Opinion ID: 416957
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Joinder of the Conspiracy Count

Text: 78 Appellants argue they were irremediably prejudiced by the joinder at trial of the conspiracy count and the other charges. Most of the trial was devoted to the conspiracy count, with much of the evidence being conditionally admitted. The district court conditionally admitted the testimony of alleged co-conspirators pending the court's determination of whether a conspiracy was proved by a preponderance of the independent evidence. The district court eventually found that a conspiracy had not been shown, so it ordered the evidence stricken. The court dismissed the conspiracy counts at the close of the government's case. Appellants argue that the evidence as to the conspiracy dominated the trial and was extremely inflammatory and prejudicial, making the only proper remedy judgment of acquittal or dismissal on the non-conspiracy counts. Appellants moved for dismissal or judgment of acquittal at the close of the government's case, which we will assume arguendo was implicitly a motion for relief from prejudicial joinder pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 14. 79 We do not think that the district court erred in refusing to order a new trial for appellants, much less in not ordering dismissal or judgment of acquittal. The conspiracy evidence was conditionally admitted pending production of independent evidence of a conspiracy. We explicitly approved such procedures in United States v. Bell, 573 F.2d 1040, 1044 (8th Cir.1978). Although the court could have required that the independent evidence of conspiracy be produced first, United States v. Macklin, 573 F.2d 1046, 1049 n. 3 (8th Cir.1978) it is in the district court's discretion to determine which procedure to use. Id. The district court's conclusion that the evidence from the conspiracy count was not irremediably prejudicial was reasonable from the perspective of this appeal. The conditionally admitted evidence went almost entirely to drug dealings, and the convictions for drug possession have not been appealed. No evidence was admitted on the most inflammatory part of the conspiracy charge--murder and torture--although the government did make a reference to this in its opening statement. An order for a mistrial is in the district court's discretion, United States v. Wade, 467 F.2d 1226, 1229 (8th Cir.1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 933, 93 S.Ct. 1384, 35 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), as is an order for relief from prejudicial joinder under Fed.R.Crim.P. 14. United States v. Sanders, 563 F.2d 379, 384 (8th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1020, 98 S.Ct. 744, 54 L.Ed.2d 767 (1978). The district court did not abuse its discretion in believing cautionary instructions were adequate rather than ordering a mistrial, dismissal, or judgment of acquittal.