Jernigan

I. Background

A. September 20 Robbery and Conviction

The Bank of America branch at 15 E. Guadalupe Road in Gilbert, Arizona, was robbed on September 20, 2000. Accord- ing to eyewitnesses, the robber was a short, Hispanic woman with a pock-marked face. She conducted a fairly generic robbery—she posed as a bank patron, quietly passed her assigned teller a demand note that threatened force, and absconded with the stolen proceeds without having said a word.

Working off a tip based on the robber’s physical descrip- tion, the FBI suspected Jernigan and assembled a six-woman photospread containing her picture. Two days after the rob- bery, the bank teller who had interacted with the robber (the “victim teller”) viewed the photospread and identified Jerni- gan as the robber.

Police arrested Jernigan on November 10, 2000, and she has since remained in custody. The government charged Jernigan with the September 20 bank robbery, unlawful use of a firearm during that robbery, and two additional bank rob- beries on October 11 and 25. The district court severed the charges involving the September 20 robbery for trial.

Jernigan’s three-day trial began on March 20, 2001. The evidence…