Opinion ID: 2381895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Should a Writ Issue in this Case?

Text: The common law extraordinary writs of mandamus and prohibition are just that  extraordinary; even when the power to issue them exists, whether to take that action is discretionary. The principles governing the exercise of that discretion are much the same, whether the court that is asked to issue the writ is invoking superintending power or acting in aid of its appellate jurisdiction. The power [to issue a prerogative writ] is one which ought to be exercised with great caution.... Ex Parte Burr, 9 Wheat. 529, 531, 6 L.Ed. 152, 152 (1824). Ordinarily, a writ will not lie to control the exercise of discretion. Ex Parte Bradley, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 364, 376-377, 19 L.Ed. 214, 219 (1869). Such a writ ordinarily will not issue when another remedy is available, Ferris, supra, § 212 (mandamus) and is not a substitute for appeal or writ of error; id., §§ 191 (mandamus) and 324 (prohibition). See also 16 Wright, supra, § 3932 at 205-206. Generally speaking, more than mere error must be shown. Some commentators have said that under what they view as the traditional approach, writs appropriately issue only to control actions beyond the jurisdiction of an inferior court, or to compel action that the court lacked power to withhold. 16 Wright, supra, § 3933 at 213. But, according to Wright, in recent times the use of the extraordinary writ has broadened to include use of the writs to correct clear abuse of discretion, and more recently ... to satisfy other peculiar needs for interlocutory review. Id. Lewis Hochheimer espoused the traditional approach, at least as to writs of prohibition. Hochheimer wrote that [t]he writ of prohibition issues from superior courts to arrest the proceedings of inferior courts ... when such proceedings are without or in excess of their jurisdiction [footnote omitted]. L. Hochheimer, The Law of Crimes and Criminal Procedure, § 446 (1897). Earlier commentators, however, recognized that a prerogative writ could issue to control actions of a lower court that were not jurisdictional in nature. As to mandamus, Blackstone asserts that it is designed to inforce the due exercise of those judicial ... powers, with which [inferior courts are invested]... not only by restraining their excesses, but also by quickening their negligence, and obviating their denial of justice. 3 Blackstone, supra, at 110-111. And as to prohibition, the appellate court may apply it to command a judge and the parties of an inferior court to cease from prosecution thereof because the case does not belong to that jurisdiction, but to the cognizance of some other court.... The same remedy is available if, in handling of matters clearly within their cognizance, they transgress the bounds proscribed to them by the laws of England.... Id. at 112. In the case of Appo v. People, 20 N.Y. 531 (1860), the State petitioned the New York Court of Appeals for a writ of prohibition directing a trial judge to vacate his order granting a new trial in a criminal case. The defendant argued that because the court did not act outside its jurisdiction in granting a new trial, the Court of Appeals had no power to issue the writ. The Court held otherwise finding that the writ lies to prevent the exercise of any unauthorized power, in a cause or proceeding of which the subordinate tribunal has jurisdiction, no less than when the entire cause is without its jurisdiction. Id. at 542. In Maryland common law mandamus has been described as a prerogative writ grantable where the public justice of the State is concerned. Runkel v. Winemiller, 4 H. & McH. at 449. It is a writ to prevent disorder, from a failure of justice, where the law has established no specific remedy, and where in justice and good government there ought to be one.... Id. at 449. From these authorities we glean that we may issue a prerogative writ if we believe the interests of justice require us to do so in order to restrain a lower court from acting in excess of its jurisdiction, otherwise grossly exceeding its authority, or failing to act when it ought to act. The question then becomes whether the trial judge's grant of a new trial to Katz falls within one or more of these categories.
