State v. Cromedy

A white woman was sexually assaulted by an African-American man who made no effort to hide his face, and she identified Cromedy (defendant) as her attacker after spotting him on the street eight months later. Cromedy's defense rested almost entirely on mistaken identification, and his counsel asked the trial court to give a special cross-racial identification instruction based on a state task-force report; the trial court refused because no expert testimony on cross-racial identification had been presented and the report had not been formally adopted. Cromedy was convicted and appealed through the state courts.