Eyewitness ID of no consequence
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a significant opinion today on DNA testing. In Esparza v. State the Court reversed both the trial court and the Court of Appeals, both of which had denied his request under Chapter 64 for post-conviction DNA testing.
Esparza had been convicted of aggravated sexual assault. He met two women at a bar, and ended up giving them a rode home. On the way, he raped one, the other got away. The actual victim could not identify him, but the other woman did, as well as another person at the bar. Additionally, he had given them a business card, with his name on it. He denied guilt at trial, and presented an alibi. The jury ultimately convicted him, and sentenced him to life.
In rejecting his request for DNA testing, the court focused on two things. One was that victim admitted she had sex 2 days earlier. The court concluded that because of that, evidence of a third party donor would be meaningless (the trial attorney actually admitted this at trial, although I can't come up with any rational explanation for making such admission). In other words, the court found that she had sex with someone else, if the testing excluded Esparza it must be the other person.
The CCA (yes, the one with Sharon Keller) found several problems with that argument. The most glaring was that it was based entirely on assumptions. One assumption was that her partner ejaculated in the other incident. Another assumption was that she didn't do anything to clean herself up in the interim. And finally, there was no testimony that there would still be evidence to recover from an incident two days earlier. In other words, you have to more than guess; your guess has to actually be supported by the evidence.
The Court concluded that if the DNA tests excluded him, there is a reasonable probability he would not be convicted.
You still have the identification, which appears fairly supported because of the business card. (BTW - it showed him working as a paralegal for the lawyer who ended up defending him at trial) The court's rejection of this argument is truly astounding. They held that the eyewitness identification of the two witnesses was "of no consequence". They also held that:
In sexual assault cases like this, any overwhelming eyewitness identification and strong circumstantial evidence (e.g. Esparza's business card, light-blue four door car, age and the fireworks on the floorboard) supporting guilt is inconsequential when assessing whether a convicted person has sufficiently alleged that exlculpatory DNA evidence would prove his innocence under Art. 64.03.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but to me that suggest the Court has finally recognized just how unreliable eyewitness testimony really. It's no longer enough to say you have an eyewitness ID, even if supported by other evidence. I think that has application in other cases; not just Chapter 64 requests.
I can't believe I'm happy about a Court of Criminal Appeal opinion. but I am. I'm not expecting this to be a trend though.
