Commonwealth v. Harper, 248 Pa. Super. 344

Summary

The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed Anthony Wayne Harper’s judgment of sentence for his involvement in a knife attack on a trolley passenger. The court held that the prompt hospital identification was not unduly suggestive and that police lawfully detained potential suspects based on probable cause until the victim could identify the attackers.

Holdings

1. The hospital identification was admissible because the record showed no undue suggestiveness. The police reasonably obtained an immediate identification before the seriously injured victim was taken into surgery, and the procedure provided an impromptu lineup rather than a one-on-one confrontation preceded by a police judgment that Harper was the perpetrator.
2. No illegal arrest occurred when police temporarily detained all persons who reasonably fit the description of the attackers until an identification could be made.
3. Probable cause to arrest Harper existed once the victim identified him as one of the attackers.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the hospital identification procedure was unduly suggestive and therefore inadmissible.
2. Whether the identification was inadmissible as the fruit of an illegal arrest because police temporarily detained several possibly innocent men before the victim identified Harper.
3. Whether police had probable cause to detain the persons who reasonably fit the description of the attackers and, after the victim's identification, probable cause to arrest Harper.

Disposition

affirmed