Perry v. New Hampshire

Around three in the morning on August 15th, 2008, police were called to an apartment complex due to a report of a man trying to break into parked cars. An officer responded to the call saw the defendant standing between two cars, holding two car-stereo amplifiers in his hands. A metal bat lay on the ground behind him.

Meanwhile, Nubia Blandon, a resident at the apartments, woke her neighbor, Alex Clavijo, and told him she had just seen someone break into his car. He went downstairs to the parking lot to inspect his car and observed that one of the rear windows had been shattered. On further inspection, he discovered that the speakers and amplifiers from his car stereo were missing, as were his bat and wrench. Clavijo approached the officer and told her about Blandon’s alert and his own subsequent observations.

An officer went inside to speak with Blandon while another officer stayed outside with the defendant. The officer asked Blandon to describe what she saw and for a more specific description of the man. Blandon pointed to her kitchen window and said the person she saw breaking into Clavijo’s car was standing in the parking lot, next to the other police officer. The officers then arrested the defendant.

About a month later, the police showed Blandon a photographic array that included a picture of the defendant and asked her to point out the man who had broken into Clavijo’s car. Blandon was unable to identify the defendant.

Before trial, the defendant moved to suppress Blandon’s identification on the ground that admitting it at trial would violate due process. The defendant argued that Blandon witnessed what amounted to a one-person showup in the parking lot, which all but guaranteed that she would identify him as the culprit. The motion was denied and he was convicted.