A Fulton County jury found Patrick Willis guilty of armed robbery based upon acts Willis committed against another at the Big-A Carwash on Lee Street in Atlanta. Without challenging the sufficiency of the evidence against him, Willis claims in his sole enumeration of error that the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine as to the victim’s identification of him as the perpetrator, because such identification was based upon an impermissibly suggestive line-up. We find this claim meritless and affirm Willis’ conviction. During the hearing on the motion in limine, Detective C. L. White testified that he put the line-up together with the aid of a computer program that selects approximately three hundred photographs of substantial similarity to a specific defendant, in this case Willis. The detective then chose from the computer’s selection five photographs of individuals with coloring, facial hair, age, and features similar to Willis. He showed the line-up to the victim after reading the standard “admonition” that the line-up may or may not contain a picture of the perpetrator; that the victim may not talk to anyone during his selection; and that hairstyles and complexions could be different. The victim picked Willis out of the line-up and initialed his choice.
At the hearing, Willis called an expert witness, Dr. Stephen Cole, to testify that the line-up was impermissibly suggestive and resulted in a substantial likelihood of misrepresentation, because Willis was the only subject in the photo array who had a receding hair line; the only one wearing a jacket sweatshirt; and the only subject who was not staring straight ahead in the photograph. Cole then testified that he conducted a survey in which he showed the photograph to “30 young black men” and asked them “essentially, does anybody in this set of six pictures stand out to you; or are any of them very different to you.” He testified that seventy-three percent of the young men picked out Willis. Dr. Cole did not testify as to where he located the “30 young black men”; where they viewed the photo array; whether they viewed it as a group or individually; exactly the question that was asked, as opposed to “essentially” the question that was asked; whether these young men had performed this service for Cole before; or any other question to establish the authenticity of his survey.
