Opinion ID: 510047
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Collateral Estoppel/Evidence/Due Process.

Text: 40 Mollier's live-in girlfriend, Elva Lovato, was tried on Counts 26 (unlicensed exportation of speech scramblers), and 27 and 28 (investment of proceeds from illegal narcotics sales), a month before Mollier's trial. The same federal prosecutor had presented that case, and the same district judge had granted a motion for acquittal on those counts in favor of Lovato. Mollier argues that it was therefore impermissible for the government (and the judge) to proceed with his case when similar evidence on the same charges had been found legally insufficient to convict a co-defendant. Mollier cites no legal authority, but contends his right to substantive due process was violated by allowing the government to prejudice him by going forward with charges known to be legally insufficient. 41 The government treats this argument as a collateral estoppel argument, and to some extent this characterization seems correct. But appellant was acquitted on the counts on which he claims the government was collaterally estopped. His real argument, therefore, is that the government improperly brought in evidence on the estopped counts that prejudiced the jury and made his trial unfair. His argument appears to be one part collateral estoppel, one part evidence law, and perhaps one part due process. 42 We thus begin our analysis with a determination of whether non-mutual collateral estoppel--a civil doctrine--can be imported into criminal jurisprudence. 7 The government responds initially by citing Standefer v. United States, 447 U.S. 10, 100 S.Ct. 1999, 64 L.Ed.2d 689 (1980). In that case, the Supreme Court held the civil rule of non-mutual collateral estoppel could not be used against the government by a defendant accused of aiding and abetting a person who had been acquitted in an earlier trial by a jury. 8 43 This case is not quite so simple, however. Mollier's argument is not that the government is estopped by an earlier acquittal by jury of his co-defendant Lovato; after all, the jury in a criminal case (or a judge, for that matter 9 ) is not required to convict a defendant against whom the prosecution raises legally sufficient evidence. Therefore, it would be perfectly consistent and lawful for one jury to acquit one defendant and another jury to convict a second defendant on the very same evidence. Moreover, the jury is permitted to exercise leniency, so that it can even acquit a defendant whom it considers guilty of the crime as charged and convict another on the same crime. 44 None of these considerations is present in this case. Here, a judge had previously determined that the same evidence was legally insufficient to convict a co-defendant. Mollier's argument for non-mutual collateral estoppel against the government is thus more compelling than that of the defendant in Standefer and similar cases involving earlier jury acquittals. Nevertheless, we believe the Court's reasoning in Standefer also precludes application of the doctrine in a situation such as that sub judice. 45 At the outset, some of the reasons given by the Standefer Court do pertain only to prior jury acquittals: Criminal juries are permitted to acquit out of compassion and compromise, while civil juries are not. 447 U.S. at 23, 100 S.Ct. at 2007. Also, that different juries may reach different results under any criminal statute is one of the consequences we accept under our jury system. Id. at 26, 100 S.Ct. at 2009 (quoting Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957)). 46 On the other hand, other reasons set forth in Standefer apply with equal force even when the previous resolution of the issue was by a judgment of acquittal based upon insufficient evidence: That the government cannot appeal from a jury verdict or a denial of its request for a new trial--so even clearly erroneous verdicts are not subject to correction--applies equally to erroneous grants of motions to acquit before the case is submitted to a jury. Id. at 23, 100 S.Ct. at 2007. See also United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 51 L.Ed.2d 642 (1977). 47 Moreover, under complex evidentiary and exclusionary rules, suppression of evidence in a prior case can frequently result in an acquittal of one or more defendants, although the same evidence may be used against other parties to the crime in a second case. If this concern were applied on a case-by-case basis, then the policy justification for collateral estoppel--efficient use of judicial resources--would disappear in a sprawling new form of pretrial litigation over whether the adverse evidentiary ruling in the first trial had deprived the government of its full and fair opportunity to litigate an issue in the second. See Standefer, 447 U.S. at 25, 100 S.Ct. at 2008. Finally, these efficiency concerns that drive the collateral estoppel policy on the civil side are not nearly so important in criminal cases; criminal cases involve a public interest in the accuracy and justice of criminal results that outweigh[s] the economy concerns that undergird the estoppel doctrine. Id. at 26, 100 S.Ct. at 2009. 48 In sum, given the rationale of Standefer, we conclude that non-mutual collateral estoppel has no application in criminal cases. This being so, we need not reach the question of whether the evidence and issues presented in the trial of Lovato are sufficiently similar to those raised in the trial below as to satisfy the requisites for applying collateral estoppel; nor need we determine whether the evidence presented at Mollier's trial would have been admissible even if the government had been estopped from bringing the counts on which the trial judge previously acquitted a co-conspirator.