I will never forget it." Lawlor responded that, in fact, they "may be" the suspects, at which point the two men left the courthouse.
Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress Rivera's identification of him at *125the arraignment proceeding and any subsequent identification that he might be asked to make of the defendant at trial. The trial court held a hearing on the motion and denied it in an oral ruling the following day, concluding that the arraignment identification procedure was not unnecessarily suggestive. At trial, Rivera testified and identified the defendant as the driver's side assailant.
In a supplemental memorandum of decision issued after the trial, the court reiterated its finding that the identification procedure was not unnecessarily suggestive because, of the thirty-four total arraignees, fifteen were African-American males, which matched the description Rivera gave to Natale the morning of the murder. The trial court also supplemented its oral ruling with a finding that, even if the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive, the identification itself was reliable under the totality of the circumstances. In support of this conclusion, the trial court observed the following: Rivera had approximately ten minutes to observe the assailants during the commission of the crimes; the area was well illuminated despite the late hour, and the assailant's face was not covered; the car's interior dome light shone on the assailant's face while he searched inside the car; Rivera was only a few feet from the assailant and had a clear view of him; Rivera was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident and otherwise was alert and attentive during the commission of the crime; Rivera's description of the assailant was specific in regard to his approximate age, height, weight, hairstyle, skin tone **100and clothing; Rivera was 100 percent certain that the defendant was one of the perpetrators; and the length of time between the crime and Rivera's identification of the defendant was only about two weeks.
I
The defendant first claims that the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress Rivera's in-court and out-of-court identifications violated his due process rights under the federal constitution because they both were the product of an unnecessarily suggestive arraignment identification procedure and were not reliable under the totality of the circumstances. The state contends that the trial court properly admitted Rivera's identification testimony after correctly determining that the identification procedure at issue was not unduly suggestive and that, even if, contrary to the trial court's finding, that procedure was impermissibly suggestive, Rivera's identification of the defendant at the arraignment proceeding was nonetheless reliable under all of the circumstances. We agree with the defendant that the procedure that the state used to obtain Rivera's identification of the defendant was unnecessarily suggestive. We also conclude, however, that that identification was reliable under all of the relevant circumstances and, consequently, that it was admissible and did not require the suppression of Rivera's in-court identification of the defendant.
A
At the outset, we briefly summarize the well established legal principles that govern our analysis of the defendant's federal constitutional claim. "In the absence of unduly suggestive procedures conducted by state actors, the potential unreliability of eyewitness identification testimony ordinarily goes to the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility, and is a question for the jury. See [e.g.]
**101Perry v. New Hampshire ,
*126State v. Dickson ,
The test for determining whether the state's use of an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure violates a defendant's federal due process rights derives from the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Neil v. Biggers ,
B
Mindful of these principles, we first consider whether the trial court correctly determined that the identification procedure that the state used in the present case was not unnecessarily suggestive. We previously have acknowledged the potential for suggestiveness that inheres in arraignment identification procedures generally. See, e.g., State v. Payne ,
Courts must consider two factors in determining whether an identification resulted from an unnecessarily suggestive procedure.8 "The first factor concerns the composition of the [identification procedure] itself. In this regard, courts have analyzed whether the [subjects] used were selected or displayed in such a manner as to emphasize or highlight the individual whom the police believe is the suspect." State v. Marquez , supra,
With respect to the first prong of the test, we disagree with the trial court's conclusion that the arraignment procedure was not unnecessarily suggestive because that conclusion was based on a clearly erroneous factual finding. Specifically, the trial court found that the composition of the corporeal array10 was not unnecessarily *128suggestive because, of thirty-four total arraignees, fifteen of them matched Rivera's description of the driver's side assailant with respect to race (African-American) and gender (male). The court's conception of the array as consisting of the thirty-four arraignees, however, was significantly broader than the actual, operative array from which Rivera identified the defendant.
Rivera testified that Lawlor told him that "we may have suspects in the court" and that "there's going to be a group of guys coming out, and let me know if you can identify somebody that is coming out those doors ."
