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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2239', '§ 2241', '§ 66', '§ 2239', '§ 2422', '§ 2421', '§ 2422', '§ 2421', '§ 2422', '§ 1328', '§ 2421', '§ 2421']

WYATT V. UNITED STATES, 362 U. S. 525 (1960) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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WYATT V. UNITED STATES, 362 U. S. 525 (1960)
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Petitioner was tried and convicted of knowingly transporting a woman in interstate commerce for the purpose chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
First. Our decision in Hawkins established, for the federal courts, the continued validity of the common law rule of evidence ordinarily permitting a party to exclude the adverse testimony of his or her spouse. However, as that case expressly acknowledged, the common law has long recognized an exception in the case of certain kinds of offenses committed by the party against his spouse. Id. at 358 U. S. 75, citing 38 U. S. 221. Exploration of the precise breadth of this exception, a matter of some uncertainty, see@ 8 Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed.), § 2239, can await a case where it is necessary. For present purposes, it is enough to note that every Court of Appeals which has considered the specific question now holds that the exception, and not the rule, applies to a Mann Act prosecution, where the defendant's wife was the victim of the offense. [Footnote 2] Such unanimity with respect chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Second. The witness wife, however, did not testify willingly, but objected to being questioned by the prosecution, and gave evidence only upon the ruling of the District Court denying her claimed privilege not to testify. We therefore consider the correctness of that ruling. [Footnote 3] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
While the question has not often arisen, it has apparently been generally assumed that the privilege resided in the witness as well as in the party. Hawkins referred to "a rule which bars the testimony of one spouse against the other unless both consent," supra, at 358 U. S. 78. (Emphasis supplied.) See Stein v. Bowman, supra, 13 Pet. at 38 U. S. 223 (wife cannot "by force of authority be compelled to state facts in evidence"); United States v. Mitchell, supra, 137 F.2d 1008 ("the better view is that the privilege is that of either spouse who chooses to claim it"); Wigmore, op. cit., supra, § 2241; McCormick, Evidence, § 66, n. 3. In its chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Where a man has prostituted his own wife, he has committed an offense against both her and the marital relation, and we have today affirmed the exception disabling him from excluding her testimony against him. It is suggested, however, that this exception has no application to the witness wife when she chooses to remain silent. The exception to the party's privilege, it is said, rests on the necessity of preventing the defendant from sealing his wife's lips by his own unlawful act, see United States v. Mitchell, supra, 137 F.2d 1008-1009; Wigmore, op cit., supra, § 2239, and it is argued that where the wife has chosen chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We must view this position in light of the congressional judgment and policy embodied in the Mann Act. "A primary purpose of the Mann Act was to protect women who were weak from men who were bad." Denning v. United States, 247 F.4d 3, 465. It was in response to shocking revelations of subjugation of women too weak to resist that Congress acted. See H.R.Rep. No. 47, 61st Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 10-11. As the legislative history discloses, the Act reflects the supposition that the women with whom it sought to deal often had no independent will of their own, and embodies, in effect, the view that they must be protected against themselves. Compare 18 U.S.C. § 2422 (consent of woman immaterial in prosecution under that section). It is not for us to reexamine the basis of that supposition.
Fourth. What we have already said likewise governs the disposition of the petitioner's reliance on the fact that his marriage took place after the commission of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
United States v. Mitchell, 137 F.2d 1006; Levine v. United States, 163 F.2d 992; Shores v. United States, 174 F.2d 838, overruling Johnson v. United States, 221 F.2d 0; Pappas v. United States, 241 F.6d 5; Hayes v. United States, 168 F.2d 996.
