United States v. Eddie Lee Hammond

Hammond appeals his conviction on a charge of bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a). He contends that the testimony of a pretrial services officer (PSO) was admitted in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3154 (1), which requires that information acquired by PSOs in the course of their duties be kept confidential. He also asserts that the trial court erred in failing to suppress his confession and the identification testimony of two witnesses as fruits of both an unlawful arrest and an unconstitutional show-up identification procedure. Finally, he maintains that, confidentiality considerations aside, the PSO’s references to Hammond’s criminal record denied his right to a fair trial. We affirm.

FACTS

A. The Arrest and Show-up

A black male with a limp robbed the Citizens Savings and Loan Association of Harbor City, California, on August 14,1980. A week later a woman entered the bank and told one of the tellers, Emelita Agacoilia, that two suspicious black males had just approached her in the parking lot at the rear of the bank. Agacoilia looked out the window in the direction of the parking lot and saw a “black male limping on the sidewalk.” Agacoilia then told her supervisor that the man…