Source: http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/399/267/case.html
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 6', '§ 3731', '§ 3731', '§ 3731', '§ 34', '§ 3731', '§ 3731']

United States v. Sisson - 399 U.S. 267 (1970) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
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United States v. Sisson - 399 U.S. 267 (1970)
Case	U.S. Supreme CourtUnited States v. Sisson, 399 U.S. 267 (1970)United States v. SissonNo. 305Argued January 20-21, 1970Decided June 29, 1970399 U.S. 267APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
Appellee was indicted for willfully failing to report for induction as ordered by his local draft board. He moved to dismiss the indictment because (1) the involvement in Vietnam violated international law, (2) he "reasonably believed the government's involvement in Vietnam to be illegal," (3) the Selective Service Act and its regulations were unconstitutional, as the local boards' procedures lacked due process, and (4) compulsory conscription in peacetime was unnecessary, and stifled fundamental liberties. The District Judge dismissed the motion, and the case proceeded to trial. The instructions to the jury made no reference to a conscientious objector claim, or to whether the appellee was "sincere" in his beliefs, but advised the jury that the crux of the case was whether appellee's refusal was "unlawful, knowingly, and willfully" done. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. Thereafter, appellee made a motion under Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 34 to arrest the judgment on the ground that the District Court lacked jurisdiction. The District Court, in granting what it termed a motion in arrest of judgment, ruled not on the jurisdictional contention, but on appellee's "older contention" that the indictment could not charge an offense based on the Establishment, Free Exercise, and Due Process Clause arguments relating to conscientious objections to the Vietnam conflict. The court stated the facts of the case and described how appellee's demeanor on the stand convinced the judge of his sincerity. The court held that the Free Exercise and Due Process Clauses prohibited application of the Draft Act to appellee to require him to fight in Vietnam because, as a "sincerely conscientious man," his interest in not killing in Vietnam outweighed "the country's present need for him to be so employed." The court also ruled that § 6(j) of the Selective Service Act violates the Establishment Clause. The Government bases its claim that this Court has jurisdiction to review the case on the "arresting judgment" provision of 18 U.S.C. § 3731, which provides that an appeal may be taken to the Supreme Court from a decision (1) arresting a judgment of conviction, (2) for insufficiency of the indictment or information, (3) where such decision Page 399 U. S. 268 is based upon the invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment or information is founded.
(a) A motion in bar cannot be granted on the basis of facts that would necessarily be tried with the general issue in the case, and, here, the District Judge based his findings on evidence presented in the trial of the general issue. Pp. 399 U. S. 301-302. Page 399 U. S. 269
The Government seeks to appeal to this Court a decision by a District Court in Massachusetts holding that appellee Sisson could not be criminally convicted for refusing induction into the Armed Forces. The District Court's opinion was bottomed on what that court understood Page 399 U. S. 270 to be Sisson's rights of conscience as a nonreligious objector to the Vietnam war, but not wars in general, under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The District Court's primary conclusion, reached after a full trial, was that the Constitution prohibited "the application of the 1967 draft act to Sisson to require him to render combat service in Vietnam" because, as a "sincerely conscientious man," Sisson's interest in not killing in the Vietnam conflict outweighed "the country's present need for him to be so employed," 297 F.Supp. 902, 910 (1969).
The District Court characterized its own decision as an arrest of judgment, and the Government seeks review here pursuant to the "arresting judgment" provision of the Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3731, an Act that narrowly limits the Government's right to appeal in criminal cases to certain types of decisions. On October 13, 1969, this Court entered an order postponing further consideration of the question of jurisdiction to the hearing of the case on the merits, 396 U.S. 812 (1969). For reasons that we elaborate in what follows, we conclude that the decision below, depending as it does on facts developed at Sisson's trial, is not an arrest of judgment, but, instead, is a directed acquittal. As such, it is not a decision that the Government can appeal. Consequently, this appeal must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction without our considering the merits of this case. We, of course, intimate no view concerning the correctness of the legal theory by which the District Court evaluated the facts developed at the trial. [Footnote 1] Page 399 U. S. 271
"At the time I refused to submit to induction into the armed forces, I believed, as I believe today, that the United States military involvement in Vietnam is illegal under international law as well as under the Constitution and treaties of the United States. I believed then, and still believe, that my participation in that war would violate the spirit and the letter of the Nuremberg Charter. On the basis of my knowledge of that war, I could not participate in it without doing violence to the dictates of my conscience. "Page 399 U. S. 272
A short time after this hearing, the District Court issued two written opinions, 294 F.Supp. 511 and 515 (1968), that denied the other grounds of the motion to dismiss. After determining that appellee had the requisite standing to raise the issues involved, the court held that the political question doctrine foreclosed consideration of whether Congress could constitutionally draft for Page 399 U. S. 273 an undeclared war, or could order Sisson to fight in the allegedly "genocidal war."
