Derrick Bell - Mistaken ID / Poor Legal Defense
Bell, Derrick; robbery, assault; NRE: mistaken witness identification, inadequate legal defense
[751:402]; 2nd Dept. 10/7/02; affirmed
2005 WL 1962413; E.D.N.Y. 8/12/05; writ denied
"At approximately 2:30 A.M. on July 16, 1996, Brentonol Moriah was walking home from work along Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn...He felt something hard press against his shoulder and heard a voice demand money...Mr. Moriah turned to face his assailant, and stood 'face to face' with his assailant for 'about five minutes'...begging his assailant not to shoot him, during which time his assailant had a shotgun pointed at Moriah's leg...The assailant then shot Moriah in the leg and fled...Shortly after the assailant fled, Police Officers Patrick Parente and Salvatore Kopita responded to the scene. Officer Parente asked Mr. Moriah what happened, and Mr. Moriah told him that somebody tried to rob him and shot him in the thigh...Mr. Moriah described the assailant as 'a male black, wearing a lemon-colored shirt'...Mr. Moriah did not name the assailant and did not tell Officer Parente that he knew the individual.
"Mr. Moriah was transported to Kings Hospital and underwent surgery...He remained in intensive care for roughly eleven days, during which time he was on a respirator and in a semi-conscious state. Moriah regained consciousness on or about July 27, 1996. Detective Robert Figueroa interviewed Moriah the next day, at which time Moriah identified his assailant as Derrick Bell, a former neighbor with whom he shared a kitchen and a bathroom for almost a year...Moriah did not remember speaking to officers at the scene and did not recall giving a description of his assailant to police at the scene."
500 F.3d 149; 2nd Cir. 8/31/07; writ granted due (partly) to ineffective assistance of counsel
"[At trial] Bell testified that he left work around midnight to join friends, and they all played cards until five o-clock in the morning. Bell's three alibi witnesses confirmed that they played cards with Bell on the night in question.
"Minutes after an encounter in which he stood face-to-face with the assailant for five minutes, Moriah told police officers that his assailant was a 'black male wearing a lemon-colored t-shirt,' a description that implicitly but undeniably indicates that the assailant was a stranger; one does not fall back on general features ('a male black') or the color of a shirt ('lemon' yellow) to express the identity of a person known by name or affiliation. By the time Moriah identified Bell as the assailant, Moriah had (in sequence) begun anxiolytic and amnestic pharmaceuticals, entered a sedated, coma-like state, remained semi-conscious (at best) for eleven days, and awakened with cognitive abilities that were in doubt."
