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.