If you've done criminal defense for a long time, like I have – twenty-five years, you're going to be involved in a live line-up, and where they conduct the live line-ups in Los Angeles County is where you would probably think- at the Los Angeles County jail. Most people who are going to a live lineup have a serious case, so they're trying to block some eyewitness testimony from coming in against them. A lot of those people are in custody, so that makes a live line-up pretty easy, where basically they take you out of custody, you're wearing the county blues – or whatever color you're wearing – the inmates find five other individuals that look like you, and they put you in there.

So, you have six people. They bring the witnesses in. They have a room down at the county jail where they conduct all of the live line-ups. I've done a bunch of them. They have a little form. They have the witnesses read the form, essentially stating that you're attempting to identify the person involved in your crime. They may or may not be in there. If you see somebody who looks like the person, then you write down, ' Yes, that's definitely the person,' for example, or 'that could be. ' Sometimes I've seen people pick two people and say that both of these individuals kind of resemble the person. There are all sorts of different comments that witnesses make in these live line-ups. Some of those comments can actually be really helpful to the defense, depending on exactly what is said and the specific circumstances.

Sheriffs are very good at identifying inmates who resemble each other. Sometimes, I play a game myself, trying to see if I can identify my client. I mean, these guys look so much alike. Therefore, it requires considerable effort to identify individuals from a live lineup. It's a very effective weapon for a criminal defense attorney. Of course, if the person picks your client out, it's a real big problem also because now you have someone being picked out of a live lineup – that's a very powerful piece of evidence the prosecutors can use against your client. So, you have to let your client know that, obviously, before you do one of these live line-ups. As your defense attorney, I will ensure that you are fully prepared for the live lineup, understand the potential outcomes, and are ready to make an informed decision.

I've yet to do live line-ups where I think the person is going to pick my client. For example, if the person had already been shown to my client, such as in a show-up, where the police essentially grab the client and the client is the only one, and they claim it is the person who committed the crime against you, and the person identifies them. But wait a minute. They're going to remember that show-up versus the person actually committing the crime against them. That's a problem. So, in many cases, when circumstances are such that I'm not going to conduct a live lineup, even though my client is innocent and claims innocence, we want to challenge the identification. Still, it's a decision that has to be made, obviously, with experience and an evaluation of the total circumstances surrounding the case, such as the strength of the prosecution's evidence, the credibility of the witnesses, and the potential impact on the defense's case.

As for how you can utilize a live lineup in a trial, that's a great benefit. If your client is not identified, especially if they identified somebody else, that just destroys the witness's credibility because now you can say you picked somebody from the jail community who we know was innocent for sure. Number three is innocent. You picked him. You didn't pick number five, which was my client, so how can you be sure of your identification? If we took your words at face value, we'd be convicting an innocent man. So, yeah, that just destroys the witness. It destroys their credibility and, often, undermines the prosecutor's case. This can be a significant turning point in the trial, potentially leading to a favorable outcome for the defense.

So, if you have a case where you're considering a live lineup, or you have a family member with a case and you're considering a live lineup at the county jail, we can sit down. We can talk about it. I've done a number of them. I know how they work. I know exactly the procedures. I've been inside the room. I see how the detectives deal with it. I see how the sheriffs deal with it. So, you have to sit down with a good criminal defense attorney. The client has to sit down with the attorney. You have to be honest with each other. Then you can make a really good and informed decision about whether you want to do a live line-up down at the county jail in Los Angeles or whether it's a better strategy to do something that is just as effective to attack the identification witness or witnesses in a criminal case.