The circumstances surrounding Judge Miller's granting of a new trial are recounted at pp. 283-285 supra, and we need not repeat them fully here. We recapitulate briefly. By denying Katz's motions for judgment of acquittal, Judge Miller determined that there was sufficient evidence upon which a jury could base a finding of guilt. Nevertheless, when the jury did exactly that, the trial judge ordered a new trial. It is clear from his choice of words in doing so that he engaged in an independent weighing of the evidence. Specifically, he summed up the case as a question of weighing a single witness's credibility against the defendant's. Although he did not state that he disagreed with the jury verdict, he indicated that he ordered the new trial because of the possibility of injustice. He later stated that he himself was not convinced of the defendant's guilt. Judge Miller acted under the assumption, therefore, that he had discretion to set aside a jury verdict and order a new trial where he considered the verdict to be against the weight of the evidence, and where he weighed the evidence in light of the credibility (or lack of it) of the State's principal witness. That a new trial may be granted in a criminal case tried to a jury is undoubted. The existence of the power is recognized in Md.Code (1987 Repl.Vol.) Art. 27, § 594, and in Md.Rule 4-331 and its predecessor rules. It was a power that existed at common law, at least as to misdemeanor cases, although not as to felonies. [15] As long ago as 1859 it seemed well-settled that Maryland courts could grant new trials after convictions. See Ford v. State, 12 Md. 514 (1859). The question we face is not whether a new trial may be granted, but when; that is, upon what grounds. More specifically, can a jury's guilty verdict be set aside and a new trial ordered because the trial judge has serious reservations about the credibility of the chief prosecution witness? At common law there could be a new trial if the court thought the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. 1 Stephen, History of the Common Law of England, 310, 311 (1883). And see 5 L. Orfield, Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules § 33.5 (1967). Professor Hochheimer also asserts that a new trial could be ordered if the verdict was against the evidence. L. Hochheimer, The Law of Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 184 (2d ed. 1904). In the case before us, Katz points to dicta in a civil case, Snyder v. Cearfoss, 186 Md. 360, 368-369, 46 A.2d 607, 610-611 (1945). There our predecessors, stating that a new trial could be granted because a verdict was against the evidence or against the weight of the evidence, said that a court should examine the evidence and the verdict and if they could not be reconciled, then it should order a new trial, if it had a reasonable doubt that justice had been done. It is not clear from the Snyder opinion whether the trial judges (who had granted a new trial) did so on the basis of a credibility determination or merely because of what they perceived as very weak evidence produced by the plaintiffs, who recovered in the trial court. But Katz believes that Snyder supports the action taken by the trial judge here. The State, on the other hand, refers us to State v. Devers, 260 Md. 360, 272 A.2d 794, cert. denied, 404 U.S. 824, 92 S.Ct. 50, 30 L.Ed.2d 52 (1971). In Devers we reviewed a decision of the Court of Special Appeals which had held that on a motion for new trial the trial court must weigh the evidence and judge the credibility, when the verdict is challenged as being against the evidence. [O]nly in so doing is it able to ascertain whether there is such a preponderance of proof in favor of the accused `as to show that manifest injustice has been done by the verdict.' Devers v. State, 9 Md. App. 366, 372, 264 A.2d 291, 294 (1970) (citing Johnson v. State, 219 Md. 481, 483, 150 A.2d 446, 447 (1959)). We reversed. In the course of doing so, we considered whether motions for judgment of acquittal should have been granted. Referring to what was then Art. XV, § 5 of the Constitution (now Art. 23 of the Declaration of Rights), we noted that its requirements that in criminal cases the Jury shall be the Judges of Law, as well as of fact had at first precluded judicial consideration of such things as motions for judgment of acquittal, motions for directed verdict, or the like because the constitutional provision did not permit a judge to pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence. But by constitutional amendment effective 1 December 1950, a court was expressly authorized to pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction. 