Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/265/837/63051/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 15:03:24+00:00

Document:
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED Schofield, Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus & Jenkins, Leslie G. MacGowan, San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.
Ben Peterson, U. S. Atty., R. M. Whittier, Asst. U. S. Atty., Boise, Idaho, for appellee.
Before POPE and JERTBERG, Circuit Judges and YANKWICH, District Judge.
On April 2, 1956, the appellant, appearing in court with one of his counsel, Dean E. Miller, was arraigned and entered his plea of not guilty. A trial was had before a jury on April 9 and 10 of the same year. On the latter date the jury found the appellant guilty on both counts. The Court, on the same day, sentenced the appellant to the custody of the Attorney General for a period of twenty years on Count I and ten years on Count II, the sentences to run concurrently. Additional facts will appear further on in the opinion.
This is on appeal from the Judgment.
The most fundamental issue raised in this case is that of improper representation by counsel in violation of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Both the due process clause3 and the right to counsel4 are invoked.
It is argued on behalf of the appellant that there was such denial here, because he was represented at the trial by the firm of Meek and Miller, consisting of Frank E. Meek and Dean E. Miller, and that Dean E. Miller was, at the time of such representation, disqualified from practicing before the United States District Court because he was a United States Commissioner for the District of Idaho, stationed at Caldwell, Idaho.
The fact that the Administrative Office passes on the lawful fees of the United States commissioners12 and furnishes them with offices, equipment and supplies13 is not sufficient to make them "officers and employees" of the Administrative Office any more than the payment by the Administrative Office of expenses of the judges and of the cost of their books and equipment makes the judges of the various courts "officers and employees" of the Administrative Office.
Because the contention here made as to the status of commissioners, if correct, would affect many part-time commissioners in this Circuit, we have discussed it with great fullness. We are led to the inevitable conclusion that there is no disqualification for a United States Commissioner to represent a person accused of crime in the trial of a criminal case before a court of the United States, in a matter with which he was not connected as a commissioner.
"The Court: Before we continue to select a jury for this case, I have a matter to take up here.
"The Defendant being present, it has come to the attention of the Court that it might be well to see if the Defendant is fully advised that Mr. Miller, who is of counsel for the Defendant, is a Commissioner, — a United States Commissioner for the District of Idaho. You are, of course, aware of that?
"The Court: And you, Mr. District Attorney, are aware of that?
"Mr. Furey: Yes, Your Honor.
"The Court: Do you waive any question as to his appearing here as counsel for you, Mr. Audett?
"The Court: Now, you may proceed."
The appellant here is not a stranger to the law. There is a record of his conviction of another bank robbery in the Eighth Circuit.30 And there is evidence in the record that he had written a book called "The Rap Sheet" relating to his various experiences. So, despite the argument that he is of Indian extraction, we are not confronted here with an illiterate person who can rightly claim that he may not have understood the proceedings and the scope of the waiver.
Waivers of the most fundamental rights, such as the right to the assistance of counsel,31 trial by jury,32 and consent to trial by a jury of less than twelve,33 are permissible. And we see no reason why, assuming that an unconscious conflict of interest might exist between the duty of one of his attorneys towards him, and that attorney's duty arising from his employment as a United States Commissioner, the appellant, when apprised of the fact, having chosen not only to retain the commissioner as one of his counsel, but having both in writing and orally in open court waived any question that might arise from such conflict, can be heard to complain.
If a situation existed such as confronted this Court recently,34 where a conflict between two defendants represented by the same attorney appeared, resulting in possible detriment to one of them, the problem of adequate representation might be inquired into. But no such situation confronts us here. The defendant was tried separately. Both members of the law firm employed fully protected the rights of the defendant. Every witness was cross-examined. The examination of one of the accomplices, Walter Clyde McClure, by Mr. Miller was quite extensive. It covers twelve pages in the printed record. The plea of guilty to the bank robbery and the fact that he is an inmate of a State prison were brought out. The cross-examination of the other accomplice, Donald Wayne Hall, by Mr. Frank E. Meek was even more extensive. It covers twenty-nine pages, in which his previous conviction was stressed.
The appellant did not take the stand. No other witnesses were offered on his behalf. The record does not indicate whether this was upon the advice of his counsel or not. Assuming that it was, we can draw no inference of dereliction of duty, absent a competent showing that it was anything other than the attorney's best judgment in the circumstances. No exceptions were taken to the instructions by either side. A reading of the instructions convinces us that the Court advised the jury fully as to the law of the case, even giving the cautionary instructions as to the testimony of an accomplice, which are to be discussed further on in the opinion.
There is no showing that witnesses existed who could have placed the appellant elsewhere at the time when the two accomplices placed him at the bank when the offense was committed, or that any other witnesses existed that would have contradicted the consistent and unshaken story of the two accomplices, which the physical facts testified to by others verify, as to the commission of the offenses and the appellant's participation in it. That, in the view of present counsel, the cross-examination may not have been "searching" enough is not sufficient to cast discredit on the competence of the attorneys who represented the appellant at the trial.
After all, there are few trial lawyers who, on examining the record of a trial critically, would not say that "they might have done better". But such surmises would not warrant this Court in branding the defense in this case as so inadequate as to amount to denial of the right to counsel.
The testimony may be given in brief summary. The character of the bank as a national depository on the day it was entered and the money and things of a total value of $30,000 taken is not in dispute.
The appellant and Hall met at Portland, Oregon in the latter part of September 1953. At a small town adjoining Portland, — Gladstone, Oregon — appellant asked Hall how he was doing and if he was making any money or if he was hard up for money, to which he answered "he was pretty well broke", whereupon appellant asked him if he wished to "accompany him on a burglary, to burglarize a bank". Hall declined the invitation. He saw him again in the middle of October.