At the trial, however, it appears that defense counsel did not try to prove that Sisson should have received a conscientious objector exemption, nor did he request a ruling on the First Amendment issues referred to by the trial court. Instead, it seems that the defense strategy was to prove that Sisson believed the Vietnam war to be illegal under domestic and international law, and that this belief was reasonable. If unable to get a direct adjudication of the legality of the war, the defense at least Page 399 U. S. 274 hoped to convince the jury that Sisson lacked the requisite intent to "willfully" refuse induction. [Footnote 2]
The prosecution did not allow Sisson's testimony to stand without cross-examination. In apparent reliance Page 399 U. S. 275 on the court's pretrial ruling that Sisson's beliefs concerning the war were irrelevant to the question of whether his refusal to submit to induction was willful, [Footnote 3] the government counsel concentrated on showing that Sisson had refused induction deliberately, of his own free will, and knowing the consequences. The prosecution also brought out that Sisson had failed to appeal his I-A classification when it had been issued, and that he had accepted, as an undergraduate, a II-S student classification.
In the final arguments to the jury, just as in the opening statements, neither counsel mentioned a religious or nonreligious conscientious objector issue. The defense argued that the key to the case was whether Sisson had "willfully" refused to submit to induction, and tried to suggest his beliefs about the war were relevant to this. The government lawyer simply pointed out the operative facts of Sisson's refusal. He also attacked Sisson's sincerity by pointing out the inconsistency between Sisson's broad statements that he opposed deferments because they discriminated against the poor, Page 399 U. S. 276 see n 2, supra, and his willingness to accept a II-S deferment while he was at Harvard College. (See App. 187-188.)
After the trial, the defendant made a timely motion under Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 34 to arrest the judgment on the ground that the District Court lacked jurisdiction. [Footnote 5] Pointing to the fact that the District Court had ruled before the trial that the political question doctrine prevented its consideration of defenses requiring an adjudication of the legality of the Vietnam war, the defense Page 399 U. S. 277 argued that the court therefore lacked jurisdiction under Article III and the Due Process Clause to try the defendant for an offense to which the illegality of the war might provide a defense.
The court first stated the facts of the case, in effect making findings essential to its decision. The opinion Page 399 U. S. 278 describes how Sisson's demeanor on the stand convinced the court of his sincerity. The court stated that
The Government bases its claim that this Court has jurisdiction to review the District Court's decision exclusively on the "arresting judgment" provision of the Page 399 U. S. 279 Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3731. [Footnote 7] The relevant statutory language provides:
"* * * *" "From a decision arresting a judgment of conviction for insufficiency of the indictment or information, where such decision is based upon the invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment or information is founded."
Thus, three requirements must be met for this Court to have jurisdiction under this provision. First, the decision of the District Court must be one "arresting a judgment of conviction." Second, the arrest of judgment Page 399 U. S. 280 must be for the "insufficiency of the indictment or information." And third, the decision must be "based upon the invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment or information is founded." [Footnote 8]
We begin with the first requirement: was the decision below one "arresting a judgment of conviction"? In using that phrase in the Criminal Appeals Act, Congress did not, of course, invent a new procedural classification. Instead, Congress acted against a common law background that gave the statutory phrase a well defined and limited meaning. An arrest of judgment was the technical term describing the act of a trial judge refusing to enter judgment on the verdict because of an error appearing on the face of the record that rendered the judgment Page 399 U. S. 281 invalid. 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *393; 3 H. Stephen, New Commentaries on the Laws of England 628 (1st Am. ed. 1845); 2 J. Bishop, New Criminal Procedure 1285 (2d ed.1913).
