Also known as: photo identifications · photographic identification · photo ID · photo IDs · voter ID · government-issued photo ID
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
An evenhanded state requirement that in-person voters present government-issued photo identification as a condition of voting. The requirement advances interests in deterring fraud and preserving public confidence in elections when the burdens imposed remain modest.
An evenhanded state requirement that in-person voters present government-issued photo identification as a condition of voting. The requirement advances interests in deterring fraud and preserving public confidence in elections when the burdens imposed remain modest.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A pretrial identification procedure in which a witness examines photographs to identify a suspect. The procedure does not constitute a critical stage requiring the presence of counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A pretrial identification procedure in which a witness examines photographs to identify a suspect. The procedure does not constitute a critical stage requiring the presence of counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Pamela Phillips arrives at the consolidated early-voting complex and presents her state driver's license. Poll workers verify the photo and name against the database before allowing her to cast a ballot. The requirement applies uniformly to every in-person voter at the site.
A state may impose an evenhanded photo ID requirement on in-person voters when the rule advances weighty interests in fraud prevention and election integrity and does not impose severe burdens. Courts balance the character and magnitude of any burden against the state's justifications under the Anderson-Burdick framework.
Supporting sources
Phoebe Park, already in custody on an unrelated charge, learns that investigators showed a witness a six-photograph array containing her older mugshot. The witness identifies her from the array. Phoebe moves to suppress the identification on Sixth Amendment grounds.
Patrick Phan is identified when a witness views only his photograph after a brief encounter in dim light. The witness had been within two feet of the suspect for several minutes. The court evaluates whether the procedure created a substantial likelihood of misidentification.
Priscilla Parks is identified from an array that included one older photograph displaying distinctive facial hair absent from the other images. The court weighs the suggestiveness against the witness's opportunity to view the suspect and the certainty of the identification.
Perry Pratt is identified when a witness spontaneously points him out in a public setting without any police arrangement. The court determines that due process scrutiny does not apply because the identification did not result from suggestive police conduct.
Piper Patel is shown photographs after her arrest. The court holds that the absence of counsel during the photographic display does not violate the Sixth Amendment because the procedure occurs outside the suspect's presence.
No. Photo identifications are not critical stages of prosecution because the suspect is absent and counsel cannot perform a contemporaneous protective function. The right to counsel therefore does not attach.
Supporting sources
Suppression is required only if the procedure was unnecessarily suggestive and created a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Courts evaluate the totality of the circumstances, including the witness's opportunity to view the suspect, degree of attention, accuracy of prior description, level of certainty, and time between the crime and the identification.
Supporting sources
No. Due process constraints apply only when the identification results from unnecessarily suggestive police conduct. An unarranged identification observed by police does not implicate the same reliability concerns.
Supporting sources
…that the right to counsel, which had previously been recognized as arising only at the trial, must now be extended to a pretrial photographic identification. (c) A photographic display at which the accused is not present results in no interference with the lawyer-client relationship, since the accused has no right to be present. (d) A…