Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/326/607
Timestamp: 2015-04-19 13:43:52
Document Index: 273482545

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 415', '§ 550', '§ 88', '§ 416', '§ 332', '§ 333', '§ 551', '§ 2490', '§ 391']

BOLLENBACH v. UNITED STATES. | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews BOLLENBACH v. UNITED STATES.
326 U.S. 607 (66 S.Ct. 402, 90 L.Ed. 350)
Argued: Oct. 12—15, 1945.
[HTML] Mr. Bernard Hershkopf, of New York City, for petitioner.
The relevant facts upon which decision must turn are these. Bollenbach, the petitioner, and others were indicted upon two counts: for transporting securities in interstate commerce knowing them to have been stolen (
48 Stat. 794, 18 U.S.C. 415, 18 U.S.C.A. § 415; 35 Stat. 1152, 18 U.S.C. 550, 18 U.S.C.A. § 550) and for conspiring to commit that offense (
35 Stat. 1096, 18 U.S.C. 88, 18 U.S.C.A. § 88). Having been granted a severance, Bollenbach was tried separately. No doubt the securities had been stolen in Minneapolis and were transported to New York. And it is not controverted that Bollenbach helped to dispose of them in New York.
After indulging in further colloquy with counsel, not here pertinent, the judge stated that he had this note of inquiry from the jury: 'If the defendant were aware that bonds which he aided in disposing of were stolen does that knowledge make him guilty on the second count?' In answer the judge instructed the jury as follows: 'Of course if it occurred afterwards it would not make him guilty, but in that connection I say to you that if the possession was shortly after the bonds were stolen, after the theft, it is sufficient to justify the conclusion by you jurors of knowledge by the possessor that the property was stolen. And, just a momentI further charge you that possession of stolen property in another State than that in which it was stolen shortly after the theft raises a presumption that the possessor was the thief and transported stolen property in interstate commerce, but that such presumption is subject to explanation and must be considered with all the testimony in the case.' Counsel for the accused excepted to this charge, but the judge cut short an attempted request by counsel with the remark, 'You may except to the charge but I will not take any requests.' The jury filed out and returned five minutes later with a verdict of guilty on the secondthe conspiracycount. A sentence of two years and a fine of $10,000 were imposed. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment and ordered a new trial. It found error in the charge just quoted. 'Certainly it is untenable to say' was the crux of its holding, 'that the possession of stolen goods raises any presumption that they have in fact been transported in interstate commerce.' 147 F.2d 199, 202. And it held that it could not disregard the error because of the questionable evidence as to whether the accused knew that the bonds had come from another State. But on rehearing the Court's attention was called to the fact that, after his arrest, the accused admitted that he knew that the bonds had come from the West and that he may have had that knowledge before he disposed of them. On further consideration of the bearing of this evidence upon the defendant's knowledge of the place of the theft, the Circuit Court of Appeals changed its view and held that 'it would be altogether unwarranted to reverse the judgment because of the mistake in the charge.' 147 F.2d at page 202.
That Court evidently felt free to disregard 'the mistake in the charge' only on its assumption that Bollenbach could be convicted under this indictment as an accessory after the fact. But Bollenbach was neither charged nor tried nor convicted as an accessory after the fact. The Government did not invoke that theory in the two lo er courts and disavows it here. And rightly so. The receipt of stolen securities after their transportation across State lines was not a federal crime at the time of the transactions in question, and we need not consider the scope of a later amendment making it so. See Act of August 3, 1939, 53 Stat. 1178, 18 U.S.C. 416, 18 U.S.C.A. § 416; H.R.Rep. 422, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. (1939); and S.Rep. 674, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. (1939). Bollenbach could not properly be convicted for the offense for which he was charged and for which he was convicted, namely, for having conspired to transport securities across State lines merely on proof that he was a 'fence,' i.e., helped to dispose of the stolen securities after the interstate transportation was concluded. While § 332 of the Criminal Code, supra, made aiders and abetters of an offense principals, Congress has not made accessories after the fact principals. Their offense is distinct and is differently punished (§ 333 of the Criminal Code, 35 Stat. 1152, 18 U.S.C. 551, 18 U.S.C.A. § 551.)
