Opinion ID: 454551
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Recantation under Section 1623(d)

Text: 26 Defendant's next contention on appeal is that the district court erred in denying both his motion to dismiss the perjury count and his motion for reconsideration on the same grounds. Defendant contends that his prosecution for perjury under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623(a) 5 was barred as a matter of law. 27 The Government had alleged that the defendant made two statements during his testimony at the stolen-property trial that were false. These two statements, which served as the basis for defendant's prosecution under section 1623(a), were: (1) that he had purchased only 35 chairs from the seller, and (2) that he did not know the chairs were stolen at the time he purchased them. Initially, defendant argues that the first of these two statements was not a proper basis for a perjury conviction because it was not material. 28 To be punishable under section 1623(a), a false statement must be material to the court proceeding in which it is made. United States v. Goguen, 723 F.2d 1012, 1019 (1st Cir.1983); United States v. Finucan, 708 F.2d 838, 848 (1st Cir.1983). Materiality is a legal question to be decided by the trial court. United States v. Kehoe, 562 F.2d 65, 68 (1st Cir.1977); United States v. Romanow, 509 F.2d 26, 28 (1st Cir.1975). In this case, the district court determined, as a matter of law, that defendant's statement regarding the number of chairs he had purchased was material to the proceeding. 6 29 Defendant argues that the court's determination was error because the difference between the number of chairs he admitted to having received and the number alleged by the Government was irrelevant to any element of the stolen-property offense for which he was indicted. 7 Nevertheless, the test for materiality is a broad one. United States v. Byrnes, 644 F.2d 107, 111 (2d Cir.1981); United States v. Giarratano, 622 F.2d 153, 156 (5th Cir.1980). A statement is material if it is capable of influencing the tribunal on the issue before it. Giarratano, 622 F.2d at 156. The statement need not be material to any particular issue in the case, but rather may be material to any proper matter of the jury's inquiry, id., including the issue of credibility. United States v. Allen, 409 F.Supp. 562, 565 (E.D.Va.1975), aff'd, 541 F.2d 278 (4th Cir.1976). 30 In this case, defendant's testimony regarding the number of chairs he purchased was material, though it was not relevant to the issue of whether the value of the property he purchased satisfied statutory requirements. Rather, the testimony was relevant to the jury's consideration of defendant's credibility, as well as that of the Government's witnesses. Defendant's statement that he received only 35 chairs directly contradicted the testimony of several Government witnesses. If the jury believed this statement, it would have tended to disbelieve some of the testimony given by the Government's witnesses. Thus, the trial court did not err in instructing the jury that this statement was material within the meaning of section 1623(a). 31 Defendant further argues that, assuming the two false statements he made while testifying at his stolen-property trial were material, he effectively recanted those statements so as to bar his prosecution for perjury under section 1623. Following defendant's testimony in the stolen-property trial, the Government informed him that it had tape recordings of the meeting during which his codefendant, Marrapese, tried to persuade William Smith to commit perjury. At that point, defendant decided to change his plea in the case from not guilty to guilty. Defendant now contends that his guilty plea was an admission that his prior testimony in the trial was false to the extent it contradicted the Government's evidence. Such admission, he argues, was the type of recantation which, under section 1623(d), bars prosecution for perjury. Section 1623(d) states: 32 (d) Where, in the same continuous court or grand jury proceeding in which a declaration is made, the person making the declaration admits such declaration to be false, such admission shall bar prosecution under this section if, at the time the admission is made, the declaration has not substantially affected the proceeding, or it has not become manifest that such falsity has been or will be exposed. 33 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623(d) (1982). 34 Nevertheless, a mere implicit admission of rendering false testimony does not satisfy the requirements of an effective recantation under section 1623(d). A witness must make an outright retraction and repudiation of prior false testimony. United States v. D'Auria, 672 F.2d 1085, 1092 (2d Cir.1982). As this court has stated previously: 35 We hold that, for an effective recantation, the accused must come forward and explain unambiguously and specifically which of his answers in prior testimony were false and in what respects they were false. 36 United States v. Goguen, 723 F.2d 1012, 1018 (1st Cir.1983). 8 37 In this case, defendant's entry of a guilty plea did not effectively recant his prior false testimony. During the hearing in which his plea was accepted by the court, defendant admitted that he was guilty, but he did not specifically state that any parts of his testimony were false. 9 Moreover, he did not make any statements giving correct information regarding the number of chairs he had received or his knowledge that the chairs had been stolen. Thus, defendant's guilty plea was, at most, an implicit admission that he had given false testimony rather than an outright retraction and repudiation, as is necessary for an effective recantation. 38 Even if defendant's guilty plea had satisfied the requirements for an effective recantation, defendant made such recantation too late to benefit from section 1623(d)'s bar to prosecution for perjury. The section lists two temporal requirements that must be satisfied in order for a recanting witness to avoid prosecution for perjury: (1) the recantation must be made before the prior false testimony has substantially affected the relevant proceeding, and (2) it must be made before it has become manifest that the falsity of the prior testimony has been or will be exposed. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1623(d) (1982). Section 1623(d) uses the word or, implying that only one of the two requirements need be satisfied for a person to take advantage of the section's defense to a perjury charge. Nevertheless, the courts of appeals that have focused on the issue have determined that both requirements must be satisfied in order for the section's defense to apply. United States v. Denison, 663 F.2d 611, 615 (5th Cir.1981); United States v. Moore, 613 F.2d 1029, 1043 (D.C.Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 954, 100 S.Ct. 2922, 64 L.Ed.2d 811 (1980); United States v. Crandall, 363 F.Supp. 648, 654-55 (W.D.Pa.1973), affirmed, 493 F.2d 1401 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 852, 95 S.Ct. 94, 42 L.Ed.2d 83 (1974). We agree with these courts that, in order for a recantation to effectively bar a prosecution for perjury pursuant to section 1623(d), it must be made both before the false testimony has substantially affected the proceeding and before it has become manifest. 10 39 Although it is arguable in this case whether the defendant entered a plea of guilty before his prior false testimony had substantially affected his stolen-property trial, the plea certainly was not entered before it had become manifest that the falsity of his testimony would be exposed. 40 Once it becomes manifest to a witness that his false testimony has been or will be exposed, he may no longer take advantage of the recantation defense of section 1623(d). United States v. Denison, 663 F.2d 611, 617 (5th Cir.1981); United States v. Swainson, 548 F.2d 657, 663 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 937, 97 S.Ct. 2649, 53 L.Ed.2d 255 (1977); see United States v. Clavey 578 F.2d 1219, 1222 n. 5 (7th Cir.) (in banc) (per curiam) (Swygert, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 954, 99 S.Ct. 351, 58 L.Ed.2d 345 (1978). In this case, defendant chose to plead guilty after he learned that the Government was prepared to introduce into evidence tape recordings of the meeting between his codefendant Marrapese and William Smith, which tended to prove defendant's involvement in the crime for which he was charged. At that point, it had become manifest to defendant that the falsity of his trial testimony had been exposed. The recantation defense was then no longer available to him. We therefore hold that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to dismiss and post-trial motion to reconsider on the grounds that prosecution was barred under section 1623(d).