The only bald-headed guy in the police line-up - that ain't fair

In a recent court of appeals case, the Court held that if you are going to conduct a police line-up, and the target defendant is bald, better make sure that you have other bald-headed guys in the line-up.  The Court stated that in order for a defendant to suppress a police line-up procedure (i.e. bar the jury from hearing that the defendant was ID'ed out of a line-up), the defendant must show the identification procedure was “so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification” and that the identification itself was unreliable under the totality ofthe circumstances.  Given the fact that the witness did not pick out the defendant in the first line-up, and given the fact that the defendant was the only true bald guy in the second line-up, the Court found the whole process unduly suggestive and tainted.

If you are in a live line-up, take a look down the line to see the hairstyles of all of the other guys.