For the purpose of this case, the critical requirement is that a judgment can be arrested only on the basis of error appearing on the "face of the record," and not on the basis of proof offered at trial. [Footnote 10] This requirement can be found in early English common law cases. In Sutton v. Bishop, 4 Burr. 2283, 2287, 98 Eng.Rep. 191, 193 (K.B. 1769), it was stated: "[T]he Court ought not to arrest judgments upon matters not appearing upon the face of the record, but are to judge upon the record itself." Once transported to the United States, [Footnote 11] this essential limitation of arrests of judgment was explicitly acknowledged by this Court. In United States v. Klintock, 5 Wheat. 144, 18 U. S. 149 (1820), the Court stated that "judgment can be arrested only for errors apparent on the record." And later, in Bond v. Dustin, 112 U. S. 604 (1884), the Court said,
id. at 112 U. S. 608. See Carter v. Bennett, 15 How. 354, 56 U. S. 356-357 (1854); United States v. Norris, 281 U. S. 619 (1930).
This venerable requirement of the common law has been preserved under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, for the courts have uniformly held that, in granting Page 399 U. S. 282 a motion in arrest of judgment under Rule 34, [Footnote 12] a district court must not look beyond the face of the record. E.g., United States v. Zisblatt, 172 F.2d 740 (C.A.2d Cir.), appeal dismissed on Government's motion, 336 U.S. 934 (1949); United States v. Lias, 173 F.2d 685 (C.A.4th Cir.1949); United States v. Bradford, 194 F.2d 137 (C.A.2d Cir.1952). See 2 C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure 571 (1969); 5 L. Orfield, Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules § 34:7 (1967). Therefore, whether we interpret the statutory phrase "decision arresting a judgment" as speaking "to the law, as it then was [in 1907] . . . as it had come down from the past," [Footnote 13] or do no more than interpret it as simply imposing the standards of Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 34, [Footnote 14] a decision based on evidence adduced at trial cannot be one arresting judgment. [Footnote 15] Page 399 U. S. 283
To avoid the inescapable conclusion that the District Court's opinion was not an arrest of judgment, the Government makes two arguments. First, the Government suggests that these factual findings of the District Court, based on the evidence presented at trial, were not essential to its constitutional rulings, but instead only part of "the circumstantial framework" of the opinion below. (Jurisdictional Statement 9; see Brief 8.) This Page 399 U. S. 284 cannot withstand analysis, however, for the factual findings were absolutely essential, under the District Court's own legal theory, to its disposition of the case. Without a finding that Sisson was sincerely and fundamentally opposed to participation in the Vietnam conflict, the District Court could not have ruled that under the Due Process and Free Exercise Clauses Sisson's interest in not serving in Vietnam outweighed the Government's need to draft him for such service. [Footnote 16]
Second, the Government argues that, even though the District Court made findings on evidence adduced at trial, the facts relied on were "undisputed." Adopting the language used by the court below, the Government claims that, "in substance, the case arises upon an agreed statement of facts." 297 F.Supp. at 904. The Government then goes on to argue that decisions of this Court have "recognized that a stipulation of facts by the parties in a criminal case" can be relied on by the District Court without affecting the jurisdiction for an appeal, citing United States v. Halseth, 342 U. S. 277 (1952), and United States v. Fruehauf, 365 U.S. Page 399 U. S. 285 146 (1961). The Government then concludes that it would be exalting form over substance to hold there was no appeal in a case where the Government has not contested the facts, and yet allow an appeal to lie from a motion to dismiss resting upon a stipulation of the parties.
"stipulation Page 399 U. S. 286 was ineffective to import an issue as to the sufficiency of the indictment, or an issue of fact upon the question of guilt or innocence,"
We do not decide that issue, however, for there was nothing even approaching a stipulation here. Before the court's final ruling below, the parties did not in any way, formally or informally, agree on the factual findings made in its opinion. It is relevant to recall that, before the trial the government attorney specifically refused to stipulate whether Sisson sincerely believed the war to be illegal, and, if so, whether such a belief was reasonable. Moreover, given that the government attorney cross-examined Sisson, and later pointed out the inconsistency between Sisson's acceptance of a II-S student deferment and his claim that he disapproved of deferments as unfair, it hardly seems the Government accepted Sisson's sincerity insofar as it was an issue in the case. Therefore, far from being like a case with a formal stipulation between the parties, the most that can be said is that, after the District Court's decision, the Government chose to accept the opinion's findings of fact. Even assuming reliance on a formal stipulation were permissible, Page 399 U. S. 287 it would still be intolerable to allow direct review whenever the District Court labels its decision a motion in arrest, and the Government merely accepts the lower court's factual findings made after a trial -- for this would mean the parties and the lower court simply could foist jurisdiction upon this Court.
