The Lineup

Rickie Slaughter's booking photo was presented to the victims along with five other booking photos. The color and background of Rickie’s photo were uniquely different  from the other photos in the line up, causing his photo to stand out.  Later, at a federal hearing the lead detective, Jesus Prieto, testified that a second photo lineup was shown to witnesses in 2004 where the color and background of Rickie's photo matched the other five photos presented.  During this second photo lineup Rickie was not identified by witnesses as being one of the perpetrators. 

Information regarding the second photo lineup was not presented during Rickie's initial trial, and police failed to preserve the second lineup as evidence. 

Psychologists and police protocols have long warned about this very issue, because it often leads to misidentification.  A study conducted by the Innocence Project details how mistaken eyewitness identifications contributed to approximately 69% of the more than 375 wrongful convictions in the United States overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence.