Pretrial Identification

Background

A pre-trial identification may be crucial in establishing eyewitness testimony that a defendant committed a crime. Several types of pre-trial identification exist: shosups, lineups, and photo arrays being the most common.

Key Cases

• United States
  • Neil v. Biggers, 409 U. S. 188 (1972) - In Neil v. Biggers, the US Supreme Court provided the defendant with a mechanism to challenge a pre-trial identification by requesting a hearing on the validity of the identification.

The two-pronged test asks:

• 1) whether the identification procedure was suggestive, and
• 2) if it was suggestive, whether there were indicia of reliability such that the witness's testimony should still be admissible even if the procedure was suggestive.

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See Rights of the Accused