41 Cong.Rec. 2756. (Emphasis supplied.) See also 40 Cong.Rec. 9033. Although the District Court's opinion recites as a conclusion that the indictment in this case did "not charge an offense" for purposes of Rule 34, surely the indictment alleged the necessary elements of an offense. [Footnote 17] The decision Page 399 U. S. 288 below rests on affirmative defenses which the court thought Sisson could claim because of his beliefs. It has never been thought that an indictment, in order to be sufficient, need anticipate affirmative defenses, United States v. Fargas, 267 F.Supp. 452, 455 (D.C. S.D.N.Y.1967) ("Any questions as to the validity of the local board's refusal to grant conscientious objector exemption are matters of defense . . . [that] [t]here is no necessity for the indictment to negate. . . ."). Moreover, even assuming, arguendo, the correctness of the District Court's constitutional theory that sincere nonreligious objectors to particular wars have a constitutional privilege that bars conviction, the facts essential to Sisson's claim of this privilege do not appear from any recitals in the indictment. As the District Court itself said before trial, "[W]hat [Sisson] believed is a question of evidence, and not a question which appears on the face of the indictment." (App. 52.) In short, this indictment cannot be taken as insufficient, for, on the one hand, it recites the necessary elements of an offense, and, on the other hand, it does not allege facts that themselves demonstrate the availability of a constitutional privilege.
The same reason underlying our conclusion that this was not a decision arresting judgment -- i.e., that the disposition is bottomed on factual conclusions not found in the indictment, but instead made on the basis of evidence adduced at the trial -- convinces us that the decision was, in fact, an acquittal rendered by the trial court after the jury's verdict of guilty. Page 399 U. S. 289
"* * * *" "The Government takes the risks of all the mistakes of its prosecuting officers and of the trial judge in the trial, and it is only proposed to give it an appeal upon questions of law raised by the defendant to defeat the trial and if it defeats the trial."
"not be reviewed, on error or otherwise, without putting [the defendant] twice in jeopardy, and thereby violating the Constitution. . . . [I]n this country, a verdict of acquittal, although not followed by Page 399 U. S. 290 any judgment, is a bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offence,"
There are three differences between the hypothetical case just suggested and the case at hand. First, in this case, it was the judge -- not the jury -- who made the factual determinations. This difference alone does not support a legal distinction, however, for judges, like juries, can acquit defendants, see Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 29. Second, the judge in this case made his decision after the jury had brought in a verdict of guilty. Rules 29(b) and (c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, however, expressly allow a federal judge to acquit a criminal defendant after the jury "returns a verdict of guilty." And third, in this case, the District Judge labeled his post-verdict opinion an arrest of judgment, not an acquittal. This characterization alone, however, neither confers jurisdiction on this Court, see n 7, supra, nor makes the opinion any less dependent upon evidence adduced at the trial. In short, we see no distinction between what the court below did and a post-verdict directed acquittal. [Footnote 19] Page 399 U. S. 291
The dissenting opinions of both THE CHIEF JUSTICE and MR. JUSTICE WHITE suggest that we are too niggardly in our interpretation of the Criminal Appeals Act, and each contends that the Act should be more broadly construed to give effect to an underlying policy that is said to favor review. This Court has frequently stated that the "exceptional right of appeal given to the Government by the Criminal Appeals Act is strictly limited to the instances specified," United States v. Borden Co., 308 U. S. 188, 308 U. S. 192 (1939), and that such appeals "are something unusual, exceptional, not favored," Carroll v. United States, 354 U. S. 394, 354 U. S. 400 (1957); see United States v. Keitel, 211 U. S. 370, 211 U. S. 39 (1908); United States v. Dickinson, 213 U. S. 92, 213 U. S. 103 (1909); cf. Will v. United States, 389 U. S. 90, 389 U. S. 96 (1967). The approach suggested by our Brothers seems inconsistent with these notions. Moreover, the background and legislative history of the Criminal Appeals Act demonstrate the compromise origins of the Act that justify the principle of strict construction this Court has always said should be placed on its provisions. Because the Criminal Appeals Act, Page 399 U. S. 292 now 18 U.S.C. § 3731 (1964 ed., Supp. IV), [Footnote 20] has descended unchanged in substance from the original Criminal Appeals Act, which was enacted on March 2, 1907, 34 Stat. 1246, [Footnote 21] the crucial focus for this inquiry must be the legislative history of the 1907 Act. [Footnote 22] Page 399 U. S. 293
