Opinion ID: 432099
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: joinder and motions for severance

Text: 24 Appellants maintain that they were wrongfully and prejudicially joined for trial under Fed.R.Crim.P. 13 13 with co-conspirators Stewart and Howell, the deputy sheriffs who relayed information concerning law enforcement surveillance to the conspirators. They also allege that the trial court abused its discretion in denying their motions for severance under Fed.R.Crim.P. 14. 14 Cannington and Stankowitz contend in particular that joinder with the deputy sheriffs required the admission of testimony concerning the bribery of public officials and that the damaging effect of this prejudicial testimony spilled over to unnecessarily prejudice the jury against appellants. 25 It is well settled that joinder under Rule 13 is proper where the conspiracies and substantive offenses enumerated in the indictments at issue grew out of the same series of acts and transactions and thus could have been joined originally in a single indictment. Gomez v. United States, 245 F.2d 344, 345-46 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 863, 78 S.Ct. 95, 2 L.Ed.2d 68 (1957). 15 Further, in deciding whether to permit joinder of defendants, the trial court must accept the factual allegations of the indictment as true. United States v. Zicree, 605 F.2d 1381, 1387 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 966, 100 S.Ct. 1656, 64 L.Ed.2d 242 (1980). Because the allegations of the indictments which implicated the conspirators here, taken as true, establish conspiratorial conduct arising from the same series of acts and transactions, there is no inherent prejudice to the defendants and joinder was proper under Rule 13. 26 Once defendants have been joined, severance is then a matter of trial court discretion under Rule 14. Denial of a motion for severance is reversible only for an abuse of discretion and a showing of compelling prejudice must be made before a trial court's ruling will constitute an abuse of discretion. United States v. O'Malley, 707 F.2d 1240, 1250 (11th Cir.1983); United States v. Capo, 693 F.2d 1330, 1335 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1793, 76 L.Ed.2d 359 (1983), panel opinion reinstated en banc, 716 F.2d 1355, 1356 (11th Cir.1983). Appellants have simply not borne their burden of establishing compelling prejudice in this instance, and we find that there was no abuse of discretion in denying the motion to sever. 27 In considering this issue, we are satisfied that the jury was able to individualize each defendant in his relation to the mass, Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 773, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1257, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946), i.e., that the jury was able to avoid cumulating the evidence against all of the defendants to make individual guilt determinations. The trial, which lasted seven days, was not unduly complicated, and was in fact a far less burdensome prosecution than many conspiracy trials. There were only four defendants, each of whom was charged on the same four counts. The principal witnesses were the six co-conspirators who told essentially the same story. Only three witnesses who testified particularly as to the participation of the law enforcement officers gave testimony that was peripheral to appellant's involvement in the conspiracy. Furthermore the trial court specifically instructed the jury to consider only the evidence against each defendant relating to him individually. That the jury followed that directive is evidenced by the acquittal of Cannington on Count I, of Stewart on three of the four counts, and of Howell as to all counts.