**105(Emphasis added.) Indeed, as we have explained, when Lawlor brought Rivera into the arraignment courtroom, he directed Rivera to sit in the front row of the gallery to ensure that he had a clear and unimpaired view of the door through which the custodial arraignees would be entering. Thus, even if we were to assume that all twenty noncustodial arraignees were in the courtroom and identifiable as arraignees during the period of time that Rivera himself was in the courtroom, it is apparent that they only could have been seated next to or behind Rivera and that they were not among the group of arraignees entering the courtroom through the door to which Rivera's attention had been directed. Furthermore, although the testimony conflicted as to how many arraignments Rivera and Lawlor actually observed, there simply is no evidence from which to conclude that they were present for the arraignment of any of the noncustodial arraignees who were African-American males.11 We conclude, therefore, that the trial court incorrectly treated the array as being comprised of all thirty-four arraignees. The proper starting point for the trial court's analysis of the composition of the array, rather, should have been the fourteen custodial arraignees, only nine of whom were African-American males.12
**106*129The defendant claimed before the trial court that none of those fourteen custodial arraignees was an appropriate filler. In support of this contention, the defendant adduced the testimony of Jennifer Dysart, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a recognized expert in the field of eyewitness identification. Dysart opined that all of the arraignees were inappropriate fillers due to the marked dissimilarities between each of those arraignees and Rivera's original description of the driver's side assailant as a thin, African-American male, approximately six feet, one inch, or six feet, two inches, tall, and about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Dysart ruled out female and non-African-American arraignees, leaving nine custodial arraignees who were African-American males. Dysart then eliminated those remaining nine arraignees, either because they were as much as six inches shorter than the person whom Rivera described as the suspect, weighed far more than the suspect, or were significantly older than the suspect. Relying on Dysart's testimony, the defendant renews his claim that the array was manifestly inadequate.
**107The state does not seriously challenge this aspect of Dysart's testimony or otherwise contend that the physical characteristics of a sufficient number of the custodial arraignees were sufficiently similar to those of the defendant so as to satisfy principles of due process. The state's primary contention, rather, is that the physical attributes of the custodial arraignees are relatively unimportant in view of the fact that, according to Rivera, he identified the defendant as the assailant immediately upon observing him.
Although, as we noted previously, perfection in the selection of identification fillers is not required, the physical differences between the suspect and the custodial arraignees in the present case were clearly significant enough "to emphasize or highlight the individual whom the police believe[d] [was] the suspect." State v. Marquez , supra,
C
An identification that is the product of an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure will nevertheless be admissible, despite the suggestiveness of the procedure, if the identification is reliable in light of all the relevant circumstances. See, e.g., State v. Marquez , supra,
With respect to the first two Biggers factors, the trial court found that Rivera had "ample time"-approximately **109ten minutes-to observe the assailant from a "very close" distance-no more than a few feet-in a well lit area. The trial court further found that Rivera was clearheaded and attentive during his encounter with the assailant, who had nothing covering his face or head and otherwise made no effort to disguise himself. These findings strongly support the trial court's conclusion concerning the reliability of Rivera's identification of the defendant as the perpetrator notwithstanding the state's use of a flawed identification procedure.
