A New Jersey man man with face tattoos has had his conviction overturned after Trenton police detectives were accused of using “suggestive” pictures in a photo array.
According to The Trentonian, Donnell Perry was arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a grocery store in 2015. Prosecutors were able to win their case after the owner identified Perry in a photo array. While Perry maintained that he “didn’t even do anything” at a hearing, he later pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Mercer County Superior Court.
On Monday, a state appeals court ruled in favor of the overturning of Perry’s conviction. According to the ruling, lawyers argued that the witness identification of Perry was inadmissible because of the mugshots detectives used in the photo array. As NJ.com explains that similarly to a lineup, a photo array is supposed to contain a number of similar-looking mugshots. A witness is then asked to look through the mugshots to identify the suspect with more accuracy. In Perry’s case, however, his was the only mugshot that contained face tattoos.
“The identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive because the witness was shown two arrays in which [Perry] was the only person with visible face markings or tattoo,” read the defendant argument in the ruling. The court determined that Perry successfully proved “a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.”
The case will return to the Mercer County Superior Court.
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