State v. Lathan

The question upon appeal involves the issue of whether the improper pre-trial identification procedures employed by the police so tainted the victim-witness’ in-court identification of the defendant as to require that such identification be excluded from evidence at the trial, or wdrether the in-court identification was shown by clear and convincing evidence to have been the result of an observation having an independent origin other than the pre-trial confrontation.

There is no question that defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel at any critical confrontation held by the prosecution at…