260 Md. at 369, 272 A.2d at 799. We observed that what a court does in this regard is strictly circumscribed. It does not inquire into and measure the weight of the evidence to ascertain whether the State has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, ... but merely ascertains whether there is any relevant evidence, properly before the jury, legally sufficient to sustain a conviction.... Id. at 371, 272 A.2d at 800 [citations omitted]. Applying this test, we upheld the trial court's denial of motions for judgment of acquittal. There was evidence, if believed, sufficient to sustain the convictions. Id. at 372, 272 A.2d at 800. The Court then turned to the motion for new trial, and as to that we reasoned that if evidence is to be weighed on a motion for a new trial after a jury has returned a guilty verdict in a criminal case, the power to do so must be derived from the 1950 amendment to ... Art. XV, § 5, but we had no difficulty in holding that it is not.... 260 Md. at 379, 272 A.2d at 804. Instead, we concluded that the test of sufficiency to be applied in considering a motion for a new trial is exactly that applied in considering a motion for judgment of acquittal: was there any relevant evidence, properly before the jury, legally sufficient to sustain a conviction? Any wider scope of review of the evidence would be impermissible under our Constitution. Id. We went on to reject any analogy to the grant of a new trial in a civil case. Id. at 380, 272 A.2d at 804. And though we carefully pointed out that the trial court is [not] precluded from granting a new trial in a criminal case where the jury's verdict is clearly contrary to the evidence, because this stems from venerable custom and usage..., we emphasized that [t]he granting of a new trial in such a case involves no more than a determination by the trial court that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction. Id. at 379-380, 272 A.2d at 804. In short, Devers instructs that in a criminal case, a motion for new trial based on alleged deficiencies in the evidence introduced is to be treated precisely like a motion for judgment of acquittal and granted only if the latter motion should be or should have been. There is certainly precedent for the notion that a motion for new trial based on evidentiary lack must be treated as attacking the sufficiency of the evidence, and thus does not permit a court to weigh evidence. See, e.g., Debinski v. State, 194 Md. 355, 362, 71 A.2d 460, 464 (1950); Herring v. State, 189 Md. 172, 175, 55 A.2d 332, 334 (1947); Quesenbury v. State, 183 Md. 570, 572-573, 39 A.2d 685, 686 (1944); Myers v. State, 137 Md. 496, 502, 113 A. 92, 95 (1921); Myers v. State, 137 Md. 491, 495, 113 A. 90, 92 (1921); Myers v. State, 137 Md. 482, 485-488, 113 A. 87, 88-89 (1921) (proper method for raising sufficiency of the evidence is by motion for new trial). Those cases, of course, were decided before the constitutional amendment that expressly permitted the court to pass on sufficiency and thus to grant what is now a motion for judgment of acquittal. See Wright v. State, 198 Md. 163, 170, 81 A.2d 602, 606 (1951). They seem to stand for the proposition that although the court could not acquit on the ground of insufficiency, this being a jury question, Quesenbury, 183 Md. at 573, 39 A.2d at 686, it could grant a new trial on that ground. But there are also indications that a wider discretion to examine evidence is available. For example, Auchincloss v. State, 200 Md. 310, 89 A.2d 605 (1952), like Devers, was a case involving both a motion for a directed verdict (now a motion for judgment of acquittal) and a motion for new trial. It arose after 1 December 1950, so it was permissible for a court to enter judgment of not guilty as a matter of law, if the evidence was insufficient. Judge Henderson, writing for the Court, declined to pass on the sufficiency issue because it had not been properly preserved. Id. at 315, 89 A.2d at 607. He added, however, language commonly employed in sufficiency cases: in no event could this [C]ourt undertake to pass upon the weight of the evidence or decide whether guilt has been shown beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 316, 89 A.2d at 607. As to the motion for new trial, which had been denied, Judge Henderson explained the then-current view that because a ruling on a motion for new trial was an exercise of the trial judge's discretion, the granting or refusal of such a motion is not reviewable. Id. But, once again, he had something to add: Of course, upon the hearing of such a motion the trial court may consider the weight as well as the sufficiency of the evidence. Id. A few years later, in Thomas v. State, 215 Md. 558, 561, 138 A.2d 878, 880 (1958), we again declined to review the denial of a motion for a new trial. Significantly, the main basis for the motion was the lack of credibility of the principal prosecuting witness. We did not say that credibility could not be considered or that evidence could not be weighed. We said (by way of assurance that if we had reviewed the exercise of the trial court's discretion we would have agreed with it): Judge Henry gave full consideration to the relevant facts and, in his sound discretion, decided they did not justify a new trial. Id. These cases suggest that Devers may have been unduly restrictive