Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/328/750/case.html
Timestamp: 2017-08-20 19:22:24
Document Index: 158481132

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 37', '§ 269', '§ 391', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 557', '§ 269', '§ 269', '§ 557', '§ 269', '§ 556']

Kotteakos v. United States (full text) :: 328 U.S. 750 (1946) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 328 › Kotteakos v. United States › Case
Petitioners were convicted under § 37 of the Criminal Code of conspiracy to violate the National Housing Act. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 151 F. 2d 170. This Court granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 711. Reversed, p. 328 U. S. 777.
The indictment named thirty-two defendants, including the petitioners. [Footnote 1] The gist of the conspiracy, as alleged, was that the defendants had sought to induce various financial institutions to grant credit, with the intent that the loans or advances would then be offered to the Federal Housing Administration for insurance upon applications containing false and fraudulent information. [Footnote 2]
Of the thirty-two persons named in the indictment, nineteen were brought to trial [Footnote 3] and the names of thirteen were submitted to the jury. [Footnote 4] Two were acquitted, the jury disagreed as to four, and the remaining seven, including petitioners, were found guilty.
In June, 1939, Lekacos sent Brown an application for a loan signed by petitioner Kotteakos. It contained false statements. [Footnote 5] Brown placed the loan, and Kotteakos thereafter sent Brown applications on behalf of other persons. Two were made out in the names of fictitious persons. The proceeds were received by Kotteakos and petitioner Regenbogen, his partner in the cigarette and pinball machine business. Regenbogen, together with Kotteakos, had indorsed one of the applications. Kotteakos also sent to Brown an application for a loan in Regenbogen's name. This was for modernization of property not owned by Regenbogen. The latter, however, repaid the money in about three months after he received it.
The proof therefore admittedly made out a case not of a single conspiracy, but of several, notwithstanding only one was charged in the indictment. Cf. United States v. Falcone, 311 U. S. 205; United States v. Peoni, 100 F.2d 401; Tinsley v. United States, 43 F.2d 890, 892, 893. The Court of Appeals aptly drew analogy in the comment,
151 F.2d at 172. Nevertheless the appellate court held the error not prejudicial, saying, among other things, that "especially since guilt was so manifest, it was proper' to join the conspiracies," and "to reverse the conviction would be a miscarriage of justice." [Footnote 6] This is indeed the
In Berger v. United States, 295 U. S. 78, this Court held that, in the circumstances presented, the variance was not fatal where one conspiracy was charged and two were proved, relating to contemporaneous transactions involving counterfeit money. One of the conspiracies had two participants; the other had three; and one defendant Katz, was common to each. [Footnote 7] "The true inquiry," said
the Court, "is not whether there has been a variance of proof, but whether there has been such a variance as to affect the substantial rights' of the accused." 295 U.S. at 295 U. S. 82.
The Court held the variance not fatal, [Footnote 8] resting its ruling on what has become known as "the harmless error statute," § 269 of the Judicial Code, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 391, which is controlling in this case, and provides:
"On the hearing of any appeal, certiorari, writ of error, or motion for a new trial, in any case, civil or criminal, the court shall give judgment after an examination of the entire record before the court, without regard to technical errors, defects, or exceptions which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties. [Footnote 9]"
295 U.S. at 295 U. S. 83.
The salutary policy embodied in § 269 was adopted by the Congress in 1919, Act of February 26, 1919, c. 48, 40 Stat. 1181, after long agitation under distinguished professional sponsorship, [Footnote 10] and after thorough consideration of various proposals designed to enact the policy in
successive Congresses from the Sixtieth to the Sixty-fifth. [Footnote 11] It is not necessary to review in detail the history of the abuses which led to the agitation or of the progress of the legislation through the various sessions to final enactment without debate. 56 Cong.Rec. 11586; 57 Cong.Rec. 3605. But anyone familiar with it knows that § 269 and similar state legislation [Footnote 12] grew out of widespread and deep conviction over the general course of appellate review in American criminal causes. This was shortly, as one trial judge put it after § 269 had become law, that courts of review, "tower above the trials of criminal cases as impregnable citadels of technicality." [Footnote 13] So great was the threat of reversal, in many jurisdictions, that criminal trial became a game for sowing reversible error in the record, only to have repeated the same matching of wits when a new trial had been thus obtained.
