Opinion ID: 410286
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Goldstein, The Passive Judiciary: Prosecutorial Discretion and the Guilty Plea 57 (1981).

Text: 12 As reflected in the transcript, one of the court's major concerns was the dragnet effect of complex conspiracy cases and the ability of a jury to digest and comprehend the evidence relevant to the defendant. See Excerpt of Record at 62-63 13 The District Court recognized that when broken down into smaller conspiracies, indictments against some of the defendants may not result in proper venue in the Nevada District Court. See Excerpt of Record at 383-84 (Order dismissing the indictment against Gonsalves) 14 The Government cites other cases which it claims support its argument that the District Court's exercise of supervisory power in this case was improper: United States v. Wilson, 614 F.2d 1224 (9th Cir.1980), United States v. Welch, 572 F.2d 1359 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 842, 99 S.Ct. 133, 58 L.Ed.2d 140 (1978); United States v. Hall, 559 F.2d 1160 (9th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 942, 98 S.Ct. 1523, 55 L.Ed.2d 539 (1978). Olson, however, while not controlling, is clearly the most relevant to the instant case. It is the only case cited by the Government that addresses the issue of the United States Attorney presenting unmanageable and overly-burdensome indictments to the courts Hall involved a defendant who had already served a one-year term for smuggling which had been granted on the condition that he consent to the entry of a civil decree of forfeiture of the merchandise. Defendant appealed and secured a dismissal of the indictment after which he was reindicted for the same offense. The District Court dismissed the indictment on the ground that it would be unconscionable to proceed further and retry the defendant. The appellate panel held, inter alia, that unconscionability was not a proper basis for the District Court's exercise of its inherent supervisory power since there was Ninth Circuit authority to the effect that merciful inclinations were not a sufficient basis for substituting judicial discretion for prosecutorial discretion in dismissing an indictment. See United States v. Real, 446 F.2d 40 (9th Cir.1971). Moreover, the court noted that the Supreme Court had approved of reindictment and retrial under circumstances analogous to the case before it in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). The case at bar, on the other hand, does not involve any issue of unconscionability or merciful inclinations. Moreover, unlike the situation in Hall, there is no controlling authority on the issue of unmanageability. Finally, in Hall and Real the trial court sought to prevent the indictment of the defendant; the trial court in the instant case simply refused to allow the prosecution of Gonsalves pursuant to this indictment. In Welch, the defendant was convicted in federal district court of unlawfully transporting a firearm in interstate commerce and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. He appealed on the ground that it was against Justice Department internal policy to try him in federal court for the same act on which he had already been indicted (later dismissed) in state court. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, relying on a prior Ninth Circuit case which had held that a federal court has no authority to determine whether a federal prosecution violates an in-house policy of the Attorney General. Wilson also involved a defendant who challenged her conviction on the ground that the United States Attorney's Office contravened its own guidelines, in this case by serving a forthwith subpoena on her only two hours before she was to appear before a grand jury. The court of appeals, relying in part on Welch, held that the guidelines in the United States Attorney's Manual do not have the force of law. Moreover, on a practical level the court held that the use of the forthwith subpoena under the facts before it was not an abuse of discretion. Welch and Wilson obviously provide no authority for the resolution of the issues presented in this case. 15 See note 14, supra