The defendant, however, challenges the trial court's findings as clearly erroneous. In particular, he maintains that "[t]he lighting conditions were poor; it was 3 a.m., and the closest streetlight was on the opposite side of the street." He also claims that Rivera and the other assailant were on opposite sides of the vehicle, the interior of the vehicle also was dark, and Scott pointed a gun at Rivera throughout the encounter. Having carefully reviewed the record, we disagree with the defendant that the trial court's findings concerning Rivera's opportunity to observe the defendant are unsupported by the evidence. Despite the hour and the location of the street lights, the trial court reasonably concluded that there was sufficient light in the area such that Rivera had a good view of the suspect for a considerable period of time. Indeed, the fact that King, the responding officer, chose not to use a flashlight because the scene was so well lit belies the defendant's argument that the lighting conditions were insufficient to afford Rivera an adequate opportunity to observe the defendant. Nor was Rivera's ability to view the defendant diminished by *131the distance between the two men. As the trial court found, Rivera and the defendant were on opposite sides of the vehicle, only a few feet apart. See G. Wells & D. Quinlivan, supra,
The record also fully supports the trial court's finding that Rivera was both alert and attentive during the encounter. Rivera testified that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the offense, and he further explained that he consciously tried to record a memory of both assailants' appearances so that he could later retaliate against them for the robbery.13 We previously have recognized that a finding of reliability may be bolstered by the witness' conscious effort to focus on the face of his assailant. See State v. Ledbetter , supra,
In attempting to call into question the propriety of the trial court's finding regarding Rivera's level of attentiveness, the defendant relies on Dysart's testimony concerning the "weapon focus" effect, a phenomenon whereby "the reliability of an identification can be diminished by a witness' focus on a weapon ...." State v. Guilbert ,
With respect to the third Biggers consideration, the accuracy of the eyewitness' description of the offender, we agree with the state that Rivera's description of the assailant was both specific and accurate, and included the individual's race (African-American), gender (male), body type (thin), approximate height (six feet, one inch, to six feet, two inches), approximate age (twenty-six to twenty-seven), hair style (short, cropped), and facial hair style (light). This detailed description conforms with considerable accuracy to the information in the record concerning the defendant's physical appearance.
The fourth relevant consideration under Biggers, the level of certainty that Rivera displayed with respect to his identification of the defendant, also strongly favors the state's contention that Rivera's identification *132was reliable for purposes of the analysis required under the federal constitution. Rivera demonstrated not just high confidence in his identification, but "100 percent" certainty immediately after identifying the defendant and before receiving any feedback from Lawlor.14 In addition, the defendant's expert, Dysart, testified that concern about a witness' potentially inflated confidence in **112an identification may be reduced when the witness' confidence level is recorded before any confirmatory comments by officials conducting the identification procedure, as in the present case.
Contrary to the defendant's claim, we agree with the trial court that the final Biggers factor, namely, the length of time between the crime and the identification, provides no persuasive reason for questioning the reliability of Rivera's identification of the defendant. Two weeks passed from the date of the offense until Rivera was given the opportunity to identify the defendant as a perpetrator at the defendant's arraignment on unrelated charges. In a previous case, we held that the reliability of an identification was not compromised when made in connection with an unduly suggestive arraignment procedure conducted less than one month after the crime; State v. Payne , supra,
For these reasons, we will not disturb the trial court's conclusion that, even if Rivera's identification of the defendant was the product of an unnecessarily suggestive procedure, as we have determined it was, the identification nevertheless was reliable, for purposes of the federal constitution, under the totality of the circumstances. Consequently, the defendant cannot prevail on his federal due process claim that the trial court improperly denied his motion to preclude testimony concerning that identification.
D
Having concluded that the trial court properly found that Rivera's pretrial identification of the defendant was sufficiently reliable to pass muster under the federal constitution, it follows that the trial court also was correct in denying the defendant's motion to suppress Rivera's subsequent in-court identification. "[W]hen the defendant contends that an in-court identification followed an unduly suggestive pretrial identification procedure that was conducted by a state actor ... both the initial identification and the in-court identification may be *133excluded if the improper procedure created a substantial likelihood of misidentification." State v. Dickson , supra,
II
We next address the defendant's contention that he was entitled to suppression of Rivera's out-of-court and in-court identifications under the due process provision of article first, § 8, of the Connecticut constitution.15 In support of his claim, he contends that that provision affords greater protection than the federal due process clause with respect to the admissibility of an eyewitness identification following an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure.16 The defendant urges us to **115reject the federal constitutional framework set forth in Neil v. Biggers , supra,
