Montana Code 46-4-502. Lineup procedure
46-4-502. Lineup procedure. A lineup conducted by a law enforcement agency of this state or any political subdivision must meet the following requirements:
Terms Used In Montana Code 46-4-502
- Court: means a place where justice is judicially administered and includes the judge of the court. See Montana Code 46-1-202
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Eyewitness: means a person whose identification by sight of another person may be relevant in a criminal proceeding. See Montana Code 46-4-501
- Peace officer: means any person who by virtue of the person's office or public employment is vested by law with a duty to maintain public order and make arrests for offenses while acting within the scope of the person's authority. See Montana Code 46-1-202
- Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- Photographic lineup: means an array of photographs displayed to an eyewitness for the purpose of determining if the eyewitness can identify the perpetrator of a crime. See Montana Code 46-4-501
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- Statement: means :
(a)a writing signed or otherwise adopted or approved by a person;
(b)a video or audio recording of a person's communications or a transcript of the communications; and
(c)a writing containing a summary of a person's oral communications or admissions. See Montana Code 46-1-202
(1)The peace officer who is the administrator of a live or photographic lineup must be unaware of which person in the lineup is the suspected perpetrator of the crime under investigation or, if that is not practicable, the administrator shall use a photographic lineup that prevents the administrator from seeing which member of the photographic lineup is being viewed by the eyewitness.
(2)Before the lineup is administered, the eyewitness must be instructed that the suspected perpetrator may or may not be in the lineup.
(3)Any person who is not the suspected perpetrator in the lineup must be substantially similar to the eyewitness’s description of the suspected perpetrator.
(4)Immediately after an identification is made, the eyewitness shall provide a statement in the eyewitness’s own words that articulates the level of the eyewitness’s confidence in the identification.
(5)A failure to comply with any of the requirements of this section must be:
(a)considered by a court in adjudicating a motion to suppress eyewitness identification; and
(b)admissible in support of a claim of eyewitness misidentification if the evidence is otherwise admissible.