Opinion ID: 345511
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Fifth Circuit on Broadway: The Current Season

Text: 70 Although the foundation established by the government for admitting the credit cards into evidence thus fails the test of Broadway, it might be suggested that the principles of that case should be confined and their force diluted. The theater may be dying, but Broadway retains its vitality. As patrons of the art of evidence we resist any efforts to dim the illumination Broadway has cast on the law of this circuit. The government's attempt to confine Broadway represents no legitimate stage in the evolution of that law, but rather possesses the narrow appeal of many off-Broadway productions. None of our recent cases need give us pause in reaffirming the vitality of United States v. Broadway. 71 In United States v. Blewitt, 538 F.2d 1099 (5th Cir. 1976), the defendant was charged with aiding and abetting one Just in the interstate transportation of two forged checks. We held that evidence of five other allegedly forged checks that were identified as belonging to the same payor, filled in with the unauthorized payee and endorsement, and negotiated during the same time period as the two indictment checks were properly admitted as part of the res gestae despite the fact that it was not clearly shown whether Blewitt or Just had cashed the checks. We distinguished Broadway, in which the prosecution's failure to prove that the defendant had cashed the other forged checks precluded the admission of this other crimes evidence, because Blewitt concerned only a charge of aiding and abetting. This meant that although the government was obliged to show that the offense had been committed by a principal and that Blewitt aided and abetted that principal, it was not necessary that the principal be identified. Id. at 1101, citing Hendrix v. United States, 327 F.2d 971 (5th Cir. 1964). Hence it was unnecessary to show the identity of the person who cashed the five other forged checks. The government thus satisfied Broadway merely by proving that someone uttered the checks and that those checks were part of a fraudulent scheme that Blewitt aided and abetted. 72 Far from limiting Broadway, then, Blewitt extends that case to the offense of aiding and abetting. It is only because the congruent physical elements of the latter crime were easily demonstrated in Blewitt that evidence inadmissible against the principal in Broadway should prove admissible against one who aids and abets. 73 No other case in this circuit has seriously impaired the vitality of Broadway. 20 To the contrary, we have in five recent cases cited the Broadway rule as the law of this circuit. See United States v. Rice, 550 F.2d 1364, 1372 (5th Cir. 1977) (1977); United States v. Myers, supra, 550 F.2d at 1044; United States v. Levine, 546 F.2d 658, 699 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Taglione, supra, 546 F.2d at 199; United States v. Bloom, supra, 538 F.2d at 708. In every one of these cases, the Federal Rules of Evidence were fully applicable. Nevertheless, the issue whether the Federal Rules overrule Broadway has recently been joined. See United States v. Brown, 548 F.2d 1194, 1213-15 (5 Cir.) (Gee, J., dissenting). We turn next to assess the strength of this claim.