Opinion ID: 492626
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Likelihood of Vindictiveness in the Circumstances

Text: 11 Marrapese points to two circumstances in this case that warrant a presumption of vindictive prosecution. First, he was indicted for obstruction of justice only after his trial on the conspiracy charge ended in a mistrial. And second, the obstruction of justice indictment followed Marrapese's challenge to the grand jury that issued the original conspiracy indictment. Marrapese argues that in these circumstances the filing of the additional charge was likely intended to punish him for vigorously asserting his procedural rights. 12 We do not find this assertion as compelling as Marrapese would like. Marrapese's superseding indictment, filed after the mistrial and the challenge to the grand jury, does not present the same likelihood of vindictiveness that the Supreme Court found in the only cases which warranted the presumption Marrapese seeks here. See United States v. Khan, 787 F.2d 28, 32-33 (2d Cir.1986) (no presumption of vindictiveness when additional charges added after a mistrial due to a hung jury). 13 In North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), the appellant received a longer sentence after a retrial than he had received after his first, constitutionally flawed, trial. Due to the likelihood that the higher sentence was an attempt to punish appellant for asserting his right to appeal, the Court held that a judge could not impose an enhanced sentence on retrial unless he specifically identified in the record his reasons for doing so. Those reasons, moreover, must be based upon objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the time of the original sentencing proceeding. Id. 395 U.S. at 726, 89 S.Ct. at 2081. In effect, the Pearce Court applied a presumption of vindictiveness to the judge's action, a presumption rebuttable only by objective information in the record. Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 374, 102 S.Ct. at 2489. 14 The only other two cases in which the Court applied a presumption of vindictiveness also involved retrials after a trial and conviction. Both Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628, and Thigpen v. Roberts, 468 U.S. 27, 104 S.Ct. 2916, 82 L.Ed.2d 23 (1984), were habeas actions brought by defendants who, after they asserted their statutory right to trial de novo following misdemeanor convictions, were charged with felonies arising out of the same facts that led to the misdemeanors. As in Pearce, the effective price of exercising their rights was the risk of greater punishment. The Court explained:A prosecutor clearly has a considerable stake in discouraging convicted misdemeanants from appealing and thus obtaining a trial de novo in the Superior Court, since such an appeal will clearly require increased expenditures of prosecutorial resources before the defendant's conviction becomes final, and may even result in a formerly convicted defendant's going free. And, if the prosecutor has the means readily at hand to discourage such appeals--by upping the ante through a felony indictment whenever a convicted misdemeanant pursues his statutory appellate remedy--the State can insure that only the most hardy defendants will brave the hazards of a de novo trial. 15 Blackledge, 417 U.S. at 27-28, 94 S.Ct. at 2102. The focus, then, in evaluating the likelihood of vindictiveness is not only on the right of the defendant, but also on the incentive of the prosecutor to prevent the defendant from asserting that right. 16 In this case the prosecutor had very little incentive to discourage Marrapese from challenging the grand jury proceeding. Unlike the assertion of a right to a de novo trial, a challenge to the composition of a grand jury poses only a minor threat to scarce prosecutorial resources. Thus, there is less reason for a presumption of vindictiveness than in Blackledge or Thigpen. See Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 381, 102 S.Ct. at 2493 (It is unrealistic to assume that a prosecutor's probable response to such [routine pretrial] motions is to seek to penalize and deter.). 1 And it is unlikely any retaliatory animus flowed from the first trial's ending in a mistrial; after all, the mistrial was due to a hung jury, not to any legal challenge by Marrapese. Compare United States v. Khan, 787 F.2d 28, 32-33 (2d Cir.1986) (hung jury unlikely to inspire prosecutorial wrath) with United States v. Jamison, 505 F.2d 407 (D.C.Cir.1974) (defendant's motion for mistrial on ground of ineffective counsel may lead to vindictiveness). 17 Marrapese's situation presented less likelihood of vindictiveness than the additional charge filed against the defendant in Bordenkircher v. Hayes, 434 U.S. 357, 98 S.Ct. 663, 54 L.Ed.2d 604 (1978), who forced the prosecutor to go to trial by refusing to plead guilty. Here, the prosecutor had already prepared for trial and scheduled the retrial; Marrapese's actions were little more than an annoyance. In Bordenkircher, where the Supreme Court refused to apply a presumption, the defendant's refusal resulted in a serious drain on prosecutorial resources. See also United States v. Goodwin, 457 U.S. at 381-83, 102 S.Ct. at 2492-94 (no presumption of vindictiveness when a defendant was indicted on felony charges after requesting a jury trial for a misdemeanor charge). 18 Were the presumption nevertheless to apply to this case, the prosecutor's explanation of the changed circumstances that led to the obstruction of justice charge would rebut any likelihood of vindictiveness. See ante at 147. The inconsistency of Lester, 749 F.2d 1288, with the prosecutor's original, reasonable understanding of Sec. 1503 provides a sufficient, objective change of circumstances to dispell the concerns that would underlie a presumption of vindictiveness. See Blackledge, 417 U.S. at 29 n. 7, 94 S.Ct. at 2103 n. 7 ([t]his would clearly be a different case if the state had shown that it was impossible to proceed on the more serious charge at the outset); Pearce, 395 U.S. at 726, 89 S.Ct. at 2081 (requiring objective information concerning identifiable conduct on the part of the defendant occurring after the time of the original sentencing to justify an increased sentence after a retrial on the same charge). Although the rebuttal here does not fall neatly within the language of either of these pronouncements, we think it an adequate justification for the prosecutor's action.