United States v. Williford

729 F. Supp. 1077, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15596, 1989 WL 159312
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 21, 1989
DocketCrim. No. 89-00259(1)
StatusPublished

This text of 729 F. Supp. 1077 (United States v. Williford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Williford, 729 F. Supp. 1077, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15596, 1989 WL 159312 (E.D. Pa. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

VAN ANTWERPEN, District Judge.

Following a jury trial on December 5 and 6, 1989, defendant Mark Anthony Williford was found guilty of two counts of Distribution of Cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and two counts of Distribution of Cocaine Within 1,000 Feet of a School, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 845a. Defendant has filed a “Motion for Judgment not Withstanding the Verdict; Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and/or Motion for New Trial.”

In the Motions the defendant contends that:

1. The verdict was contrary to law.
[1078]*10782. The verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence.
3. The verdict was unsupported by the evidence.
4. The verdict was contrary to the evidence.
5. The court erred in its ruling as concerns the Suppression Hearing relative to the admissibility of the evidence, as concerns “identification.”

At trial two stipulations were jointly entered into evidence by the defendant and the government. The first stipulation was that the drug distributions in question were within 1000 feet of the Hunter Elementary School. The second stipulation was that the substance distributed to each of two undercover police officers was indeed cocaine. Therefore the only essential issue raised by the defense at trial was the identification of the defendant by the two Philadelphia police officers, Officer Stanford and Officer Sewell. The defendant moved to suppress evidence of the identification made by these two police officers. After a Suppression Hearing on December 4, 1989, the Motion was denied.

The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not provide for a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict, but such a motion would, in substance, be equivalent to a Motion for a Judgment of Acquittal made after discharge of the jury, pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(c). Consequently I will treat the combined Motions as a Motion for a New Trial, pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 33, based primarily on my ruling permitting introduction of evidence concerning identification by undercover Police Officers Stanford and Sewell, and a Motion for Judgment of Acquittal pursuant to Fed.R. Crim.P. 29 based primarily on the sufficiency of identification evidence.1

With regard to the motion for a new trial, the Court may grant a new trial in the interest of justice. The standard for admission of identification evidence is found in Manson v. Brathwait, 432 U.S. 98, 114—17, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2253-54, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977). Under Manson, identification evidence, even if the identification had derived from an unnecessarily suggestive source, need not be excluded if the totality of circumstances surrounding the identification indicates that it was reliable. In Manson, the Supreme Court upheld a police officer’s identification of the defendant from an array consisting of a single photograph because the officer was a trained observer, had had an adequate opportunity to view the suspect, had given an accurate description of the suspect at the time of the offense and was certain about the identification.

With regard to the Motion for Judgment of Acquittal, under Fed.R.Crim.P. 29 it is well settled that: “The verdict of a jury must be sustained if there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the Government, to support it.” Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). In making this determination, the “relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Coleman, 862 F.2d 455, 460-61 (3d Cir.1988), citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (emphasis in original). For a judgment of acquittal to be granted, the Court must decide, as a matter of law, that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support the conviction. “In reviewing testimony for determining a Rule 29 motion, questions of the weight of the evidence or of the credibility of the witnesses is foreclosed by the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Cohen, 455 F.Supp. 843, 852 (E.D.Pa.1978), aff’d 594 F.2d 855 (3d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 947, 99 S.Ct. 2169, 60 L.Ed.2d 1050 (1979). With these standards in mind I shall review the facts established at trial.

Identification of the defendant came about in this way: On May 3, 1989, Offi[1079]*1079cers Stanford and Sewell were on undercover duty in the vicinity of the Hunter Elementary School in Philadelphia. Both officers carried concealed audio transmitting equipment and both attempted to make drug purchases within view of a hidden surveillance camera. On that day each made a purchase of cocaine from an individual theretofore unknown to them. They did not make an arrest at that time, since they wanted to preserve their “cover”. Instead, they furnished a brief description of the seller to uniformed policemen who later went into the area to make arrests. The individual from whom they made the May 3 purchases was not found or arrested on that day.

On May 5, 1989, the same officers were again on duty at a different location in the same general neighborhood. They made purchases of heroin from an individual later identified as Tyrone Booker. Upon their return to the police station on May 5, the two officers were asked one after the other to look at nine pictures of individuals who had been arrested that day, based on descriptions furnished by undercover officers that day. Each of the officers independently identified Tyrone Booker as the person from whom they had received heroin that day.

While looking at the pictures of the nine individuals arrested on May 5, Officer Stanford noticed the picture of the defendant. Upon making this discovery, he went at once to one of the rooms where some of the suspects were being held. This was one of several rooms where suspects were held during processing. No one directed Officer Stanford to any particular holding room, but by chance the first room he tried was the room where he found an individual which he identified as the person from whom he had purchased cocaine two days earlier, on May 3. That person is the defendant.

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Related

Glasser v. United States
315 U.S. 60 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Manson v. Brathwaite
432 U.S. 98 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
United States v. Cohen
594 F.2d 855 (Third Circuit, 1979)
United States v. Cohen
455 F. Supp. 843 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
729 F. Supp. 1077, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15596, 1989 WL 159312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-williford-paed-1989.