Opinion ID: 202749
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Post-Trial Request for Grand Jury Transcripts

Text: 80 After both of his trials had ended, Capozzi filed motions to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the case. The district court denied both motions. Capozzi argued he needed the entire presentation to the grand jury in order to show that no evidence, as opposed to insufficient evidence, was presented to support the affecting commerce element of the Hobbs Act charges. On appeal, he again frames his attack on the grand jury proceedings in the language of subject matter jurisdiction of the district court, see note 7, supra. But his brief makes clear that he wishes to attack the sufficiency of the presentation to the grand jury. There is no reason, and Capozzi suggests none, why our holding in Maceo, supra, does not apply equally to a post-conviction attack on the sufficiency of a presentation to the grand jury. The trial went forward, Capozzi was afforded all constitutional protections, and a petit jury found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of Hobbs Act conspiracy after sound legal instruction. The `indispensable secrecy of grand jury proceedings' must not be broken except where there is a compelling necessity. United States v. Procter & Gamble Co., 356 U.S. 677, 682, 78 S.Ct. 983, 2 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1958). The burden of showing particularized need rests squarely on the defendant. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. v. United States, 360 U.S. 395, 79 S.Ct. 1237, 3 L.Ed.2d 1323 (1959). Here Capozzi claims he needs the grand jury transcripts to present an appeal to this court of a non-justiciable issue: his incorrect claim that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and, more generally, his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence before the grand jury. The district court properly denied his motion for the transcripts. 81 For the reasons discussed above, Capozzi's convictions are affirmed. All pending motions are denied as moot.