Opinion ID: 463761
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: final matters

Text: 59 We conclude by looking at some odds and ends. Canale argues that the trial court erred in allowing the government to impeach him on cross examination with testimony about a prior nolo contendere plea. Evidence of a nolo plea is inadmissible. Fed.R.Evid. 410. Because Canale's counsel made no objection based on Rule 410, however, he faces a severely limited standard of review. As a rule, we consider only matters first raised in the trial court. United States v. Grapp, 653 F.2d 189, 194 (5th Cir.1981). The decision to review is usually a matter of our discretion. United States v. Parker, 722 F.2d 179, 183 n. 2 (5th Cir.1983), citing Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976). The Supreme Court, however, requires consideration of errors not raised below in criminal cases if the errors seriously affect the fairness or integrity of judicial proceedings. Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 217 n. 5, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2258 n. 5, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974). 60 We face no such challenge to judicial integrity here. Before he was questioned about the nolo contendere plea, Canale had already admitted the conduct that formed the basis of it. The additional fact of the plea thus added little to what the jury already knew. Further, the trial judge instructed the jury to consider only those crimes alleged in the indictment. Because we find no travesty of justice resulting from this erroneous admission, we decline to reverse Canale's convictions. 61 Blanchard claims undue prejudice resulted from a tape recording of a conversation he had with government informants Toal and Hulbert. Having uttered ugly racial epithets during the conversation, he now claims this could only improperly influence the four black members of the jury. It would have been preferable had this part of the conversation been edited out, especially since it did not concern any past wrongdoing. Blanchard's claim is nevertheless insufficient cause for reversal because of clear jury instructions to disregard the racial statements. See Bright, 630 F.2d at 814. 62 The appellants posit other grounds for reversal, but these lack sufficient merit to justify discussion here. We now take the opportunity to urge the district courts to take an active supervisory role in cases such as this. A RICO case is an unusually complex criminal proceeding, providing many possibilities of confusion and ambiguity. The trial judge must therefore strive to ensure that both the jury and counsel are not overwhelmed by the details involved. While ours is an adversarial system, there must be a referee to make clear the rules of the game, and his role becomes more important when these rules are as complicated as in a RICO trial. Having said so much, we find that no reversible errors occurred below; the convictions are therefore 63 AFFIRMED.