Opinion ID: 537255
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Case Authority on Bifurcation14

Text: 28 Goland contends, however, that the prosecutorial overreaching in urging bifurcation is relevant in another way: it prevented him from presenting his entire defense, an error so egregious that the double jeopardy clause bars retrial. Goland argues that the bifurcation illegally infringed upon his constitutional right to present his entire defense by preventing the jury from hearing evidence presented by his codefendants. 29 Other circuits have upheld bifurcation in some instances and found it error in others, although they have in general disapproved it. The courts reversed convictions after bifurcated trials in United States v. McIver, 688 F.2d 726 (11th Cir.1982), and United States v. Stratton, 649 F.2d 1066 (5th Cir.1981). 15 In both cases, the appellants' trials had been held after their codefendants' and the jury had convicted at least some of the first-tried codefendants. The courts reasoned that the previous guilty verdicts as to codefendants prejudiced the appellants because the verdicts prevented the jury from being impartial. McIver, 688 F.2d at 728-29; Stratton, 649 F.2d at 1081-83. In addition, in Stratton, the court had permitted the jury to consider when deliberating in the codefendants' trial the appellant's participation in the crimes charged, only instructing the jury not to consider the appellant's ultimate guilt or innocence, though the appellant had not been present and was unrepresented. Id. at 1080-81. The reviewing court believed that this permission to consider the appellant's participation also harmed the codefendants because a conspiracy was at issue, and the appellant was a major figure in it. Id. at 1083. 30 The eleventh circuit stated specifically in McIver that it was not deciding whether a jury that acquits the first defendant could later be impartial. 688 F.2d at 729. The sixth circuit refused to reverse in United States v. Crane, 499 F.2d 1385 (6th Cir.1974), finding that the bifurcation did not prejudice the appellant because the jury found the first-tried codefendant not guilty. The jury would not have drawn an adverse inference from the codefendant's association with the later-tried appellant. 16 Id. at 1388. 31 Although we express no opinion on bifurcation in general, Goland's trial does not implicate the concerns other circuits have expressed in respect to bifurcation. He was tried first, so he was not prejudiced by his association with prior-tried codefendants. Additionally, the jury later found his codefendants either not guilty or could not agree on a verdict on the charges against them. Goland contends that the prosecutor was overreaching or improper in stating before the trial judge that case authority did not prohibit bifurcation of Goland's case. We disagree, especially since there is no ninth circuit case law on the issue. Finally, if bifurcation did result in prejudice to Goland, as he contends, retrial will afford him a proceeding free of that prejudice. 32