I liked this staff report. Well done, Rick. 
“Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker.”
The cable channel Showcase had a series of commercials titled “Rather see it it uncut?” using scenes like this one, with bad dubbing. They reduced it to “Hand me the keys, you [sub]fuzzy sock-sucker[/sub]”
Bricker mentioned (and let me add my commendation for an excellent article) the problem of the suspect having some unusual distinguishing mark. I recall seeing a tape of a line-up one time (admittedly it was probably a fictional one) where the witness had mentioned the suspect had a distinctive facial tattoo. The suspect was put in a line-up with a bandage covering his tattoo - and all of the other untattooed fillers had an identically placed bandage.
I had to mention this, because it involves two of my favorite scenes, and one of my favorite movies (The Usual Suspects). The scene as described was in “Running Scared”, where Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines put Joe Pantoliano (“Snake”) in a lineup with four people in police uniforms, one a woman and one a black man.
The lineup scene in The Usual Suspects involved all the people who were desired to do The Job, in the lineup, with nobody else, repeating the line “Give me the keys, CS**!”, with varying degrees of sarcasm (because they know it’s a setup).
Keep up the good work! Youse guys are definitely more fun than Marilyn Vos Savant. Probably smarter too.
Does anyone remember a guy named Charles Stuart from Boston? It’s got to be close to 20 years ago, but he claimed he and his pregnant wife had been shot by a black male with a raspy voice. She and her unborn child died, but he recovered.
He was able to pick the assailant out of a lineup. Subsequent evidence, including some insurance purchases and handgun access pointed back toward Charles, and following the confession of his brother/accomplice, Charles jumped off a bridge, killing himself.
I wonder how Charles was so successful in identifying the man who the police suspected of killing his wife. Charles had never seen him, and it was just him and four ringers in a lineup, so was it just luck? Or was Charles coached in some way?
It’s impossible to know for sure, but it could have been simple chance. People win the lottery with less than 20% chance of winning, so maybe he just closed his eyes and said, “That’s the one!”
Sorry I missed your report first time through. Absolutely first rate. You should be a lawyer…
What?
That seems so odd - wouldn’t a distinct facial tattoo be a useful identifying mark? Wouldn’t that be useful for actually, you know, identifying someone?
Sure it’s a useful identifier – which is probably what helped land him in the line up to begin with. But if you put him in a line up with four other guys who have no such tattoo, the witness is likely to think, “Oh, facial tattoo – that must be him.”
It was unusual but not unique. It’s possible that two or more different people have the same unlikely tattoo. The line-up procedure is designed so the witnesses will look at the overall appearance of the suspects rather than just focus on a single outstanding characteristic.
Just for the record, I have asked for an edit of this report, to replace references to “The Usual Suspects” with “Running Scared.”