Opinion ID: 423507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: identification of the heroin

Text: 100 Appellants were convicted on two conspiracy counts as well as a number of substantive counts involving importation and distribution of heroin, a Schedule I narcotic substance. The schedules of controlled substances are set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 812, and are listed in 21 C.F.R. § 1308.11. The Schedule I substances are drugs or other substances which have a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and as to which there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other use under medical supervision. 21 U.S.C. § 812(b)(1). Heroin is listed as a Schedule I drug. 20 101 At the trial, the government introduced samples of the substance in question and presented three expert witnesses, each of whom testified that he had tested one or more of the samples and had concluded that the substance was heroin. Roger Godino, a forensic chemist who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration for ten years and analyzed approximately 5,000 exhibits of controlled substances in that time, reached the conclusion that the substance was heroin after subjecting it to various tests. He ran at least three different color tests, performed a thin layer chromatography test, did a gas chromatographic analysis, and performed an infrared spectrum analysis. He testified that the most specific test for purposes of identification of heroin was the infrared analysis, and that he used accepted techniques in comparing the infrared spectrum of the specimen with his standard spectrum for heroin. He concluded unequivocally that the substance in question was heroin. 102 Similar tests were run by the other two government chemists, each of whom reached the same conclusion. Alexander Stirton, an employee of the Pennsylvania State Police with eight years experience in analyzing controlled substances, testified that he subjected the substance submitted to him to color tests and infrared spectrum analysis, and concluded that it was heroin. George Yamnitzky, a chemist with the Drug Enforcement Administration who had analyzed approximately 1,000 specimens of controlled substances, subjected the samples to color tests, ultraviolet fluorescence analysis, thin layer chromatography, and mass spectrometry. He stated that he used the mass spectrometer in preference to an infrared spectrophotometer because of the nature of the specimens. Based on his tests, he concluded that the substance was heroin. 103 Stillman introduced the testimony of his expert, Dr. Robert Shapiro, who testified primarily on general chemical principles. Dr. Shapiro challenged the conclusion of the government experts that the substance was heroin, testifying that the results reached by the government chemists were outside of the ranges for heroin reported in standard chemical literature. He conceded, however, that the best method of analysis was to use the spectrum comparison method employed by the government chemists. As Godino testified, it was his preferred practice to compare the spectrum of the questioned substance against a spectrum of known heroin previously obtained by him using the same instrument and under the same conditions, rather than to compare it with a standard spectrum found in a reference book. Tr. 889-90. Significantly, Dr. Shapiro did not analyze the substance in question himself and defendants have conceded that they could have, but did not, conduct such an examination. 21 104 The court instructed the jury that it must determine, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the substance was heroin or any isomer of heroin. 22 The court refused to give the instruction proffered by Stillman that [o]nly the optical isomers of heroin are included. The court characterized Stillman's instruction as argumentative, lengthy and ... confusing to the jury. On appeal Stillman claims that the failure to so instruct the jury was reversible error. 105 To understand Stillman's argument, it is necessary to distinguish between isomers generally and optical isomers, which are a type of isomer. Isomers are substances with the same chemical composition but different structural arrangement. The number of isomers a substance may theoretically have is a function of the complexity of its chemical formula. Because heroin has a complex chemical formula, C sub21 H sub23 NO sub5 , the many constituent atoms could be arranged in a large variety of different structures. While that theoretical possibility may be of experimental interest, defendants presented no evidence that it did or could have any practical significance in this case. 106 Under the statute, Schedule I controlled substances are defined to include the isomers of enumerated substances. The Code of Federal Regulations defines isomer as the optical isomer for all but specified substances. 21 C.F.R. § 1308.02(c). Optical isomers, so termed because they rotate a beam of polarized light, are the mirror image of each other. We do not understand the government to dispute Stillman's claim that heroin as referred to in Schedule I of the criminal statute is limited to heroin or its optical isomer. Instead, it is the government's claim that because its evidence conclusively showed that the substance was heroin within the more restrictive meaning, appellants were in no way harmed by the court's refusal to give the instructions they requested. 107 In what may have been an attempt to befuddle the issue, the defendants cross-examined the government's experts on other substances such as pseudoheroin, isoheroin and transheroin, purportedly isomers of heroin, and suggested by inference that the government experts were unable to exclude the possibility that the substances examined in this case might have in fact been one of those compounds. However, Yamnitsky, a government expert, testified that the mass spectra he obtained showed that the substance was heroin, and not either isoheroin or pseudoheroin. Tr. 1961-62. Significantly, the defendant's expert never testified that the test results in this case demonstrated or even indicated that the substance was isoheroin, pseudoheroin, or transheroin, substances which, even if they have been created, have been so only under experimental laboratory conditions. In fact, there is no evidence that transheroin has been created at all. It may be that the defendants mentioned these substances in their cross-examination merely because they happen to contain the word heroin. The government's expert Godino specifically stated that isoheroin, pseudoheroin, and transheroin, that is not a form of heroin. Even though it says the word heroin in it. It is a little misleading, especially to people that are not familiar ... with the literature. Tr. 895. 108 The district court instructed the jury on the only issue put into dispute by the evidence, whether the substance was heroin. It was not obliged to instruct the jury with regard to hypothetical possibilities when there was no basis in the evidence to support such possibilities. See United States v. Conroy, 589 F.2d 1258, 1273 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 831, 100 S.Ct. 60, 62 L.Ed.2d 40 (1979). Indeed, in his closing argument, Stillman's attorney attacked the data obtained by the government's chemists, but expressly stated, Let us be certain of what we understand. I am not at this point arguing to the jury that those exhibits are not heroin. Tr. March 4, 1981 (summations), at 82. We believe, therefore, that whether or not there was a technical error in the court's instructions, the refinement requested by Stillman merely eliminated possibilities that were already definitively eliminated by the government's witnesses, and that there was a valid basis in the evidence for the jury's conclusion that the substance was heroin within Schedule I.