in insisting that evidentiary deficiency asserted in a motion for new trial must be equated with evidentiary insufficiency asserted in a motion for judgment of acquittal. Various questions arise as well. If that equation is correct, why even allow evidentiary lack to be raised in a motion for new trial in a criminal case? Rule 4-324 provides for court review of sufficiency of the evidence on motion for judgment of acquittal. If sufficiency has been reviewed pursuant to a Rule 4-324 motion, need the very same question be reviewed again on a motion for a new trial pursuant to Rule 4-331? [16] The second stage of review hardly seems necessary, unless the ability to raise the issue by way of motion for new trial is intended to permit a defendant to argue sufficiency (and to raise it on appeal) even though that defendant has not preserved the issue by taking the action required under Rule 4-324. See State v. Lyles, 308 Md. 129, 135-136, 517 A.2d 761, 764-765 (1986), and Auchincloss, supra . That hardly seems likely. Moreover, insufficiency of the evidence is today a singularly inappropriate basis for ordering a new trial, because if the evidence was insufficient to go to the jury in the first place, double jeopardy principles preclude a new trial. The granting of a motion for judgment of acquittal, of course, has this effect. Brooks v. State, 299 Md. 146, 151, 472 A.2d 981, 984 (1984). [17] And the granting of a motion for new trial on the basis of insufficiency is tantamount to the granting of a motion for judgment of acquittal, Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 10-11, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 2147, 57 L.Ed.2d 1, 9 (1978). The Double Jeopardy Clause forbids a second trial for the purpose of affording the prosecutor another opportunity to supply evidence which it failed to muster in the first proceeding. Id. [footnote omitted]. See also Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. 19, 24, 98 S.Ct. 2151, 2154, 57 L.Ed.2d 15, 21 (1978) (decided the same day as Burks ). In Hudson v. Louisiana, 450 U.S. 40, 44 n. 5, 101 S.Ct. 970, 973 n. 5, 67 L.Ed.2d 30, 34 n. 5 (1981), however, the Supreme Court explained that Burks did not preclude a new trial granted for some evidentiary lack less than insufficiency to take the case to the jury  e.g., a verdict against the weight of the evidence. That explanation became a holding in Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 42-43, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 2218-2219, 72 L.Ed.2d 652, 661-662 (1982). Then, too, as we shall later see, a number of American jurisdictions do allow some degree of weighing of the evidence, including consideration of credibility, on motions for new trial. Permitting that to be done, given the different functions of motions for judgments of acquittal and motions for new trials, is a not unreasonable approach. Thus there are several bases for questioning the strict rule of Devers. If, however, the Devers court was correct in saying that our Constitution requires the result it reached, 260 Md. at 379, 272 A.2d at 804, further discussion of the subject would be idle; no one here asserts that the Devers rule is itself unconstitutional in light of any provision of the United States Constitution. [18] So we examine whether the Maryland Constitution indeed mandates that in a criminal case a motion for new trial alleging some evidentiary lack may be granted only if the evidence is or was insufficient to convict; that is, insufficient to take the case to the jury in the first place. The constitutional provision in question, as we have indicated, is what is now the first paragraph of Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights: In the trial of all criminal cases, the Jury shall be the Judges of Law, as well as of fact, except that the Court may pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction. [19] Sans the except clause (added by Ch. 407, Acts of 1949, effective 1 December 1950), this language, in substantially its present form, was adopted as Art. X, § 5 of the Constitution of 1851. It became Art. XII, § 4 of the 1864 Constitution and Art. XV, § 5 of the 1867 Constitution. It was transferred to the Declaration of Rights in 1978. Ennis v. State, 306 Md. 579, 592, 510 A.2d 573, 580 (1986). We are told that the language of the original provision was merely declaratory, and has not altered the pre-existing law regulating the powers of the court and jury in criminal cases. Franklin v. State, 12 Md. 236, 249-250 (1858). See State v. Buchanan, 5 H. & J. 317, 330 (1821) (jury in criminal case has right to judge both the law and the facts, but usually respects the advice of the judge on questions of law). And see 2 Debates of the Constitutional Convention of 