Opinion ID: 772375
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Kahl's Gun

Text: 32 Kahl raises a number of claims for relief based on alleged prosecutorial misconduct, all of which the district court rejected. Only one of these issues merits discussion. Kahl asserts the government purposefully withheld Kahl's gun until the trial was nearly concluded. In the same vein, Kahl contends the district court's handling of the issue was improper. Shortly before the end of Kahl's closing argument, FBI agents acting on an anonymous tip found Kahl's pistol in a parking lot in Fargo. The district court refused to declare a mistrial, and, with the consent of Kahl's attorney, the government introduced the pistol into evidence along with an explanation as to its sudden appearance. The government stipulated that a bullet lodged in the pistol's handle was not of the caliber fired by Gordon Kahl and his associates during the shootout. The district court did not allow Kahl to reopen his case or to give additional argument on the matter, but permitted counsel for co-defendant Joan Kahl to argue on Kahl's behalf that the gun corroborated Kahl's testimony. 33 On direct appeal, Kahl challenged the admission of the gun, but on other grounds. We concluded that the gun had served only to corroborate the defendants' testimony, and that the district court had acted properly in the face of an obvious attempt at trial manipulation. Faul, 748 F.2d at 1218. 34 Kahl's present arguments about the gun add little to the issue, given the absence of any evidence in the record to support his accusation that the government withheld the gun. Moreover, the district court's response to the discovery of the gun was well within its discretion, and Kahl's attempts to construct constitutional errors around it are meritless. Cf. Birt v. Montgomery, 725 F.2d 587, 593 (11th Cir. 1984) (At some point, [the right to counsel of choice] must bend before countervailing interests involving effective administration of the courts.)