In the broad attack on this system great legal names were mobilized, among them Taft, Wigmore, Pound and Hadley, to mention only four. [Footnote 14] The general object was
The task was too big, too various in detail, for particularized treatment. Cf. Bruno v. United States, 308 U. S. 287, 308 U. S. 293. The effort at revision therefore took the form of the essentially simple command of § 269. It comes down on its face to a very plain admonition: "Do not be technical, where technicality does not really hurt the party whose rights in the trial and in its outcome the technicality affects." It is also important to note that the purpose of the bill in its final form was stated authoritatively to be
Ibid; Bruno v. United States, supra, at 308 U. S. 294; Weiler v. United States, 323 U. S. 606, 323 U. S. 611."
Easier was the command to make than it has been always to observe. This, in part because it is general, but in part also because the discrimination it requires is one of judgment transcending confinement by formula or precise rule. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150, 310 U. S. 240. That faculty cannot ever be wholly imprisoned in words, much less upon such a criterion as what are only technical, what substantial rights; and what really affects the latter hurtfully. Judgment, the play of impression and conviction along with intelligence, varies with judges and also with circumstance. What may be technical for one is substantial for another; what minor and unimportant in one setting crucial in another.
In the final analysis, judgment in each case must be influenced by conviction resulting from examination of the proceedings in their entirety, tempered but not governed in any rigid sense of stare decisis by what has been done in similar situations. Cf. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., supra, at 310 U. S. 240-242. Necessarily, the character of the proceeding, what is at stake upon its outcome, and the relation of the error asserted to casting the balance for decision on the case as a whole are material factors in judgment.
The statute, in terms, makes no distinction between civil and criminal causes. But this does not mean that the same criteria shall always be applied regardless of this difference. Indeed the legislative history shows that the proposed legislation went through many revisions, largely at the instance of the Senate, [Footnote 15] because there was fear of too easy relaxation of historic securities thrown around the citizen charged with crime. Although the final form of the legislation was designed, and frequently has been effective, [Footnote 16] to avoid some of the absurdities by which skilful
manipulation of procedural rules had enabled the guilty to escape just punishment, § 269 did not make irrelevant the fact that a person is on trial for his life or his liberty. It did not require the same judgment in such a case as in one involving only some question of civil liability. There was no purpose, for instance, to abolish the historic difference between civil and criminal causes relating to the burden of proof placed in the one upon the plaintiff and in the other on the prosecution. Nor does § 269 mean that an error in receiving or excluding evidence has identical effects, for purposes of applying its policy, regardless of whether the evidence in other respects is evenly balanced or one-sided. Errors of this sort in criminal causes conceivably may be altogether harmless in the face of other clear evidence, although the same error might turn scales otherwise level, as constantly appears in the application of the policy of § 269 to questions of the admission of cumulative evidence. [Footnote 17] So it is with errors in instructions to the jury. Cf. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., supra, at 310 U. S. 239, 310 U. S. 241.
Some aids to right judgment may be stated more safely in negative than in affirmative form. Thus, it is not the appellate court's function to determine guilt or innocence. Weiler v. United States, supra, at 323 U. S. 611; Bollenbach v. United States, 326 U. S. 607, 326 U. S. 613-614. Nor is it to speculate upon probable reconviction and decide according to how the speculation comes out. Appellate judges cannot escape such impressions. But they may not make them sole criteria for reversal or affirmance. Those judgments are exclusively for the jury, given always the necessary minimum evidence legally sufficient to sustain the conviction
unaffected by the error. [Footnote 18] Weiler v. United States, supra; Bollenbach v. United States, supra.
But this does not mean that the appellate court can escape altogether taking account of the outcome. To weigh the error's effect against the entire setting of the record without relation to the verdict or judgment would be almost to work in a vacuum. Cf. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., supra, at 310 U. S. 239, 310 U. S. 242. In criminal causes, that outcome is conviction. This is different, or may be, from guilt in fact. It is guilt in law, established by the judgment of laymen. And the question is not were they right in their judgment, regardless of the error or its effect upon the verdict. It is, rather, what effect the error had or reasonably may be taken to have had upon the jury's decision. The crucial thing is the impact of the thing done wrong on the minds of other men, not on one's own, in the total setting. Cf. United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., supra,. at 310 U. S. 239, 310 U. S. 242; Bollenbach v. United States, supra, 326 U. S. 614.
norm [Footnote 19] or a specific command of Congress. Bruno v. United States, supra, at 308 U. S. 294. But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is, rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand.