Last Term, this Court held that a wife could not voluntarily testify against her husband in a criminal prosecution over his objection. Hawkins v. United States, 358 U. S. 74. The Court finds the case at bar so different from Hawkins that it approves overriding not only the husband's objection, but also the wife's. In both cases, the husband was prosecuted for violation of the Mann Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2421. The only relevant difference is that here, the wife herself was the person allegedly transported by the husband for purposes of prostitution. Morally speaking, this profanation of the marriage relationship adds an element of the utmost depravity to the ugly business of promoting prostitution. Legally speaking, however, this does not warrant the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court's analysis of the problem here presented is sound in so many ways that the unsoundness of its conclusion is especially disappointing -- and somewhat curious. Briefly, that analysis appears to be as follows: the Court accepts the principle that the spousal privilege belongs both to the person charged with the offense, as we held in Hawkins, and also to the witness. Moreover, the Court rejects the notion that the latter may be barred from asserting the privilege simply because, in a given case, it may be improper for the former to invoke it. The defendant may not claim the privilege where he is charged with "certain kinds of offenses committed . . . against his spouse," and the Court believes that the instant case involves this type of crime. It apparently recognizes, moreover, that the policy behind this exception may be effectuated in the ordinary situation by giving the injured party the option to testify, without compelling her to testify. [Footnote 2/1] In this case, however, it concludes chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In support of this hypothesis, the Court cites legislative history and the fact that, under 18 U.S.C. § 2422, a companion provision to § 2421, the consent of the woman does not relieve the defendant of criminal responsibility. [Footnote 2/3] This equation of the legislative judgment involved in fashioning a criminal statute with the judgment involved in the Court's restriction of the husband-wife privilege is, I submit, entirely too facile, for it overlooks the critically different nature of these problems. In assessing the pertinence of the woman's consent to the culprit's criminal responsibility, Congress chose between the interest of society in eradicating the importation and interstate transportation of prostitutes and the interest of women to be protected from clever and unscrupulous profiteers, on the one hand, and the voluntary engagement of women in prostitution, on the other. In view of the manifest imbalance of these competing considerations and the difficulty of definition and proof of the type of consent which might conceivably be relevant, it is hardly surprising that Congress passed the Mann Act and made consent entirely immaterial under § 2422. The testimonial privilege, however, presents questions of quite a different order, since there is a significant interest traditionally regarded as supporting the privilege, as we recognized in Hawkins -- the preservation of the conjugal relationship. And where the wife refuses to testify, there is strong evidence that there is still a marital relationship to be protected. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
8 Wigmore, Evidence, 227. That this decision is uniquely legislative, and not judicial, is demonstrated by the fact that, both in England and in this country, changes in the common law privilege have been wrought primarily by legislatures. [Footnote 2/4] And perhaps chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Of particular interest is the past action and attitude of Congress with respect to the privilege. As the Court chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
pointed out in Hawkins, in 1887, Congress passed a statute which permitted either spouse to testify in prosecutions of the other for the crimes of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, but stipulated that neither should be compelled to testify. 24 Stat. 635. Apparently Congress believed that this provision gave sufficient protection to the spouse-witness, and that the interest of the State in securing convictions was outweighed by the considerations supporting the right of the spouse-witness not to testify against her will. Even more in point is the 1917 legislation by which Congress made spouses competent to testify against each other in prosecutions for the importation of aliens for immoral purposes. 39 Stat. 878-879, reenacted as 66 Stat. 230, 8 U.S.C. § 1328. Thus, Congress has acted with respect to the scope of the privilege in prosecutions under a statute kindred to § 2421, but has remained silent so far as § 2421 itself is concerned. The negative implication does not require elaboration. [Footnote 2/6] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
See the sources cited in 362 U. S. supra. To be sure, the privilege has been strongly attacked by commentators, most of whom rely upon Wigmore's treatise. Wigmore's lengthy criticism of the privilege is best summarized in his own words:
The nature of relevant action by Congress and by the state legislatures, see 362 U. S. supra, distinguishes this case from Funk v. United States, 290 U. S. 371, which held that one spouse was competent to testify on behalf of the other in a criminal trial. As the Court there pointed out, the disqualification was based upon interest, and