Is there any case law in which a trial judge erred in directing a verdict of acquittal on the basis solely of the initial identification evidence?
Canada (Federal), Canada
The following excerpt is from Proulx v. Quebec (Attorney General), [2001] 3 SCR 9, 2001 SCC 66 (CanLII):
195 In Mezzo v. The Queen, 1986 CanLII 16 (SCC), [1986] 1 S.C.R. 802, the headnote reads (at pp. 803-4): In determining whether or not to direct a verdict in cases which turn on eyewitness testimony, the trial judge should address his mind to the factors going to the quality of the identification evidence and, where the frailties in the evidence can be remedied by a caution, he should leave the matter to the jury. In the present case, the trial judge erred in law in directing a verdict of acquittal on the basis solely of the quality of the initial identification evidence. The substantial consistency in the complainant's description of the accused given on three separate occasions prior to any improper police procedures required him to put the evidence to the jury with a caution as to the inherent frailty of the identification evidence, coupled with an instruction to consider carefully the conditions under which the identification is made. A jury is in just as good a position as the trial judge to assess the witness' opportunity for observation and the strength of his evidence based on that opportunity.
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