Discussion, some of it recent, [Footnote 20] has undertaken to formulate the problem in terms of presumptions. In view of the statement quoted above from the House Committee's report, it would seem that any attempt to create a generalized presumption to apply in all cases would be contrary not only to the spirit of § 269, but also to the expressed intent of its legislative sponsors. Indeed, according to their explicit statement, whether the burden of establishing that the error affected substantial rights or, conversely, the burden of sustaining the verdict shall be imposed, turns on whether the error is "technical" or is such that "its natural effect is to prejudice a litigant's substantial rights." Indeed the statement, in entire accord with the letter and spirit of § 269, is an injunction against attempting to generalize broadly, by presumption or otherwise. The only permissible presumption would seem to be particular, arising from the nature of the error
It follows that the Berger case is not controlling of this one, notwithstanding that, abstractly considered, the errors in variance and instructions [Footnote 21] were identical in character. The Berger opinion indeed expressly declared:
On its face, as the Court of Appeals said, this portion of the charge was plainly wrong in application to the proof made, and the error pervaded the entire charge, not merely the portion quoted. [Footnote 22] The jury could not possibly have found, upon the evidence, that there was only one conspiracy. The trial court was of the view that one conspiracy was made out by showing that each defendant was linked to Brown in one or more transactions, and that it was possible on the evidence for the jury to conclude that all were in a common adventure because
of this fact and the similarity of purpose presented in the various applications for loans. [Footnote 23]
This view, specifically embodied throughout the instructions, obviously confuses the common purpose of a single enterprise with the several, though similar, purposes of numerous separate adventures of like character. It may be that, notwithstanding the misdirection, the jury actually understood correctly the purport of the evidence as the Government now concedes it to have been, and came to the conclusion that the petitioners were guilty only of the separate conspiracies in which the proof shows they respectively participated. But, in the face of the misdirection and in the circumstances of this case, we cannot assume that the lay triers of fact were so well informed upon the law or that they disregarded the permission expressly given to ignore that vital difference. Bollenbach v. United States, supra, 326 U. S. 613.
As we have said, the error permeated the entire charge, indeed the entire trial. Not only did it permit the jury to find each defendant guilty of conspiring with thirty-five [Footnote 24] other potential co-conspirators, or any less number as the proof might turn out for acquittal of some, when none of the evidence would support such a conviction, as the proof did turn out in fact. It had other effects. One was to prevent the court from giving a precautionary instruction such as would be appropriate, perhaps required, in cases where related but separate conspiracies are tried together under § 557 of the Code, [Footnote 25] namely, that the jury should take care to consider the evidence relating to each conspiracy separately from that relating to each
other conspiracy charged. [Footnote 26] The court here was careful to caution the jury to consider each defendant's case separately, in determining his participation in "the scheme" charged. But this obviously does not, and could not, go to keeping distinct conspiracies distinct, in view of the court's conception of the case.
"It is not necessary, as a matter of law, that an overt act be charged against each defendant. It is sufficient if the conspiracy be established and the defendant be found to be a member of the conspiracy -- it is sufficient to allege overt acts on the part of any others who may have been members of the conspiracy, if those acts were done in furtherance of, and for the purpose of accomplishing the conspiracy. [Footnote 27] "
On those instructions, it was competent not only for the jury to find that all of the defendants were parties to a single common plan, design and scheme, where none was shown by the proof, but also for them to impute to each defendant the acts and statements of the others without reference to whether they related to one of the schemes proven or another, and to find an overt act affecting all in conduct which admittedly could only have affected some. True, the Court of Appeals painstakingly examined the evidence directly relating to each petitioner and concluded he had not been prejudiced in this manner. [Footnote 28] That judgment was founded largely in the fact that each was clearly shown to have shared in the fraudulent phase of the conspiracy in which he participated. Even so, we do not understand how it can be concluded, in the face of the instruction, that the jury considered and was influenced by nothing else.
Here, toleration went too far. We do not think that either Congress, when it enacted § 269, or this Court, when deciding the Berger case, intended to authorize the Government to string together, for common trial, eight or more separate and distinct crimes, conspiracies related in kind though they might be, when the only nexus among them lies in the fact that one man participated in all. Leeway there must be for such cases as the Berger situation and for others where proof may not accord with exact specifications in indictments. [Footnote 29] Otherwise, criminal conspirators
In so ruling, we are not unmindful, as the Court of Appeals has held more than once, [Footnote 30] that the problem is not merely one of variance between indictment and proof or of the right application of the policy of § 269 for freedom of judgment, but is also essentially one of proper joinder under § 557 of the Criminal Code. When we look at that section's requirement for separate statement in different counts of related but distinct "acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses, which may be properly joined, instead of having several indictments," our conclusion is reinforced.
