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THE VAGUE IDENTIFICATION EVIDENCE RENDERED THE CONVICTION AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing defendant’s conviction, determined the identification evidence was too weak to support a conviction, i.e., the conviction was against the weight of the evidence. Witnesses saw a man toss a bag of drugs over a fence and run away:

Both women saw the man holding what appeared to be a white shopping bag with red circles on it, which he threw over a chain-link fence nearby. The man continued running through the parking lot toward Grand Street.

One of the women described the man she saw as a black man with short, dark hair, wearing a dark baseball cap, a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The man was “a little taller, somewhat taller” than five feet, two inches, but she was not sure. She estimated his weight to be 175 to 185 pounds, but she was not sure. She did not remember if he wore glasses. She could not describe the color of his clothing or give any description of the sneakers he wore. The other woman described the man as a young black male, approximately five feet, seven inches tall, but she could not say for sure, and “guesstimat[ed]” that he may have weighed 170 pounds. She testified that he wore a baseball cap and might have been wearing dark pants and dark sneakers. Neither woman was able to identify the defendant as the man they saw. …

… [N]either of the police witnesses observed the defendant carrying a bag, neither of the bystander witnesses was able to identify the defendant as the man carrying the bag, and no forensic evidence linked the defendant to the bag. … [T]he rational inferences that can be drawn from the trial evidence do not support the convictions beyond a reasonable doubt. Although the vague description provided by the bystander witnesses was not inconsistent with the defendant’s general appearance, we find that such evidence, coupled with nothing more than the defendant’s proximity to the crime scene, is insufficient to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant’s identity as the perpetrator … . People v Hawkins, 2021 NY Slip Op 04238, Second Dept 7-7-21

 

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