1851 at 767 (Mr. Spencer understood the practice to have been for the jury to decide the law); Report of the Trial of the Hon. Samuel Chase, app. at 12 (Evans ed. 1805) (Chase, once a judge of the Maryland General Court, always respected the jury's right to judge the law as well as the facts). The concept of jury as judge of the law was not, moreover, unique to nineteenth century Maryland. Although in England it had been settled, prior to the Revolution, that law was for the judge and facts for the jury, that notion was not always accepted in the colonies. In many New England colonies, for example, judges exercised but limited power, doing little more than to preserve order. See Howe, Juries as Judges of Criminal Law, 52 Harv.L.Rev. 582, 590-591 (1939). One reason for this may have been colonial antipathy to royal officials. Another may have arisen from the fact that many judges were lay people and perhaps no more learned in the law than jurors. Additionally, there was a view that in small agricultural communities a highly democratic tribunal can adequately cope with matters which in other circumstances can more effectively be dealt with through a discreet separation of judicial powers. Id. at 591. In any case, the colonists were often accustomed to jury exercise of extensive powers. Id. This produced in America the demand that the jury in criminal cases should not only determine the facts but judge the law as well. Id. at 582. And during the nineteenth century, it was reiterated with an extraordinarily insistent vitality ... that the people themselves were competent to interpret their laws. Id. As a result, there was widespread adoption of the practice enunciated in the 1851 Maryland Constitution. But quickly a process of attenuation began; [20] by the time Professor Howe wrote (in 1939), he thought that only Maryland and Indiana retained a constitutional provision for juries as judges of law as well as fact. 52 Harv.L.Rev. at 613-614. [21] So far as Maryland is concerned, the process of attenuation began in 1858 with Franklin, where Chief Judge Le Grand announced that the jury's right to judge the law did not permit it to decide whether the law was constitutional  only a judge could do that. 12 Md. at 246. The subsequent determinations that the jury's right to judge the law did not extend to various matters in a criminal trial need not be traced here. They culminated in Stevenson v. State, 289 Md. 167, 423 A.2d 558 (1980), later proceeding, 299 Md. 297, 473 A.2d 450 (1984), and Montgomery v. State, 292 Md. 84, 437 A.2d 654 (1981). [22] The law now is that the jury's right to judge the law is limited to those instances when the jury is the final arbiter of the law of the crime. Such instances arise when an instruction culminates in a dispute as to the proper interpretation of the law of the crime for which there is a sound basis. Under such circumstances, counsel are granted leave to argue contrary to the court's instructions on the law of the crime and this is the occasion when Article 23 and Rule 757 b [now Rule 4-325(c)] require the court's instructions to be advisory. Even here, counsel may not in their arguments attempt to persuade the jury to enact new law or to repeal or ignore existing law. However, in those circumstances where there is no dispute nor a sound basis for a dispute as to the law of the crime, the court's instructions are binding on the jury and counsel as well [emphasis in original]. 292 Md. at 89, 437 A.2d at 657. See also Calhoun v. State, 297 Md. 563, 468 A.2d 45 (1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 993, 104 S.Ct. 2374, 80 L.Ed.2d 846 (1984) (Art. 23 does not apply to a capital sentencing proceeding). As the Supreme Court has aptly observed, because of judicial narrowing, what is now Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights does not mean precisely what it seems to say. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 89, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 1197-1198, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, 219 (1963) [footnote omitted]. What it all boils down to now is that the jury's right to judge the law is virtually eliminated; the provision, as we have construed it, basically protects the jury's right to judge the facts. [23] The question becomes whether this right prevents a judge from weighing evidence on a motion for new trial. There are cases which, speaking in general terms, say that the individual and total weight assigned to the evidence is within the exclusive province of the jury. E.g., Gore v. State, 309 Md. 203, 214, 522 A.2d 1338, 1343 (1987). That particular remark, however, was made in the context of holding that a judge had improperly commented on a matter that was within the jury's fact-finding province; the judge told the jury that as a matter of law there was sufficient evidence to convict Gore. Id. at 209-214, 522 A.2d at 1341-1343. Other statements to like effect have often occurred during discussions of a court's inability to pass (before 1950) on the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case. It was in that context in Devers that we made a comment about a court's inability to weigh evidence. 