Opinion ID: 661459
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence as to Diminished Capacity.

Text: 10 The district court refused to admit evidence of diminished capacity, ruling that Secs. 871 and 879 are general intent crimes. Johnson contends that this ruling was error. 11 18 U.S.C. Sec. 871(a) provides in pertinent part: 12 Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail ... any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States ..., or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President ..., shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. 13 Johnson argues that the statutory requirement that a person act willfully renders Sec. 871 a specific intent crime. See United States v. Wells, 766 F.2d 12, 20 (1st Cir.1985) (Willfulness means having the specific intent to do something the law forbids; a general intent to commit the proscribed act is not enough.); United States v. Garcia, 751 F.2d 1033, 1035 (9th Cir.1985) (per curiam) (same). Johnson contends that the statute requires the government to establish that he possessed a subjective intent that his statements be interpreted as threats against the President, and that evidence of his alleged mental illness should have been admitted as relevant to whether he possessed the requisite intent at the time he made the threats. 14 We disagree. It is well settled that Sec. 871 requires only a showing of general intent. The Ninth Circuit, in the leading case on this question, held that 15 the willfulness requirement of [Sec. 871] ... require[s] only that the defendant intentionally make a statement, written or oral, in a context or under such circumstances wherein a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be interpreted by those to whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of an intention to inflict bodily harm upon or to take the life of the President, and that the statement not be the result of mistake, duress, or coercion. The statute does not require that the defendant actually intend to carry out the threat. 16 Roy v. United States, 416 F.2d 874, 877-78 (9th Cir.1969) (footnotes omitted); see also United States v. Twine, 853 F.2d 676, 680 (9th Cir.1988) (saying of Roy, [w]e can imagine no clearer description of an objective, general intent showing). 17 In United States v. Compton, 428 F.2d 18 (2d Cir.1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 1014, 91 S.Ct. 1259, 28 L.Ed.2d 551 (1971), this court adopted the objective test set forth in Roy, quoting the above passage. Compton, 428 F.2d at 21 (quoting Roy, 416 F.2d at 877-78). A number of other federal courts have subsequently adopted this view. See e.g., United States v. Kosma, 951 F.2d 549, 557 (3d Cir.1991) (collecting cases); United States v. Manning, 923 F.2d 83, 85-86 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2860, 115 L.Ed.2d 1027 (1991); United States v. Vincent, 681 F.2d 462, 464 (6th Cir.1982); United States v. Hart, 457 F.2d 1087, 1090-91 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 861, 93 S.Ct. 150, 34 L.Ed.2d 108 (1972); see also Watts v. United States, 402 F.2d 676, 680-82 (D.C.Cir.1968), rev'd on another ground, 394 U.S. 705, 89 S.Ct. 1399, 22 L.Ed.2d 664 (1969). Only one court of appeals has ruled that Sec. 871 requires more than a showing of general intent. See United States v. Patillo, 431 F.2d 293, 297-98 (4th Cir.1970) (threat against President uttered without communication to President can form basis for conviction under Sec. 871 only if made with a present intention to do injury to the President), adhered to, 438 F.2d 13, 16 (4th Cir.1971) (in banc) (an essential element of guilt is a present intention either to injure the President, or incite others to injure him, or to restrict his movements); see also United States v. Hoffman, 806 F.2d 703, 707, 712 (7th Cir.1986) (ambiguous indication that Seventh Circuit may require proof that defendant intended statement as threat), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1005, 107 S.Ct. 1627, 95 L.Ed.2d 201 (1987). 18 We do not read our opinion in United States v. Carrier, 708 F.2d 77 (2d Cir.1983) (per curiam) (Carrier II ), to require a showing of subjective intent. In Carrier II, the defendant appealed her conviction under Sec. 871, contending that the government had failed to present evidence that she planned to carry out her threats against the President. See 708 F.2d at 79. We affirmed her conviction, concluding, as we had in Compton, 428 F.2d at 21, that Sec. 871 prohibits the making of threats even without a present intention to carry them out. Carrier II, 708 F.2d at 79; see also United States v. Carrier, 672 F.2d 300, 306 (2d Cir.) (Carrier I ) (prior appeal in Carrier ) (same), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1139, 102 S.Ct. 2972, 73 L.Ed.2d 1359 (1982). 