STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. ALFRED J. SMITH A-0173-12T3

STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. ALFRED J. SMITH
          A-0173-12T3

In this pre-State v. Henderson, 208 N.J. 208 (2011) matter, we reversed the denial of defendant's motion to suppress an out-of-court eyewitness identification following a show-up and vacated defendant's conviction. We determined police failed to properly comply with the recording requirements of State v. Delgado, 188 N.J. 48, 63 (2006). Specifically, they did not detail the out-of-court identification procedures or preserve the language exchanged between police and the witness prior to the show- up. More important, the motion judge made flawed factual findings following the Wade hearing and we found no support in the record for the conclusion the victim's identification of defendant was reliable. The victim's description of the man who mugged her was he was "tall and black." Scrutinizing the totality of the facts and circumstances, we rejected as unfounded the motion judge's finding that the victim had the ability to perceive and accurately identify defendant as her attacker.