Oklahoma v. WLP, Oklahoma County, CF-2002-922
September 2005
Defendant charged with armed robbery after a man was robbed at gunpoint while fueling his car. The man followed the culprit to a house and called the police who entered and found WLP with his friends (of similar skin tone and stature) playing video games in a back room. A street line-up was conducted in the dark of night resulting in WLP's identification and arrest. At trial, the State presented its witnesses whom Mr. Pierce cross-examined vigorously, bringing out that the victim, during the line-up actually identified the boys as a group - not WLP as an individual, though only one person committed the robbery. Having ruthlessly attacked the eye-witness identification process, Mr. Pierce demurred to the state's evidence mid-trial, and the judge dismissed the case, sending both WLP and the jury home.