We have not rested our decision particularly on the fact that the offense charged, and those proved, were conspiracies. That offense is perhaps not greatly different from others when the scheme charged is tight, and the number involved small. But as it is broadened to include more and more, in varying degrees of attachment to the confederation, the possibilities for miscarriage of justice to particular individuals become greater and greater. Cf. Gebardi v. United States, 287 U. S. 112, 287 U. S. 122, n. 7, citing Report of the Attorney General (1925) 5-6, setting out the recommendations of the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges with respect to conspiracy prosecutions. At the outskirts, they are perhaps higher than in any other form of criminal trial our system affords. The greater looseness generally allowed for specifying the offense and its details, for receiving proof, and generally in the conduct of the trial, becomes magnified as the numbers involved increase. Here, if anywhere, cf. Bollenbach v. United States, supra, extraordinary precaution is required not only that instructions shall not mislead, but that they shall scrupulously safeguard each defendant individually, as far as possible, from loss of identity in the mass. Indeed, the instructions often become, in such
295 U.S. at 295 U. S. 80. For a more complete statement of the facts see the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the same case, United States v. Berger, 73 F.2d 278. In that opinion, the court said:
This Court has explicitly considered or applied § 269 in connection with the following criminal cases: Horning v. District of Columbia, 254 U. S. 135; Sinclair v. United States, 279 U. S. 749 (contempt); Aldridge v. United States, 283 U. S. 308, dissenting opinion; Berger v. United States, 295 U. S. 78; Bruno v. United States, 308 U. S. 287; United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150; Weiler v. United States, 323 U. S. 606; Bollenbach v. United States, 326 U. S. 607.
Cf. Horning v. District of Columbia, 254 U. S. 135; Sneierson v. United States, 264 F. 268, 275-277, and see other authorities cited in United States v. Antonelli Fireworks Co., 155 F.2d 631, dissenting opinion, notes 12 and 12a. See also 18 U.S.C. § 556.
This of course presents a question of law. And when the error relates to that minimum so that, if eliminated, the proof would not be sufficient, necessarily the prejudice is substantial. Cf. Tot v. United States, 319 U. S. 463.
Thus, when forced confessions have been received, reversals have followed although, on other evidence, guilt might be taken to be clear. See Malinski v. New York, 324 U. S. 401, 324 U. S. 404; Lyons v. Oklahoma, 322 U. S. 596, 322 U. S. 597, n. 1; Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532, 168 U. S. 540-542; United States v. Mitchell, 137 F.2d 1006, dissenting opinion at 1012.
". . . One may have control of a large amount of counterfeit money, and there may be an agreement that that money shall be distributed, and one may go forth and enlist the services of others in the furtherance of the common plan. But it must be in furtherance of the common plan; there can't be three or four different plans. There must be one plan, and all of them must bear their part."
It is clear that there was error in the charge. An examination of the record in Berger v. United States, 295 U. S. 78, shows that the same erroneous instructions were in fact given in that case. But I do not think the error "substantially injured" (id., p. 295 U. S. 81) the defendants in this case any more than it did in the Berger case.
Moreover, the true picture of the case is not thirty-two defendants engaging in eight or more different conspiracies which were lumped together as one. The jury convicted only four persons in addition to petitioners.* The other defendants and the evidence concerning them were, in effect, eliminated from the case. We have then a case of two closely related conspiracies involving petitioners and two additional conspiracies in which petitioners played no part -- but all of the same character and revolving around the same central figure, Brown. If, then, we look at what actually transpired before the jury, rather than at what the indictment charged, we have a case approaching in its simplicity the Berger case. And the strong and irresistible inference that the jury was not confused is bolstered by their failure to convict six of the thirteen defendants on trial before them.
There are, of course, further possibilities of prejudice. As stated in the Berger case, supra, p. 295 U. S. 82,
But no surprise is shown. The overt acts charged in the indictment against petitioners were those implicating them in the conspiracy in which each participated. All of the overt acts charged were established by the evidence. And it would seem evident on the face of the indictment that petitioners would know that they must be prepared to defend against proof that they conspired with at least one of the other defendants. It is difficult to see how petitioners would be more misled here than if a single conspiracy had been charged, but some of the defendants were not shown to be connected with it. And it is clear that petitioners were adequately protected against a second prosecution. The indictment and the evidence are available to disclose the proof on which the convictions rested. Parole evidence is likewise available to show the subject matter of the former conviction. Bartell v. United States, 227 U. S. 427, 227 U. S. 433.
A conspiracy does not necessarily arise when one person has criminal interactions with two or more p...
Kotteakos was one of several loan applicants on behalf of whom Brown made fraudulent applications fo...