"with a pry bar on one end and a point on the other, something like a marlin spike on the other end, and some wood drills, bits, and two drift punches approximately twelve inches long by about three-sixteenths, and a coil of rope and a six pound hammer."
On October 26, Hall and McClure met the appellant, who was in a Studebaker car from which they transferred some tools to McClure's car. They followed the appellant three or four blocks, where he left his car and joined them. They drove to Colton on the Washington side of the Columbia River where they attempted to burglarize a bank but were unsuccessful. They then drove to Lewiston, Idaho. Hall and McClure used assumed names in registering at a hotel. The appellant registered in his own name. The next day, after eating breakfast, they drove to Cottonwood, Idaho. After looking over the Cottonwood bank they drove to Arco, Idaho. On October 28, 1953, they returned to Cottonwood and "cased" the bank. After darkness, they entered the Cottonwood bank by breaking a skylight and lowering a rope coil through the opening. Hall slid down the rope, opened the door to the rear alley allowing McClure and the appellant to enter. The bricks from the safe were removed. Appellant and McClure entered the vault and returned with a "little leather secretary" and silver and gold coins and other property removed from the safe deposit boxes, amounting to the total value of $30,000. The plunder was later divided equally between the three participants.
Appellant participated in the planning of the entering of the safe and the removal of the property. The three left the building through the back door leaving the tools and the rope at the place of the burglary. All three were later arrested.
Part of the money and property was recovered from Hall and McClure. All were separately indicted on charges of violating the Bank Robbery Statute.39 Hall and McClure pleaded guilty and testified for the Government at the trial.
Counsel for the appellant concede that Hall and McClure agree very closely as to the manner in which the crime was committed, but point to certain inconsistencies in their narrative as to the appellant's connection with the crime.
Any change of the rule should be made by Congressional legislation applicable to all federal courts, and not by judicial fiat, which, unless it be that of the Supreme Court, would affect certain federal courts only.
The Judgment will therefore be modified by striking therefrom the sentence imposed on Count II. As so modified the Judgment is affirmed.
"the group of persons who serve as conventional court officers and are regularly treated as such in the laws." Cammer v. United States, 1956, 350 U.S. 399, 405, 76 S. Ct. 456, 459, 100 L. Ed. 474.
"As you know, I discussed recently with you the fact that my partner, Dean E. Miller, is a duly appointed, qualified and acting United States Commissioner, my purpose being to ascertain whether in your opinion it would be necessary for him to resign as such because of this firm's employment by James Henry Audett to represent him in his defense against the indictment filed against him, and upon which he is to be arraigned on April 2nd, in the Federal Court Room at Moscow, Idaho.
"I also informally discussed this matter with Judge Clark.
"This is to advise you that our client, James Henry Audett, has been fully advised of this matter and of the fact that Mr. Miller is a United States Commissioner, and as a matter of fact, will be asked to read this letter before it is mailed to you, and to endorse thereon his waiver of any objection he might have to the fact Dean is a United States Commissioner. He is further being advised that at the time of his arraignment he should make an oral waiver of any objection he might have in the matters.
"I, James Henry Audett, hereby certify that I have read the above and foregoing letter, that I have been fully advised that Dean E. Miller is a United States Commissioner, and hereby expressly waive any objection that I might have to his being such in the matter of being one of my attorneys in the above referred to matter.
"/s/ James Henry Audett "(Endorsed): Filed March 29, 1956."
"An accused should never have counsel not of his choice forced upon him." Duke v. United States, 9 Cir., 1958, 255 F.2d 721, 724.
By the same token, having chosen his counsel, he should not be allowed to claim deprivation of due process through inadequate representation, unless the record warrants the conclusion that there was gross and deliberate misrepresentation.
"The Court: The Motion will be denied."
"having been represented at the trial of his case before a duly constituted court and jury by an attorney of his own selection, cannot complain that he has been deprived of his constitutional right to be represented by counsel because the attorney so selected was, as he claims, unskillful or incompetent in the handling of the case."
And see the language of Judge Minton in United States ex rel. Weber v. Ragen, 7 Cir., 1949, 176 F.2d 579, 586; and the more recent language of Chief Judge Biggs in United States ex rel. Darcy v. Handy, 3 Cir., 1953, 203 F.2d 407, 426-427; and see, Anderson v. Bannan, 6 Cir., 1958, 250 F.2d 654, 655.
"You are instructed, therefore, that you are to receive the testimony of an accomplice with caution and examine it with care. This does not mean, however, that you are to arbitrarily reject it. It only means that you are to examine it with care; and if, having done so, you believe its truth, then you are to give it the same credence as the testimony of any other witness. In considering the evidence, you should consider his appearance, his manner of testifying, the probability, or improbability of the facts to which he has testified; his motives, or interest in the case; whether or not his evidence is consistent with itself and with the other evidence or admitted facts of the case, and if, having considered his testimony in the light of all these rules you believe that he has told the truth, then I instruct you that the defendant can be convicted on this evidence alone, if that evidence convinces you that this defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
"In a criminal case the court must instruct on all essential questions of law involved, whether or not it is requested to do so." Samuel v. United States, 9 Cir., 1948, 169 F.2d 787, 792.
"The warning is never an absolute necessity. It is usually desirable to give it; in close cases it may turn the scale; but it at most is merely a part of the general conduct of the trial, over which the judge's powers are discretionary, like his control over cross-examination, or his comments on the evidence. If he thinks it unnecessary — at least when, as here, the guilt is plain — he may properly refuse to give it. Such we understand to be the upshot of the decisions." United States v. Becker, 2 Cir., 1933, 62 F.2d 1007, 1009.

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