Opinion ID: 564772
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the omitted jury instructions

Text: 33 In a variation on somewhat the same theme, Natanel says that the district court erred by failing to charge the jury on count 18. The facts are as follows. The judge instructed the jury at considerable length before submitting the other counts for consideration. The parties agree that those instructions included all the standard instructions necessary to enable a jury to decide a criminal case, e.g., burden of proof, presumption of innocence, reasonable doubt, unanimity, and the like. The court also gave case-specific instructions on the particular offenses involved, excepting count 18. After the jurors returned verdicts on the other counts, the judge asked them in open court, with the lawyers present, if they wanted to consider count 18 without further argument, without further instruction by the court this afternoon, or you may return tomorrow morning to decide that count. Neither lawyer objected to the court's inquiry or to its proposal. The jury chose to return the next day. It neither asked for, nor received, any supplementary instructions. A guilty verdict ensued. 34 Natanel complains that reversible error occurred when the judge failed to charge the jury specifically on count 18. As appellant concedes, the absence of an objection below means that we can only reverse if the lack of such instructions amounted to plain error. See Hunnewell, 891 F.2d at 956; United States v. Griffin, 818 F.2d 97, 100 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 844, 108 S.Ct. 137, 98 L.Ed.2d 94 (1987); see also Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). We recently commented in a criminal case: 35 The plain error hurdle is high. See, e.g., United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 16, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1047, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (plain errors are limited to those which undermine the fundamental fairness of the trial); United States v. Atkinson, 297 U.S. 157, 160, 56 S.Ct. 391, 392, 80 L.Ed. 555 (1936) (plain errors are restricted to those which are obvious, or ... seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings). It follows, unsurprisingly, that the plain error exception is to be used sparingly, only to prevent justice from miscarrying. United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163 n. 14, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 1592 n. 14, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982). Inasmuch as plain error gives a defendant a free second bite at the cherry, [it] is to be narrowly limited. United States v. Rivera, 872 F.2d 507, 509 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 71, 107 L.Ed.2d 38 (1989). 36 Hunnewell, 891 F.2d at 956. 37 To be sure, a trial court's failure to charge on the essential elements of an offense can constitute plain error. See, e.g., United States v. Natale, 526 F.2d 1160, 1167 (2d Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 950, 96 S.Ct. 1724, 48 L.Ed.2d 193 (1976); United States v. King, 521 F.2d 61, 63 (10th Cir.1975). It understates matters to say that the doctrine will only apply if the asserted error would likely have affected the outcome. United States v. Rivera, 872 F.2d 507, 509 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 71, 107 L.Ed.2d 38 (1989). In the last analysis, the plain error doctrine, even in the context of jury instructions, is not ... concerned with technical error or with prejudicial error, McMillen v. United States, 386 F.2d 29, 35 (1st Cir.1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1031, 88 S.Ct. 1424, 20 L.Ed.2d 288 (1968), but is concerned only with those errors so shocking that they seriously affect the fundamental fairness and basic integrity of the proceedings conducted below. Griffin, 818 F.2d at 100. 38 Ordinarily, we would have slight hesitancy in branding a total failure to instruct a criminal jury as plain error. The case at hand, however, is far from ordinary. The jury received full and complete instructions before the first stage of its deliberations. Because the court charged on several counts (namely, counts 3 through 16) against other defendants pegged to the same legal framework that supported count 18, the charge included instructions as to the elements of the very offense with which Natanel was charged in count 18. To be sure, the specific instructions were given in connection with similar counts against other defendants and were not pinpointed to count 18 itself. Nonetheless, in the absence of a contemporaneous objection, we see no reason why those instructions were not also adequate to allow the jury to perform its task fairly and competently during the second stage of its deliberations. 39 In the unique circumstances of this case, we conclude that there was no plain error. Having found no similar situations in the case law, we turn to first principles. The purpose of requiring instructions on the elements of an offense is to ensure that, if the jury convicts, it will be convicting a defendant for the crime with which he is charged. Even if the jury has the indictment before it or hears a rote recital of the statutory language, instructions may be required; after all, the language used in statutes may not be familiar to lay jurors, or common words may take on unaccustomed meanings in particular legal settings. See, e.g., United States v. Polowichak, 783 F.2d 410, 415-16 (4th Cir.1986) (plain error found where jury was given indictment, but their attention was never called to the ... allegations ... they were never read to the jury nor were they explained); United States v. Bryant, 461 F.2d 912, 920 (6th Cir.1972); cf. United States v. De La Cruz, 902 F.2d 121, 123 (1st Cir.1990) (court need not explain statutory phraseology to jury where words were such that the jury could not reasonably have doubted the[ir] tenor). The necessity for instruction, then, flows from the fundamental principle that the jury must understand what it is that it is sworn to do. 40 Here, that necessity was adequately addressed. The jury had already been instructed, albeit with respect to other counts, as to the legal significance of the statutes and the elements of the offense upon which count 18 depended. That being so, we think that it would have been sufficient, although by no means ideal, had the judge told the jurors, immediately before they retired to consider count 18, something like: You have already been instructed on all the elements of count 18 in my earlier charge with respect to counts 3 through 16. Please apply those same principles to the evidence which you have heard respecting count 18 to determine whether the government proved the defendant, Natanel, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of committing the offense charged in count 18. While it was unquestionably error for the court to neglect even this minimally sufficient instruction, we do not think it was plain error. It is reasonable to presume, under the circumstances, that the jury, in considering count 18, did exactly what our hypothetical charge portends, i.e., used the knowledge acquired from the earlier instructions to perform its function in regard to count 18. This presumption is strengthened because the jury had before it the indictment, which limned count 18 in straightforward terms and clearly showed that count 18's statutory provenance was similar to the provenance of counts 3 through 16. 41 Our conclusion that the plain error hurdle was not vaulted in this instance is further fortified in that Natanel's defense centered around the credibility of a single government witness, rather than around any particular element of the offense. Cf., e.g., United States v. Madrid Ramirez, 535 F.2d 125, 127 (1st Cir.1976) (jury instructions not deficient to the point of plain error where, inter alia, the case did not involve 'a particularly sensitive defense,' nor were 'the facts adduced at trial ... so complex and confusing that an understanding of the issues would be beyond the grasp of the jury'  (citations omitted)). The fact that the jury's verdict came down to a judgment call on credibility renders it highly unlikely that the failure to reinstruct tilted the outcome, caused justice to miscarry, or adversely affected the integrity of the trial process. 42 For these reasons, we reject the appellant's claim of plain error. There was no fundamental unfairness.