In re Miles

"The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume."-Thomas Jefferson.

Guy Miles is in state prison for 75 years to life. A jury convicted him of armed robbery and he has been in custody for almost 19 years. For all of those years, Miles has claimed that he was wrongfully convicted. But he has now presented "new evidence" to this court that is of "such decisive force and value that it would have more likely than not changed the outcome at trial." (Pen. Code, § 1473, subd. (b)(3)(A).)

Thus, Miles has secured a writ of habeas corpus.

I

INTRODUCTION

On June 29, 1998, three men committed an armed robbery at a small loan office in Fullerton. Two employees were on duty. Weeks later, both of the victims separately looked at a six-pack lineup and picked out Miles as one of three robbers. Although no physical evidence linked Miles to the crime scene, and several alibi witnesses placed him in Las Vegas on the day of its occurrence, a jury convicted Miles of the armed robbery along with one codefendant.

Miles filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this court, attaching declarations from his…

I write separately because I believe there were significant problems with the eyewitness identifications, including suggestive photographic lineups and improper prosecutorial tactics, which resulted in Miles' conviction. The majority opinion does not find Miles to be "factually innocent." But there is a very strong likelihood that an innocent man has spent almost 19 years in custody for a crime he did not commit.

There are several procedural safeguards that exist to protect against the misidentification of suspects, such as the double-blind administration of photographic lineups. But many of these safeguards were not followed in this case. Therefore, in addition to his "new evidence" claim, I am of the opinion that there was sufficient proof to support Miles' alternative claim of "false" eyewitness identification evidence.

It should be noted that this investigation took place many years ago when the study of eyewitness identification evidence was in its early stages. As the field progresses, we are learning just how vital photographic lineup safeguards are to fair prosecutions. There is nothing in this record that indicates that the investigating detective acted with improper…