Opinion ID: 347528
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the interpretation of the indictment

Text: 641 Nor is the interpretation of the indictment by my colleagues a permissible one. Ejusdem generis is clearly applicable and the requirement for the application of this elementary rule cannot be dismissed with a trite objection to incanting these Latin phrases (Majority opinion at ---- of 181 U.S.App.D.C., at 127 of 559 F.2d). If that constituted any semblance of a viable judicial answer any judge could dispose of habeas corpus, corpus delicti and res judicata by a mere stroke of the pen. My colleagues in this opinion certainly obliterate stare decisis with respect to the law on indictments. Who knows, maybe dominus vobiscum and e pluribus unum are next on their list. However, ejusdem generis is clearly applicable here and I am surprised with my learned colleagues' unfamiliarity with this very elementary, but basic, rule of construction. Ejusdem generis does nothing more than apply the normal meaning of such words in such context. My colleagues, however, claim 642 By alleging that the obstruction of justice with which the defendants were charged was carried out by other means in addition to those specified, the indictment effectively broadens the scope of the acts to which jeopardy attaches and correspondingly reduces the opportunity for subsequent prosecutions of these defendants for the alleged obstruction of justice during the lengthy period alleged in the indictment (June 17, 1972 through March 1, 1974). 643 Majority opinion at ---- of 181 U.S.App.D.C., at 126 of 559 F.2d. The majority would thus broaden the indictment beyond the facts alleged. Just where it would stop they do not say. They would permit the conviction of defendant at trial on the basis of any evidence of obstruction, whether it was alleged or not, and they would bar any subsequent prosecution for obstruction of justice which defendants committed during this period. This is patently an erroneous statement and application of the law. The massiveness of its error defies description. 644 For instance, assume defendants were acquitted on Count 2 and it was discovered before trial that they had caused the killing of a material witness, Mrs. Hunt, so she could not testify against them before the Federal Grand Jury. There would be no doubt that they could subsequently be charged with so obstructing federal justice. Or assume it was discovered before trial that the defendants had threatened several Grand Jurors who were hearing the case and those jurors had obstructed the Grand Jury investigation. Certainly such offense could be indicted after the trial. And I challenge the majority to state, if either of such offenses were discovered prior to trial, that they could be proved under the allegations of Count 2. To say that evidence of such offenses could be admitted under an indictment charging the making of cash payments and offers of other benefits and other means, and that a conviction could rest solely on evidence of the subsequently discovered offenses of murder and jury tampering, is patently ridiculous. The majority opinion thus grossly misstates the law. It will be very hard to live with this law in the future.