JAMES RAHME, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Affirmed grand theft conviction despite suggestive photographic lineup and improper judicial questioning, finding both errors harmless in light of positive in-court identifications and overwhelming evidence of guilt.
A suggestive pretrial photographic lineup and improper judicial questioning during trial constitute harmless error when three witnesses provide positive in-court identifications based on substantial prior contact with the defendant and overwhelming evidence of guilt supports the conviction.
[1] A suggestive pretrial photographic lineup is rendered harmless error when multiple witnesses provide positive in-court identifications based on substantial independent co…
[2] Improper judicial questioning that mirrors prosecution examination and suggests judicial preference for conviction constitutes harmless error when overwhelming evidence o…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted of grand theft. Three witnesses identified him at trial after spending approximately one-half hour each in his presence, and t…
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DAUKSCH, Judge.
This is an appeal from a grand theft conviction. Appellant presents two points for review. One, that the pre-trial photographic lineup was unnecessarily preju-dicially suggestive and thus may have caused a misidentification of an innocent person. While we agree the photo lineup was suggestive and could have been better, the positive, forthright identification of the accused at. trial cured the problem. Three witnesses, who each spent around one-half hour each in appellant’s presence testified they recognized him from that viewing rather than solely from the lineup. This rendered the error harmless. Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972); Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); State v. Mitchell, 445 So. 2d 405 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984).
We agree with appellant also that the trial judge unnecessarily and thus improperly injected himself into the trial by asking a witness questions which were repetitious of those posed by the prosecutor and which could have given the jury the wrong impression. The questions and answers only bolstered the witness’s in-court identification and probably gave the jury the impression the judge preferred a guilty verdict. Although this procedure was error, it was harmless error because of the overwhelming evidence of guilt, so we affirm the conviction.
AFFIRMED.
SHARP, J., and BOARDMAN, E.F., Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377 (U.S. 1968)
- Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188 (U.S. 1972)
- Keith v. State, 445 So. 2d 405 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)
- State v. Mitchell, 445 So. 2d 405 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)