260 Md. at 371, 272 A.2d at 800. When we said in Shelton v. State, 198 Md. 405, 412, 84 A.2d 76, 80 (1951), that this Court will not inquire into or measure the weight of evidence, and will not reverse the judgment if there is any proper evidence before the jury on which to sustain a conviction, we were writing in the context of sufficiency of the evidence on a motion for a directed verdict of not guilty (now a motion for judgment of acquittal). The same is true of such cases as Chisley v. State, 202 Md. 87, 92, 95 A.2d 577, 579 (1953); Abbott v. State, 188 Md. 310, 313, 52 A.2d 489, 490 (1947); Brack v. State, 187 Md. 542, 546, 51 A.2d 171, 172 (1947); Simmons v. State, 165 Md. 155, 176, 167 A. 60, 68-69 (1933); and Bloomer v. State, 48 Md. 521, 538-540 (1878), overruled on other grounds, Gardner v. State, 286 Md. 520, 408 A.2d 1317 (1979). In other words, until 1950, a court could not pass on the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of law. Sufficiency, of necessity, was left to the jury  it was one of the areas of law, or mixed law and fact, that was indeed within the sole province of that body. Hence the utterance of many a statement about the court's inability to weigh evidence, and about the exclusivity of a jury's right to determine facts. But the 1950 constitutional amendment put an end to the exclusivity of the jury's right to judge sufficiency. Accordingly, nothing in Art. 23's clause about juries as judges of law prevents a court from weighing the evidence on a motion for new trial. That is really not a question of law, but one of fact. The inquiry now becomes whether the second clause of Art. 23's first paragraph  that making the jury the judge of fact  inhibits a court from weighing evidence. The concept that fact-finding is the primary and basic function of the jury is not limited to Maryland, nor is it applicable only to civil cases. See Cooper, Directions for Directed Verdicts: A Compass for Federal Courts, 55 Minn.L.Rev. 903, 909-910 (1971); 9 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 2521 (1971); Note, The Changing Role of the Jury in the Nineteenth Century, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 170 (1964). We already know that at common law, where judges decided the law (as they do for most purposes now in Maryland), motions for new trial could be made in criminal cases, on the ground that a guilty verdict was against the evidence, 4 Blackstone, supra, at 355; J. Chitty, Chitty's Criminal Law, 535 (1819); 1 Stephen, supra, at 310-311, or against the weight of the evidence, 1 Holdsworth, supra at 216-217; 5 L. Orfield, supra, § 33.5 at 291. It is instructive to turn to other American jurisdictions, where judges decide law and juries fact, to see how they approach this problem. Let us begin with the federal courts. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33, like our Rule 4-331(a), authorizes a court to order a new trial in the interest of justice. And as in our rule, no more specific ground for granting the motion is given, save the provisions dealing with newly-discovered evidence. Federal decisions dealing with Rule 33 may be, therefore, enlightening. Under Rule 33, the power of a court on a motion for new trial is much broader than its authority on a motion for judgment of acquittal. 3 C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure § 553 (2d ed. 1982). The court may weigh the evidence and consider the credibility of witnesses and if the court reaches the conclusion that the verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence and that a miscarriage of justice may have resulted, the verdict may be set aside and a new trial granted. It has been said that on such a motion the court sits as a thirteenth juror. Id. [footnotes omitted]. The concept of the thirteenth juror is, indeed, well-developed in federal jurisprudence. In Tibbs v. Florida, supra , the Supreme Court distinguished between a determination of insufficiency of the evidence on a motion for judgment of acquittal and a determination that a guilty verdict was against the weight of the evidence on a motion for new trial. [24] If a conviction is overturned for insufficiency, it means the case never should have gone to the jury because no rational fact-finder could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not implicate credibility issues. 