MBE Rules · Criminal Procedure
Pre-indictment lineup — no 6A right
Kirby v. Illinois
The rule
There is no Sixth Amendment right to counsel at a pre-indictment (investigatory) lineup or show-up. The only constitutional check is Fourteenth Amendment due process, which bars identification procedures so unnecessarily suggestive as to create a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.
In plain English
Counsel is required only for lineups conducted after formal charges. Before that, a defendant's protection is limited to challenging the suggestiveness of the procedure.
The trap
Assuming all lineups require counsel — pre-indictment lineups do not.
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