For purposes of ascertaining the contours of the protections afforded under our state constitution, we employ a multifactor approach that we first adopted in State v. Geisler ,
We note, preliminarily, that this is not the first time that we have had occasion to consider whether the state constitution provides greater protection than the federal constitution in this realm. A dozen years ago, in State v. Ledbetter , supra,
In the present case, the defendant does not challenge our conclusion in Ledbetter that the virtually identical language of the state and federal constitutional due process provisions favors the state because that common language supports a determination that the provisions stem from a common source and, as a consequence, share a common meaning. See
We address each of these factors in turn in order to determine whether the Biggers framework provides **118adequate protection for purposes of our state constitution. We do so cognizant of the fact that, as we "previously [have] recognized ... mistaken eyewitness identifications are a significant cause of erroneous convictions; State v. Guilbert , supra,
We turn first to relevant Connecticut precedent. As we have explained, this court previously held in Ledbetter that the state constitution does not provide greater protection than the federal constitution in this context. See State v. Ledbetter , supra,
In reaching this conclusion in Guilbert , we explained that this court's determination in Ledbetter that the state constitution did not provide greater protection than the federal constitution "was premised in part on our reservations about scientific studies that we now find persuasive." Id., at 252,
With the need to resolve the tension between Guilbert and Biggers now being squarely before us, we conclude that Guilbert provides the preferable framework for state constitutional as well as evidentiary claims involving the reliability of eyewitness identifications. First, although we do not necessarily agree with the defendant that our conclusion in Guilbert that, as an evidentiary matter, defendants are entitled to present expert testimony that "there is at best a weak correlation between a witness' confidence in his or her identification and the identification's accuracy"; id., at 253,
*137Id., at 253-54,
With respect to the next Geisler factor, persuasive federal precedent,22 the defendant contends that, although federal courts continue to be bound by the Biggers test, there are signs that a change may be in the offing. In support of this claim, he relies on Justice Sotomayor's dissenting opinion in Perry v. New Hampshire ,
We next consider persuasive precedents of other state courts. As the defendant notes, several state courts have rejected the Biggers analysis under their respective state constitutions in favor of a more expansive standard. For example, in 2011, the Supreme Court of New Jersey concluded that, in light of recent scientific developments that "abundantly [demonstrate] the many vagaries of memory encoding, storage, and retrieval; the malleability of memory; the contaminating effects of extrinsic information, the influence of police interview techniques and identification procedures; and the many other factors that bear on the reliability of eyewitness identifications"; (internal quotation marks omitted) State v. Henderson , supra,
The court in Henderson identified twelve nonexclusive and nonstatic estimator variables that courts should consider in determining the reliability of an identification that resulted from an unnecessarily suggestive procedure.26 See **125State v. Henderson , supra,
Similarly, in State v. Ramirez , supra,
*140
Other state courts have concluded that any identification that is the result of an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure is inadmissible per se under their respective state constitutions. See Commonwealth v. Johnson ,
In State v. Ledbetter , supra,
Finally, we note that the Supreme Court of Oregon has held as a matter of state evidentiary law that, when a defendant has filed a motion to exclude eyewitness identification evidence, the state must establish that the evidence is admissible under the ordinary rules of evidence. State v. Lawson , supra,
Thus, courts in Alaska, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Wisconsin have held as a matter of state constitutional law that the Biggers framework insufficiently protects against the risk of misidentification, and the courts of Georgia and Oregon have reached the same conclusion as a matter of state evidentiary law. Only two courts that have considered this issue have held that Biggers is consistent with their state constitutions. See State v. Buti ,
We next address the final Geisler factor, namely, contemporary understandings of applicable economic and sociological norms. As we have indicated, this court previously has concluded that this factor weighs in favor of the defendant's position. State v. Ledbetter , supra,
In summary, we conclude that this state's precedent, persuasive federal and sister state precedent, and contemporary understandings of economic and sociological norms favor the defendant's claim concerning the inadequacy of the Biggers factors for purposes of the state constitution. The relevant state constitutional text favors retention of the Biggers factors. And the final **131consideration, namely, historical *143insights into the intent of the framers, is neutral. Upon careful consideration of these various factors and their relative import to the issue presented, we agree with the defendant that the Biggers framework is insufficiently protective of the defendant's due process rights under the state constitution. We therefore overrule our conclusion to the contrary in Ledbetter .
