Commonwealth v. Floyd

I agree with the majority that the third party’s testimony concerning the prior photographic identification should have been limited in its evidential use to impeachment purposes under the facts of this case. I take issue with the unwarrantedly broad, and in my judgment erroneous proposition, *400that prior identification testimony can never be admitted as substantive evidence.

In a recent decision the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts cogently explained the distinction between the facts presented in this case, where the declarant attempts to deny the alleged previous identification, and the…