19 Rather than citing Compton or Carrier I for this uncontroversial proposition, however, we responded to the defendant's contention in Carrier II by quoting an excerpt from Justice Marshall's concurring opinion in Rogers v. United States, 422 U.S. 35, 95 S.Ct. 2091, 45 L.Ed.2d 1 (1975), stating that: 20 A threat made with no present intention of carrying it out may still restrict the President's movements and require a reaction from those charged with protecting the President. Because Sec. 871 was intended to prevent not simply attempts on the President's life, but also the harm associated with the threat itself, ... the statute should be construed to proscribe all threats that the speaker intends to be interpreted as expressions of an intent to kill or injure the President. 21 Carrier II, 708 F.2d at 79 (quoting Rogers, 422 U.S. at 47, 95 S.Ct. at 2098 (Marshall, J., concurring) (emphasis added here, deletion in Carrier II )). We then added that the jury was entitled to infer that Carrier intentionally and knowingly made the statements attributed to her and that she intended that they be understood by others as a serious threat to the President. Id. (emphasis added). 22 We do not read Carrier II as displacing Compton 's holding that it suffices for Sec. 871 liability that a threat be made  'under such circumstances wherein a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be interpreted by those to whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of an intention to inflict bodily harm upon or to take the life of the President,'  Compton, 428 F.2d at 21 (quoting Roy, 416 F.2d at 877), with a new requirement that the speaker intend his threats to be taken seriously, whether or not a reasonable person would do so. As noted supra, this was not the issue presented to us by Carrier's contention that she could not be convicted because she had no plan to carry out her threats. Thus, Carrier II's statements regarding the defendant's intent that her threats be taken seriously may be regarded as dictum. 23 More fundamentally, Carrier was neither decided by the court in banc nor circulated to its active members before filing, and does not even mention Compton. It therefore cannot be regarded as overruling or displacing Compton. See United States v. Moore, 949 F.2d 68, 71 & n. 2 (2d Cir.1991) (prior opinions of a panel of this court are binding upon us in the absence of a change in the law by higher authority or our own in banc proceeding (or its equivalent)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1678, 118 L.Ed.2d 396 (1992). 24 We conclude that Sec. 871 requires only a showing of general intent, and that the district court therefore properly excluded evidence of Johnson's diminished capacity with respect to counts one and three of the indictment. See United States v. Reed, 991 F.2d 399, 400 (7th Cir.1993) ([D]iminished capacity ... is a defense only to specific intent crimes.) (collecting cases); United States v. Busic, 592 F.2d 13, 21 (2d Cir.1978) (the defense of a mental condition negativing the mental element required for the charged offenses only available for specific intent crimes). 25 The language of Sec. 879(a), upon which count two of the indictment is based, is substantially similar to that of Sec. 871(a). Section 879(a) provides in relevant part: 26 Whoever knowingly and willfully threatens to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon- 27 (1) a former president ... 28 .... 29 who is protected by the Secret Service as provided by law, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. 30 Congress enacted Sec. 879 in 1982. See Pub.L. No. 97-297, 96 Stat. 1317 (1982). By that time, Sec. 871, originally enacted in 1917, see ch. 64, Pub.L. No. 319, 39 Stat. 919 (1917), had undergone over sixty-five years of judicial analysis and construction. As we stated in United States v. Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, 879 F.2d 20 (2d Cir.1989): 31 [I]t is generally presumed that Congress is (a) knowledgeable about existing laws pertinent to later-enacted legislation, (b) aware of judicial interpretations given to sections of an old law incorporated into a new one, and (c) familiar with previous interpretations of specific statutory language. 32 Id. at 25 (citations omitted); see also Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 581, 98 S.Ct. 866, 870, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978). 33 At the time Congress enacted Sec. 879, the interpretation of the phrase knowingly and wilfully in Sec. 871 that had been articulated in Roy and its progeny was widely accepted in the federal courts. The fact that Congress chose to adopt this and other substantially identical language in enacting Sec. 879, which addresses a concern parallel to that engaged by Sec. 871, bespeaks an intention to import the established general intent interpretation of Sec. 871 into the new statute. Cf. Bonanno, 879 F.2d at 21-27 (holding that United States cannot sue for treble damages under RICO, reasoning that it could not do so under similar language of Clayton Act on which RICO was modelled). We accordingly conclude that Sec. 879 requires proof only of general intent. 