Joseph Riley, Jr. v. Carl Hocker, as Warden, Nevada State Prison

Joseph Riley, Jr., appeals from a district court order denying Riley’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Riley was convicted by a Nevada state trial court of the crime of larceny, committed on October 28, 1968. At his trial Riley contended that evidence concerning the identification of Riley by an eyewitness to the larceny, at a confrontation shortly after the crime, and at a subse quent police line-up, should be excluded because he was denied constitutional rights announced in United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 , 87 S.Ct. 1926 , 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967). This contention was accepted by the state trial court and such evidence was excluded.

At his trial Riley also urged that in-court identification testimony by the eyewitness should also be excluded because it was tainted by the improper confrontation and police line-up procedures. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on this matter, in the absence of the jury, and found that the in-court identification testimony was not so tainted, and this evidence went to the jury. On appeal, the same argument was made by Riley, but the Nevada Supreme Court held that the trial court’s finding as to lack of taint is supported by clear…