Opinion ID: 345119
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Denial of Appellants' Motion for

Text: Disclosure of the Martinique Extradition 84 Proceedings. 85 Prior to trial, appellants Ramirez and Gomez moved the district court for disclosure of the extradition proceedings relating to their extradition from Martinique to the United States. The motion was denied. Appellants contend that the district court's ruling was erroneous, and that this action must be remanded for further proceedings. In support of their contentions, appellants rely on the Extradition Treaty of 1909 between the United States and France. 19 Article VIII of that Treaty provides in pertinent part as follows: 86 Extradition shall not be granted, in pursuance of the provisions of this convention, if the person claimed has been tried for the same act in the country to which the requisition is addressed. 87 On February 12, 1970, when France signed a supplementary convention to the Extradition Treaty of 1909, the United States and France entered into an extradition treaty specifically encompassing narcotics smuggling. Article IV of that supplementary convention provides that extradition shall not be granted: 88 1. When the person whose surrender is sought is being proceeded against or has been tried and discharged or punished in the territory of the requested party for the acts for which his extradition is requested. (emphasis supplied) 89 Although not articulated separately, appellant's arguments seem to polarize into two distinct contentions, both of which are intended to justify discovery of the extradition proceedings and papers. First, they argue, although somewhat obliquely, that the indictment in the instant case is based on acts for which they were prosecuted in Martinique. Second, they condemn the Government's use of evidence obtained in Martinique to the extent that the same evidence might have been used by the French government in its prosecution of the appellants. 20 With regard to appellants' first line of attack, Count II of the indictment could not possibly offend the same act prohibition of the Treaty, since the acts alleged in that Count occurred in June, 1974, which was five months before the appellants arrived on Martinique. With respect to the conspiracy charged in Count I, the only activities in which both France and the United States might have an interest, in terms of criminal prosecution, are the statements made and acts done by the appellants while they were on Martinique. Counsel for the Government, however, unequivocally stated before the trial court that the appellants were not being tried for any acts which took place on Martinique: 90 First of all, it is, of course, our position that these defendants are not on trial for any acts which took place in Martinique but rather we intend to offer those statements and those transactions as being evidence of the conspiracy that they are charged with today. 91 This statement is accurate only in one sense of the word act. The conspiracy count of the indictment charged the appellants with twenty-nine overt acts, of which one was the meeting in Martinique. Therefore, the conspiracy count was, to a minimal extent, based upon an act which took place in Martinique. Thus, if appellants were prosecuted in Martinique for a crime based upon the meeting which fact we are unable to assume since appellants have not informed the court of the precise nature of the offenses charged by the French Government the question arises as to whether or not the entire conspiracy count is a prosecution for the same acts as those committed on Martinique. Assuming arguendo that the appellants were prosecuted for a crime based on the act of meeting in Martinique, we conclude that a conspiracy count alleging twenty-nine overt acts, of which the meeting is one, is not a prosecution within the coverage of the same act provision of the Extradition Treaty. 92 The appellants have astutely observed that the meeting has a dual character. The meeting itself was one of the conspiracy's many overt acts, but the negotiations which occurred during the meeting may have incidentally violated French law. We conclude, however, that the latter characteristic of the meeting did not preclude the Government from alleging as an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy the fact of the meeting, for its occurrence alone is the significant element vis-a-vis this case. 93 An overt act is the manifestation of an otherwise theoretical conspiracy. In Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 (1956), the Supreme Court stated that: 94 (i)t is not necessary that an overt act be the substantive crime charged in the indictment as the object of the conspiracy. Pierce v. United States, 252 U.S. 239, 244, (40 S.Ct. 205, 207, 64 L.Ed. 542); United States v. Rabinowich, 238 U.S. 78, 86, (35 S.Ct. 682, 59 L.Ed. 1211). Nor indeed, need such an act, taken by itself, even be criminal in character. Braverman v. United States, 317 U.S. 49, (63 S.Ct. 99, 87 L.Ed. 23). The function of the overt act in a conspiracy prosecution is simply to manifest that the conspiracy is at work, Carlson v. United States, 187 F.2d 366, 370, and is neither a project still resting solely in the minds of the conspirators nor a fully completed operation no longer in existence. 354 U.S. at 334, 77 S.Ct. at 1084-1085. 95 The possibility that one of the overt acts alleged in the conspiracy count was or was not, incidentally violative of French law is of no real moment. 96 A prosecution for conspiracy is not the equivalent of a prosecution for having done or performed the overt act, for an overt act may not, itself, be unlawful at all. Yates, supra. Thus where the overt act is as innocent as the act of a man walking across the street, see generally Yates, supra; Castro v. United States, 296 F.2d 540 (5th Cir. 1961), a defendant is subject to no prosecution for it, standing alone. It follows that immunity from prosecution for a crime incidentally committed against a local law while performing an overt act pursuant to a conspiracy does not confer immunity to the conspiracy charge nor the naming and proving of the act as an overt act. Were this not so, the successful prosecution of a defendant for jay-walking while crossing the street in pursuit of the object of a conspiracy would end the conspiracy charge. Were the prosecution here for the actions done in Martinique, we should be concerned with discovering whether or not the French Courts had prosecuted for the same crime. The prosecution here under investigation was for conspiracy, and the meeting in Martinique could properly be shown as an overt act pursuant thereto whether it was, itself, lawful or criminal under some law of that jurisdiction. 97 In their second avenue of attack, appellants challenge the use of evidence obtained in Martinique to prove the conspiracy charged in Count I. This contention is also without merit. None of the provisions of the Extradition Treaty relied on by the appellants permit the asylum state (France) to delimit the nature of the evidentiary rules to be followed in the requisitioning state (United States). Article VII of the Treaty provides in pertinent part as follows: 98 No person surrendered by either of the high contracting parties to the other shall be triable or tried or be punished for any crime or offense committed prior to his extradition, other than the offense for which he was delivered up . . . . 99 This article, which embodies the essence of the international law doctrine of specialty, does not strengthen appellants' argument. 21 Neither the principle of specialty nor the manifestation of it in Article VII lend support to appellants' contention that the evidence obtained in Martinique is inadmissible to prove the alleged conspiracy. A similar contention was rejected by the Second Circuit in United States v. Flores, 538 F.2d 939 (2d Cir. 1976), where the court stated as follows: 100 It is clear, however, that even as the specialty doctrine has been defined and broadened in this century, it has never been construed to permit foreign intrusion into the evidentiary or procedural rules of the requisitioning state, as distinguished from limiting the jurisdiction of domestic courts to try or punish the fugitive for any crimes committed before the extradition, except the crimes for which he was extradited. Friedmann, Lissitzyn & Pugh; International Law 493 (1969). Where, as here, a defendant is indicted and tried for the precise offense contained in the foreign extradition order . . ., the doctrine does not authorize us to disregard normal evidentiary rules followed by this forum. 538 F.2d at 944. 101 We find, therefore, that the admission of evidence obtained on Martinique was permissible and that the district court properly denied appellants' motion for discovery. 102