State v. Sigh

470 S.W.2d 503, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 986
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 14, 1971
Docket55553
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 470 S.W.2d 503 (State v. Sigh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Sigh, 470 S.W.2d 503, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 986 (Mo. 1971).

Opinions

DONNELLY, Presiding Judge.

Appellant, Chriss Sigh, Jr., was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, of robbery in the first degree by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon. Punishment was assessed at imprisonment for a term of twelve years.

On September 29, 1969, at approximately 2:30 A.M., two men, one armed with a rifle, entered the apartment of Dwight and Dorothy Burns in the City of St. Louis, and robbed them of jewelry and money. Dwight Burns was knocked down and beaten when he resisted.

The two men then forced Dorothy Burns downstairs to the Burns’ tavern and took a pistol and liquor. Shortly after the robbery, Dorothy Burns paid a neighborhood boy $10 to “spread the word” that she would pay $100 as a reward for information concerning the robbery. Two boys came to her with information pertaining to [504]*504the whereabouts of her stolen diamond rings. She paid them $50 and told them they would get the other $50 after she recovered her rings. After Dorothy Burns located her rings, she gave the boys the remaining $50. During the course of her conversations with the two boys, Chriss Sigh was mentioned as one of the persons involved in the robbery.

Thereafter, on October 10, 1969, Dorothy Burns was taken to a lineup to view appellant and several other men. Each man was asked at the lineup to give his name and address and Dorothy Burns identified appellant as one of the robbers. An attorney, Mr. Hubei, was furnished appellant and was present at the lineup.

A pre-trial hearing as to the identification of appellant at the lineup was held and the trial court found that “the question of the identification of the defendant in the lineup if offered in evidence is competent evidence for the consideration of the jury in this cause.”

Dorothy Burns identified appellant at the trial as one of the assailants.

Appellant contends on appeal that “the trial court erred in, permitting the in-court identification of appellant based on a prior lineup identification because appellant’s name had previously been given to the witness as the name of one of the robbers and appellant when appearing in the lineup was forced to disclose his name and address prior to his identification and the same constitutes a denial of due process of law,” and that “the trial court erred in permitting the in-court identification of appellant based on a prior lineup identification because appellant’s trial attorney was not present at said lineup, thereby depriving appellant of his right to adequately and intelligently cross-examine the witnesses with respect to such lineup identification.”

Appellant cites the following cases: Foster v. California, 394 U.S. 440, 89 S.Ct. 1127, 22 L.Ed.2d 402; Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199; Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247; United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149; Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263, 87 S.Ct. 1951, 18 L.Ed.2d 1178; and Palmer v. Peyton, 359 F.2d 199.

The Wade and Gilbert cases require “the exclusion of identification evidence which is tainted by exhibiting the accused to identifying witnesses before trial in the absence of his counsel” (Stovall, supra, 388 U.S. 293, 294, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1968). Wade and Gilbert do not apply in this case because appellant had counsel at the lineup.

In Stovall (388 U.S. 293, 301-302, 87 S. Ct. 1967, 1972), the United States Supreme Court further held that the Wade and Gilbert rules should not be applied retroactively but then turned “to the question whether petitioner, although not entitled to the application of Wade and Gilbert to his case, is entitled to relief on his claim that in any event the confrontation conducted in this case was so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identification that he was denied due process of law. This is a recognized ground of attack upon a conviction independent of any right to counsel claim.” (Emphasis ours.)

In Foster, in Simmons, and in Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L.Ed.2d 387, the Supreme Court has determined due process claims on the basis of “the totality of the surrounding circumstances.” In all of these cases, however, there was no counsel present in behalf of accused when the extra-judicial identification took place. Here, counsel was present at the lineup.

Did Mr. Justice Brennan, in Sto-vall, mean to imply that denial of due process of law is a recognized ground of attack upon a conviction in cases where counsel is present at the lineup? Must we consider “the totality of the surrounding circumstances” in cases where the accused has counsel present at the lineup? We do not know. We do not think so.

[505]*505In Missouri, a judicial or extra-judicial identification by a person testifying at trial is admissible. State v. Buschman, 325 Mo. 553, 29 S.W.2d 688; State v. Pitchford, Mo.Sup., 324 S.W.2d 684; State v. Rima, Mo.Sup., 395 S.W.2d 102. The weight of such testimony is for the jury. State v. Andrews, Mo.Sup., 309 S.W.2d 626; State v. Blackmore, 327 Mo. 708, 38 S.W.2d 32. We are not alone in taking this position. In Stovall (388 U.S. 293, 299-300, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1971), the Court noted that the “overwhelming majority of American courts have always treated * * * [this] evidence question not as one of admissibility but as one of credibility for the jury.” See Annotation, 71 A.L. R.2d 449.

In Spencer v. Texas, 385 U.S. 554, 568, 569, 87 S.Ct. 648, 656, 17 L.Ed.2d 606, the United States Supreme Court expressed the view that it “would be a wholly unjustifiable encroachment by this Court upon the constitutional power of States to promulgate their own rules of evidence to try their own state-created crimes in their own state courts, so long as their rules are not prohibited by any provision of the United States Constitution * * We recognize and honor our obligation to follow the “supreme Law of the Land” as declared by the Supreme Court of the United States. Article VI, Constitution of the United States.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Hadley
736 S.W.2d 576 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Bell
563 S.W.2d 161 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1978)
State v. Carter
557 S.W.2d 47 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1977)
State v. Adail
555 S.W.2d 672 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1977)
State v. Armbruster
541 S.W.2d 357 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1976)
State v. Hill
539 S.W.2d 521 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1976)
State v. Ward
518 S.W.2d 686 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1975)
State v. Maxwell
502 S.W.2d 382 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1973)
State v. Jenkins
494 S.W.2d 14 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1973)
State v. Sigh
470 S.W.2d 503 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
470 S.W.2d 503, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 986, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sigh-mo-1971.