457 U.S. at 37-38, 102 S.Ct. at 2215-2216, 72 L.Ed.2d at 658-659. But to set aside a verdict as against the weight of the evidence does involve a determination that a greater amount of credible evidence supports one side of an issue or cause than the other. Id. In other words, when a court concludes that a guilty verdict is against the weight of the evidence, the court is not deciding that acquittal is the only possible verdict. It sits as a `thirteenth juror' and disagrees with the jury's resolution of conflicting testimony. 457 U.S. at 42, 102 S.Ct. at 2218, 72 L.Ed.2d at 661. See also Hudson v. Louisiana, supra, 450 U.S. at 44-45 & n. 5, 101 S.Ct. at 972-973 & n. 5, 67 L.Ed.2d at 34-35 & n. 5, in which the Supreme Court recognized the thirteenth juror concept. The thirteenth juror idea does not, of course, mean that the judge is at liberty to grant a new trial simply because he would reach a different result than did the jury. United States v. Rothrock, 806 F.2d 318, 322 (1st Cir.1986). Nevertheless, under appropriate circumstances the evidence may be weighed, credibility evaluated, and a new trial ordered if it is `quite clear that the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result' i.e., a miscarriage of justice. Rothrock, 806 F.2d at 322 (quoting Borras v. Sea-Land Service, Inc., 586 F.2d 881, 887 (1st Cir.1978)). Put slightly differently, When the [Rule 33] motion attacks the weight of the evidence, the court's authority is much broader than when it is deciding a motion to acquit on the ground of insufficient evidence. In deciding a motion for new trial, the district court is not constrained by the requirement that it view the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. Thus, it may evaluate the credibility of the witnesses. When the evidence weighs so heavily against the verdict that it would be unjust to enter judgment, the court should grant a new trial. United States v. Arrington, 757 F.2d 1484, 1485 (4th Cir.1985). A majority of federal circuits that have considered the question are in agreement. See United States v. Ashworth, 836 F.2d 260, 266 (6th Cir.1988); United States v. Rodriquez, 812 F.2d 414, 417 (8th Cir.1987); United States v. Martinez, 763 F.2d 1297, 1312 (11th Cir.1985); United States v. Rush, 749 F.2d 1369, 1371 (9th Cir.1984), holding that a motion for new trial should be granted only if the evidence preponderates heavily against the verdict. But cf. Government of Virgin Islands v. Derricks, 810 F.2d 50, 55 (3d Cir.1987) (motions for a new trial based on the weight of the evidence are not favored ... [and] are to be granted sparingly and only in exceptional circumstances); United States v. Johnson, 487 F.2d 1278, 1280 (4th Cir.1973) (Any attack on ... FBI agent's testimony at trial goes to ... credibility [and is] not properly cognizable on a motion for new trial). When we turn to state courts, we find some that say explicitly that matters such as credibility are exclusively for the jury and may not be considered by a judge when a new trial is requested because the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. See Ex Parte Nice, 407 So.2d 874, 881-882 (Ala. 1981); People v. Gennings, 196 Colo. 208, 210, 583 P.2d 908, 909 (1978); State v. Lougiotis, 130 Conn. 372, 375, 34 A.2d 777, 778 (1943); State v. Bowle, 318 So.2d 407, 408 (Fla.App. 1975); State v. Hall, 203 Mont. 528, 534-535, 662 P.2d 1306, 1309 (1983); State v. Chavez, 101 N.M. 136, 138, 679 P.2d 804, 806 (1984); People v. Carter, 63 N.Y.2d 530, 536, 483 N.Y.S.2d 654, 657, 473 N.E.2d 6, 9 (1984); [25] State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832, 835-836 (Tenn. 1978); State v. Williams, 96 Wash.2d 215, 226-228, 634 P.2d 868, 875-876 (1981); Smith v. State, 564 P.2d 1194, 1198 (Wyo. 1977). Ex Parte Nice, supra , was a case much like the one before us. A judge ordered a new trial in a criminal case because he had strong doubts about the credibility of a prosecuting witness. 407 So.2d at 875-876. After concluding that its constitutionally-conferred superintending power permitted it to issue writs of mandamus, the Supreme Court of Alabama did so. Id. at 877-882. The court expressly rejected the thirteenth juror philosophy, id. at 881-882, reasoning that the jury is the arbiter of credibility and that the `trial judge cannot arrogate to himself this power of the jury simply because he finds a witness unbelievable.' Id. at 878-879 (quoting United States v. Cravero, 530 F.2d 666, 670 (5th Cir.1976)). The Nice court's reliance upon Cravero, however, suggests that its analysis is flawed. Cravero was a sufficiency of evidence case, and the Alabama court confused the approach to sufficiency with the approach to weight of the evidence. In like manner Colorado, somewhat more forthrightly, has simply