The Government suggests that the judge's misconceived 'presumption' was 'just what it appears to bea quite cursory, last-minute, instruction on the question of the necessity of knowledge as to the stolen character of the notesand nothing more.' But precisely because it was a 'last-minute instruction' the duty of special care was indicated in replying to a written request for further light on a vital issue by a jury whose foreman reported that they were 'hopelessly deadlocked' after they had been out seven hours. 'In a trial by jury in a federal court, the judge is not a mere moderator, but is the governor of the trial for the purpose of assuring its proper conduct and of determining questions of law.' Quercia v. United States, 289 U.S. 466, 469, 53 S.Ct. 698, 699, 77 L.Ed. 1321. 'The influence of the trial judge on the jury is necessarily and properly of great weight,' Starr v. United States, 153 U.S. 614, 626, 14 S.Ct. 919, 923, 38 L.Ed. 841, and jurors are ever watchful of the words that fall from him. Particularly in a criminal trial, the judge's last word is apt to be the decisive word. If it is a specific ruling on a vital issue and misleading, the error is not cured by a prior unexceptional and unilluminating abstract charge.
The Government argues that the sting of error is extracted because there was proof, other than the erroneous 'presumption', on the issue of Bollenbach's participation in the wrongdoing before the transportation of the stolen securities had ended. This is to disregard the vital fact that for seven hours the jury was unable to find guilt in the light of the main charge, but reached a verdict of guilty under the conspiracy count five minutes after their inquiry was answered by an untenable legal proposition. It would indeed be a long jump at guessing to be confident that the jury did not rely on the erroneous 'presumption' given them as a guide. A charge should not be misleading. See Agnew v. United States, 165 U.S. 36, 52, 17 S.Ct. 235, 241, 41 L.Ed. 624. Legal presumptions involve subtle conceptions to which not even judges always bring clear understanding. See Thayer, Preliminary Treatise on Evidence (1878) Chaps. 8 and 9; Wigmore, Evidence (3d Ed., 1940) §§ 24902540; Morgan, Some Observations Concerning Presumptions (1931) 44 Harv.L.Rev. 906; Denning, Presumptions and Burdens (1945) 61 L.Q.Rev. 379. In view of the Government's insistence that there is abundant evidence to indicate that Bollenbach was implicated in the criminal enterprise from the beginning, it may not be amiss to remind tha the question is not whether guilt may be spelt out of a record, but whether guilt has been found by a jury according to the procedure and standards appropriate for criminal trials in the federal courts.
Accordingly, we cannot treat the manifest misdirection in the circumstances of this case as one of those 'technical errors' which 'do not affect the substantial rights of the parties' and must therefore be disregarded. 40 Stat. 1181, 28 U.S.C. 391, 28 U.S.C.A. § 391. All law is technical if viewed solely from concern for punishing crime without heading the mode by which it is accomplished. The 'technical errors' against which Congress protected jury verdicts are of the kind which led some judges to trivialize law by giving all legal prescriptions equal potency. See Taft, Administration of Criminal Law (1905) 15 Yale L.J. 1, 15. Deviations from formal correctness do not touch the substance of the standards by which guilt is determined in our courts, and it is these that Congress rendered harmless. Bruno v. United States, 308 U.S. 287, 293, 294, 60 S.Ct. 198, 200, 84 L.Ed. 257; Weiler v. United States, 323 U.S. 606, 611, 65 S.Ct. 548, 551, 156 A.L.R. 496.
From presuming too often all errors to be 'prejudicial,' the judicial pendulum need not swing to presuming all errors to be 'harmless' if only the appellate court is left without doubt that one who claims its corrective process is, after all, guilty. In view of the place of importance that trial by jury has in our Bill of Rights, it is not to be supposed that Congress intended to substitute the belief of appellate judges in the guilt of an accused, however, justifiably engendered by the dead record, for ascertainment of guilt by a jury under appropriate judicial guidance, however cumbersome that process may be.
Tot v. United States, 319 U.S. 463, 63 S.Ct. 1241, 87 L.Ed. 1519, held that the mere possession of a pistol coupled with conviction for a prior crime was not evidence proving that the pistol had been shipped or transported in interstate commerce. I agree with the government's contention that the trial court's charge in this case does not conflict with the Tot holding. For the trial court did not charge the jury that interstate transportation of the stolen securities could be inferred from their mere possession in New York. In fact, the undisputed evidence showed that the securities, stolen in Minnesota, turned up in the petitioner's possession in New York very shortly after the theft. No evidence was offered to explain this possession of the stolen goods. Under these circumstances the trial judge rightly charged the jury that the unexplained possession of stolen property shortly after the theft was sufficient to justify a finding that the petitioner not only knew that the bonds were stolen but that he was the thief. Such seems to have been the established rule of law since time immemorial.
