State v. Booth-Harris
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of first-degree murder after declining Defendant's invitation to change constitutional precedent to further limit the admissibility of eyewitness identifications following police photo arrays, holding that the double-blind procedures used in this case were not unduly suggestive and that Defendant received effective assistance of counsel.
On appeal, Defendant argued (1) because the police used unduly suggestive photographic identification procedures the district court erred by failing to grant his motion to suppress the resulting identification; and (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request jury instructions on eyewitness identifications that reflect modern scientific research. The court of appeals affirmed the conviction while preserving for possible postconviction relief action Defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The Supreme Court affirmed in part and vacated in part the court of appeals' decision, holding (1) the eyewitness identification was not unduly suggestive; and (2) contrary to the decision of the court of appeals, the record was adequate to decide the ineffective assistance of counsel claim challenging the jury instruction on eyewitness identification, and this claim is rejected on the merits.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.