34 We recognize that, contrary to this conclusion, two courts that have considered this question have concluded that Sec. 879 posits a specific intent crime, requiring proof that the defendant intended his statement to be perceived as a threat. See United States v. Gordon, 974 F.2d 1110, 1117-18 (9th Cir.1992); United States v. Kosma, 749 F.Supp. 1392, 1401-02 (E.D.Pa.1990), aff'd 951 F.2d 549 (3d Cir.1991). 2 Both of these cases explicitly premised their analyses upon the House Judiciary Committee report accompanying the bill that enacted Sec. 879. See Gordon, 974 F.2d at 1117; Kosma, 749 F.Supp. at 1401. That report stated, in relevant part: 35 With regard to section 879, the Committee recognizes the need to protect the safety of protectees of the Secret Service and their ability to function free of fear. Moreover, the Committee recognizes the fundamental interests shared by all Americans in free and uninhibited speech, especially where public figures are concerned. Therefore, the Committee construes a threat that is knowingly and willfully made as one which the maker intends to be perceived as a threat regardless of whether he or she intends to carry it out. A prosecution under this section would not only require proof that the statement could reasonably be perceived as a threat, but would also require some evidence that the maker intended the statement to be a threat. 36 H.R.Rep. No. 725, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1982) (emphasis added, footnotes omitted), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2624, 2626 (the Committee Report); see also 128 Cong.Rec. H21218 (daily ed. Aug. 16, 1982) (statement of Rep. Hall) (Our [committee] report construes 'knowingly and willfully' as requiring proof of a subjective intent to make a threat.). 37 The language of the Committee Report provides hazardously uncertain guidance in interpreting Sec. 879. While the Report would require proof  that a defendant's statement could reasonably be perceived as a threat, it would require only some evidence that the maker intended the statement to be a threat. Committee Report at 4 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2626 (emphasis added). This is a very confusing approach to the interpretation of a statute that imposes criminal liability. Whatever the elements of liability are defined to be, it is fundamental, indeed, constitutionally required, see Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 313, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 1970, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985); In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1072, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970), that they must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not that some evidence may be presented with respect to them. 38 We do not consider this problematic legislative history sufficient to overcome the presumption that Congress intended to preserve the settled judicial interpretation of Sec. 871 when enacting the parallel Sec. 879 in language substantially identical to that employed in Sec. 871. Cf. Ratzlaf v. United States, --- U.S. ----, ---- - ----, 114 S.Ct. 655, 126 L.Ed.2d 615 (1994) (There are, we recognize, contrary indications in the statute's legislative history. But we do not resort to legislative history to cloud a statutory text that is clear.) (footnotes omitted); Connecticut Nat'l Bank v. Germain, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 1149, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992) (Germain says that legislative history points to a different result. But we think that judicial inquiry into the application of Sec. 1292 begins and ends with what Sec. 1292 does say and with what Sec. 158(d) does not.); Green v. Bock Laundry Mach. Co., 490 U.S. 504, 528, 109 S.Ct. 1981, 1994, 104 L.Ed.2d 557 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment) (legislation should be interpreted on basis of meaning that is: (1) most in accord with context and ordinary usage likely to have been understood by entire Congress, rather than legislative history known to a relatively few members, and (2) most compatible with the surrounding body of law into which the provision must be integrated). 39 We conclude that Sec. 879, like Sec. 871, requires only proof of a statement that a reasonable person would perceive as a threat, and accordingly that the district court properly ruled that evidence of diminished mental capacity should be excluded. 40