Never until today has this Court cast any doubt on the existence or soundness of the rule. In fact it has recognized or expressly approved it as proper in cases involv ng larceny, Dunlop v. United States, 165 U.S. 486, 502, 17 S.Ct. 375, 381, 41 L.Ed. 799; burglary, McNamara v. Henkel, 226 U.S. 520, 524, 525, 33 S.Ct. 146, 147, 148, 57 L.Ed. 330; arson, Wilson v. United States, 162 U.S. 613, 617, 619, 620, 16 S.Ct. 895, 897, 898, 40 L.Ed. 1090; and even murder, Id. And in the Wilson case, supra, this Court approved a charge by the trial court using substantially the same language as to 'presumption,' which the trial court here used.
There is no reason which I can conceive, and the court offers none, why the sensible and long-established rule should be appropriate in all kinds of cases except the one before us. Certainly evidence of the theft of the bonds and their transport in interstate commerce with knowledge of the theft, was relevant on both counts of the indictment, the first charging the theft and transportation, and the second charging conspiracy to commit the crime. And these relevant facts were capable of proof by circumstantial evidence to the same extent as to each count. The 'unexplained possession' rule is in substance a circumstantial evidence rule. The experience of ages has justly given this particular type of circumstantial evidence a high value. In my opinion the trial court's charge insofar as it stated that unexplained possession of the stolen bonds raised a 'presumption' that petitioner was the thief, was a correct statement of law under our former decisions. The Court's opinion does not explicitly repudiate this part of the trial judge's instruction but it seems to me that such repudiation is implicit in the Court's reasoning.
The trial judge's oral charge to the jury was clear, fair, correct, and unchallenged. I disagree with the Court's censure of his additional instructions.
The jury's verdict, given after a fair trial, was supported, if not compelled, by the evidence. It is, in my judgment, a disservice to the administration of criminal law to reverse this case.
See the cases collected in notes on Hunt v. Commonwealth, 70 Am.Dec. 447452, State v. Drew, 101 Am.St.Rep. 481524.
The Court's charge here condemned was that unexplained possession 'raised a presumption.' It may be, although I am not sure, that the condemnation rests on the use of the word 'presumption' instead of 'inference.' And it is true that fine-spun refinements have been invented in efforts to distinguish 'presumptions' from 'inferences,' cf. New York Life Insurance Co. v. Gamer, 303 U.S. 161, 175177, 58 S.Ct. 500, 505, 506, 82 L.Ed. 726, 114 A.L.R. 1218. But I am sure that this jury was not familiar with the dialectics which sought without success to deliver these metaphysical distinctions from foetal darkness. And the notes already cited, as well as many cases, have shown that no such practical distinction exists. See e.g. United States v. Di Carlo, 2 Cir., 64 F.2d 15, 17; United States v. Seeman, 2 Cir., 115 F.2d 371, 374. That the trial judge treated a 'presumption' as an inference, just as any juror would, is shown by an earlier part of his charge as follows: 'It is the law that the unexplained possession of stolen property shortly after the theft is sufficient to justify the conclusion by a jury of knowledge by the possessor that the property was stolen.' And it is interesting to note that this court said in the Wilson case, supra, 162 U.S. at pages 619, 620, 16 S.Ct. at page 898, 40 L.Ed. 1090, that 'In Rickman's case, 2 East P.C. 1035, cited, it was held that, on an indictment for arson, proof that property was in the house at the time it was burned, and was soon afterwards found in the possession of the prisoner, raises a probable presumption that he was present and concerned in the offense; and, in Rex v. Diggles, Wills Cir.Ev. *53, that there is a like presumption in the case of murder accompanied by robbery. Proof that defendant had in his possession, soon after, articles apparently taken from the deceased at the time of his death, is always admissible; and the fact, with its legitimate inference, is to be considered by the jury along with the other facts in the case in arriving at their verdict.' (Italics supplied.)