State v. Simmons
Supreme Court of South Carolina · 1992-04-27 · cited 21×
In State v. Simmons, Ora Simmons was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and distribution of crack cocaine based on the testimony of a single undercover agent who identified her as the seller during a brief drug transaction. Simmons argued that the agent's in-court identification was tainted because it stemmed from seeing her at a subsequent bond hearing rather than from the original observation, and she sought suppression after an in-camera hearing as well as a specific jury instruction on identification. The court held that precedent required an in-camera hearing to assess whether the identification was of independent origin and thus admissible, leading to a remand for that determination while rejecting the claim that a separate identification charge was necessary because the existing instructions adequately addressed the burden of proof and alibi defense.