B
In light of the foregoing conclusion, we next must determine the proper framework, for state constitutional purposes, for evaluating the reliability of an identification that is the result of an unnecessarily suggestive identification procedure. Having reviewed the various approaches used by courts around the country, we conclude that the most appropriate framework is that adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Henderson , supra,
It bears emphasis that this framework does not differ significantly from our current approach because, under **132the latter, if the defendant has presented evidence that the identification procedure was unnecessarily suggestive and the state has presented no evidence that the identification was nevertheless reliable, a court could not reasonably conclude that the identification should be admissible. Nevertheless, we recognize that the requirement that the defendant provide "some evidence" of suggestiveness may necessitate somewhat less evidence to trigger the admissibility inquiry than is required under the Biggers framework. State v. Henderson , supra,
In the absence of evidence of a suggestive procedure or other extraordinary circumstances, however, we continue to believe that evidence relating solely to estimator factors that affect the reliability of the identification goes to the weight, not the admissibility, of the identification. See Perry v. New Hampshire , supra,
With respect to the reliability standard that the trial court must apply at a pretrial hearing, we are persuaded that the trial court should consider the eight estimator variables that this court identified in State v. Guilbert , supra,
With these principles in mind, we consider the defendant's claim that, if the trial court had applied the proper standard in the present case, it would have concluded that Rivera's identification of him should be excluded as insufficiently reliable. Specifically, the defendant claims that the trial court would have been precluded from considering the defendant's level of confidence. In addition, he contends, the trial court would have been compelled to consider the tendency of eyewitnesses to overestimate the duration and quality of their opportunity to view the perpetrator, Rivera's lack of sleep and the poor lighting at the scene of the crime, the tendency of fear and stress to impair perception and recall, the two week interval between the crime and the observation, Rivera's nonspecific description of the perpetrator's facial features, and the fact that Rivera and the defendant were of different races.
We disagree with the defendant's claim. Dysart testified at the suppression hearing and at trial that the presence of a weapon can divert an eyewitness' attention from the perpetrator's face to the weapon, that eyewitnesses may have difficulty identifying persons of a different race, that high levels of stress adversely affect the accuracy of an identification, and that, **136because the perpetrators in the present case were rifling through the car for much of the time, Rivera's opportunity to view them would have been relatively short. In addition, Dysart testified at trial that "there is a moderate relationship between accuracy and [confidence]" when the eyewitness immediately expresses high confidence after a nonsuggestive procedure, but that positive *146feedback can artificially inflate confidence and can lead witnesses to overestimate the quality of their opportunity to observe the perpetrator. Although the specific factors that Dysart addressed are not expressly included in the Biggers framework, that framework does direct the court to consider "the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime," "the witness' degree of attention," and "the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the confrontation ...." Neil v. Biggers , supra,
There is no indication in the record that the trial court declined to consider any portion of Dysart's testimony because it believed that the evidence was not relevant under Biggers . Nor is there any evidence that the trial court believed that it was required under Biggers to assume that there is a correlation between confidence and accuracy under all circumstances, despite Dysart's testimony to the contrary. Rather, the trial court's finding that such a correlation existed in the present case was supported by Dysart's testimony that there is a "moderate" correlation between confidence and accuracy when confidence is expressed immediately after the identification and before the eyewitness has received any positive feedback. Although we have concluded that the identification procedure in the present case was suggestive-which, according to Dysart, can weaken the correlation between confidence and accuracy-Dysart did not testify that, if a procedure is suggestive in any manner and to any degree, that suggestiveness automatically and fully negates the correlation. The trial court's conclusion that Rivera's confidence was indicative of accuracy is also supported by the fact that Rivera's description of the defendant was, in fact, accurate. Finally, the defendant has not identified any evidence that he was prevented from presenting at the suppression hearing or at trial on the ground that it was not relevant under Biggers . Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court's application of the Biggers framework instead of the reliability standard that we have adopted in the present case was harmless because it is not reasonably possible that the court would have reached a different conclusion as to the admissibility of Rivera's identification under our **138new framework. See, e.g., State v. Montgomery ,
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.
Footnotes
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