Have you read the ID session transcript? A detective on it says they are running it this way at the direction of Mr. Nifong.
I don't think I've read a transcript of it. Do you know where it can be found?
I didn't read the transcript, but yes I did gather that the decision to depart from the NC photo line-up guidelines was made by Nifong.
Nevertheless, I don't believe that a failure to conform to state guidelines, if that failure does NOT rise to the level of a U.S. federal constitutional violation, would give much added weight to a federal civil rights claim for damages against Durham.
If the photo identification IS found to be a violation of the US Constitution, then yes that would of course greatly help the defendants in succeeding on a claim for damages for violation of federal civil rights.
And of course a failure to conform to the state guidelines may in and of itself be sufficient for a North Carolina court to exclude the photo identification, and a court could then easily further conclude that an in-court identification would also have to be suppressed, in which event the case would almost certainly have to be thrown out on that basis, but I don't know the answer as to whether a North Carolina court has the power to exclude a photo ID solely on the basis that it did not conform to the state guidelines.