Identification of Defendant

The State must also identify the defendant as the person who committed the crime or was a party to the crime. A defendant is usually identified in court by the prosecutor asking the witness to point to the defendant and describe an item of clothing he is wearing. The State then asks the judge to confirm for the record that the defendant has been identified. The defendant cannot avoid an in-court identification by waiving his presence at trial. Hill v. State, 290 Ga. 493 (2012); Smith v. State, 184 Ga. App. 739 (1987). The in-court identification of the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime is direct evidence of guilt. Kirkland  v.  State,  315  Ga.  App.  143  (2012); Ferguson v. State, 221 Ga. App. 415 (1996).