There was no progress, however, until President Theodore Roosevelt, outraged by a decision of Page 399 U. S. 294 Judge Humphrey preventing the prosecution of the Beef Trust, [Footnote 25] made this proposed reform into a "major political issue," [Footnote 26] and demanded the enactment of legislation in his 1906 annual message to Congress. [Footnote 27]
The House, as one commentator has written, "was obedient to the presidential command." [Footnote 28] It passed, without debate, [Footnote 29] a very broad bill giving the Government the same right to appeal legal issues decided adversely to it as had earlier been accorded a criminal defendant. [Footnote 30] The Senate would not accept any such sweeping change of the traditional common law rule giving the Government no appeal at all. The substitute bill that the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out [Footnote 31] narrowed the House bill substantially, and limited the Government's right to appeal to writs of error from decisions (1) quashing an indictment or sustaining a demurrer to an indictment; (2) arresting judgment of conviction because of the insufficiency of the indictment, and (3) sustaining special pleas in bar when the defendant had not been put in jeopardy. Even as narrowed, Page 399 U. S. 295 the bill met opposition on the floor, [Footnote 32] and the session closed without Senate action. [Footnote 33]
The next session, after the bill was again reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, [Footnote 34] it was debated for three days on the floor, and again met strong opposition. [Footnote 35] Reflecting the deep concern that the legislation not jeopardize interests of defendants whose cases were appealed by the Government, amendments were adopted requiring the Government to appeal within 30 days and to prosecute its cases with diligence, [Footnote 36] and allowing defendants whose cases were appealed to be released on their own recognizance in the discretion of the presiding judge. [Footnote 37] Various Senators were particularly concerned lest there be any possibility that a defendant who had already been through one trial be subjected to another trial after a successful appeal by the Government. [Footnote 38] In response to this concern, an amendment was then adopted requiring that a verdict in favor of the defendant not be set aside on appeal [Footnote 39] no matter how erroneous the legal theory upon which it might be based. [Footnote 40] For these purposes, it was made plain that it made no difference whether the verdict be the result of the jury's decision or that of the judge. [Footnote 41] Moreover, as we explore in more detail later, Page 399 U. S. 296 the debates suggest that, apart from decisions arresting judgment, there were to be no appeals taken in any case in which jeopardy had attached by the impaneling of the jury. [Footnote 42] Finally, to limit further the scope of the Act to cases of public importance, the Government's right to appeal (under all but the special plea in bar provision) was confined to cases in which the ground of the District Court's decision was the "invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment is founded." [Footnote 43]
With this perspective, we now examine the arguments made in opposition to our conclusion. It is argued in Page 399 U. S. 297 dissent that § 3731 "contemplates that an arrest of judgment is appropriate in other than a closed category of cases defined by legal history," and concludes that
Radical reinterpretations of the statutory phrase "decision arresting a judgment?" are said to be necessary in order to effectuate a broad policy, found to be underlying the Criminal Appeals Act, that this Court review important legal issues. The axiom that courts should endeavor to give statutory language that meaning that nurtures the policies underlying legislation is one that Page 399 U. S. 298 guides us when circumstances not plainly covered by the terms of a statute are subsumed by the underlying policies to which Congress was committed. Care must be taken, however, to respect the limits up to which Congress was prepared to enact a particular policy, especially when the boundaries of a statute are drawn as a compromise resulting from the countervailing pressures of other policies. Our disagreeing Brothers, in seeking to energize the congressional commitment to review, ignore the subtlety of the compromise that limited our jurisdiction, thereby garnering the votes necessary to enact the Criminal Appeals Act. [Footnote 50]
In this regard, the legislative history reveals a strong current of congressional solicitude for the plight of a criminal defendant exposed to additional expense and anxiety by a government appeal and the incumbent possibility of multiple trials. Criminal appeals by the Government "always threaten to offend the policies behind the double jeopardy prohibition," Will v. United States, supra, at 389 U. S. 96, even in circumstances where the Constitution itself does not bar retrial. Out of a collision between this policy concern and the comp