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SUMNER v. MATA

No. 79-1601.

449 U.S. 539 (1981)

SUMNER, WARDEN v. MATA.

Supreme Court of United States.

Decided January 21, 1981.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Thomas A. Brady, Deputy Attorney General of California, argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Edward P. O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, and Gloria F. DeHart, Derald E. Granberg and Jamie Jacobs-May, Deputy Attorneys General.

Ezra Hendon, by appointment of the Court, post, p. 815, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Quin Denver.

JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.

A divided Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that respondent's state-court murder conviction was constitutionally invalid. Its holding has two bases: (1) the pretrial photographic identification procedure employed by state police was "so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable in-court misidentification of the [respondent]"; and (2) the admission of the...

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