said that credibility and other questions of fact are for the jury alone. See People v. Noga, 196 Colo. 478, 480, 586 P.2d 1002, 1003 (1978); People v. Gennings, supra . But Noga and Gennings, we note, are judgment of acquittal cases, not new trial cases. Other courts that have rejected the thirteenth juror notion based upon flawed reasoning include State v. Cabbage and State v. Williams, both supra. These courts rejected the rule in part because they feared that Burks v. United States , would prohibit retrial of defendants whose verdicts were set aside as being against the weight of the evidence. See State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d at 835-836; State v. Williams, 96 Wash.2d at 227, 634 P.2d at 875-876. These concerns no longer have any validity in light of Tibbs v. Florida, supra, 457 U.S. at 42-43, 102 S.Ct. at 2218-2219, 72 L.Ed.2d at 661-662, where the Supreme Court held that double jeopardy did not bar retrial under those circumstances. A somewhat similar confusion is seen in State v. Ladabouche, 146 Vt. 279, 502 A.2d 852 (1985). Construing its Rule 33 (substantially the same as Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 33), the Supreme Court of Vermont held that a new trial based upon weight of the evidence should be granted only where the evidence preponderates heavily against the verdict and a serious miscarriage of justice would otherwise result. Id. at 285, 502 A.2d at 856. The resolution of questions of fact is assigned to the jury, reasoned the court, and because [t]he `thirteenth juror' standard ... would permit the trial court to order a retrial whenever it disagreed with the outcome ..., [that] rule would seriously intrude on the jury function. Id. The problem with this reasoning, of course, is that the thirteenth juror approach does not allow the trial court to order a new trial simply because the judge would have reached a result different from that reached by the jury. See, e.g., United States v. Rothrock, supra, 806 F.2d at 322. The Vermont court simply misunderstood the concept. Moreover, three of the four federal cases it cites in support of its view of the jury's role are cases in which the federal court indicated that credibility is an appropriate factor for consideration on a weight of the evidence motion for new trial: United States v. Arrington, 757 F.2d at 1485; United States v. Lincoln, 630 F.2d 1313, 1319 (8th Cir.1980); United States v. Indelicato, 611 F.2d 376, 387 (1st Cir.1979). On the other side of this issue stands the greater weight of authority generally accepting the view that credibility is an appropriate factor to consider on a weight of the evidence motion for new trial. Most of these courts, although accepting the principle that a judge may weight evidence on a motion for new trial, have not used the thirteenth juror terminology. See State v. Harrington, 27 Ariz. App. 663, 665-666, 558 P.2d 28, 30-31 (1976); People v. Cartwright, 98 Cal. App.3d 369, 381, 159 Cal. Rptr. 543, 549-550 (1979); Forbes v. United States, 390 A.2d 453, 459 (D.C.App. 1978); Robinson v. State, 462 So.2d 471, 476-477 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1984), review denied, 471 So.2d 44 (Fla. 1985); Josey v. State, 197 Ga. 82, 93-94, 28 S.E.2d 290, 296 (1943); People v. Rey, 136 Ill. App.3d 645, 650-651, 91 Ill.Dec. 496, 483 N.E.2d 982, 986 (1985); State v. Sanders, 260 Iowa 327, 329, 149 N.W.2d 159, 160 (1967); State v. Bell, 206 Kan. 36, 37, 476 P.2d 213, 214-215 (1970); Commonwealth v. Woods, 382 Mass. 1, 7-10, 413 N.E.2d 1099, 1103-1104 (1980); People v. Johnson, 128 Mich. App. 618, 622-623, 341 N.W.2d 160, 162 (1983); Malone v. State, 486 So.2d 360, 366 (Miss. 1986); State v. Parker, 543 S.W.2d 236, 240 (Mo. App. 1976); State v. Boratto, 154 N.J. Super. 386, 406-407, 381 A.2d 794, 804-805 (1977), aff'd in part, rev'd in part on other grounds, 80 N.J. 506, 404 A.2d 604 (1979); State v. Shepherd, 288 N.C. 346, 353, 218 S.E.2d 176, 180-181 (1975); State v. Kringstad, 353 N.W.2d 302, 306-307 (N.D. 1984); State v. Martin, 20 Ohio App.3d 172, 175, 485 N.E.2d 717, 720-721 (1983); Commonwealth v. Meadows, 471 Pa. 201, 208-209, 369 A.2d 1266, 1270 (1977); State v. Benevides, 425 A.2d 77, 80-81 (R.I. 1981). Some of these courts, on the other hand, have expressly applied the thirteenth juror concept. See Dorman v. State, 622 P.2d 448, 454 (Alaska 1981); State v. Barnack, 453 N.E.2d 348, 349 (Ind. Ct. App. 1983); State v. Korman, 439 So.2d 1099, 1100-1102 (La. App. 1983). Upon review of all these cases, we reiterate that there is a difference between a motion for judgment of acquittal and a motion for new trial based on weight of the evidence. The former, if granted, results in acquittal and the proper test is sufficiency of the evidence to convict. Weight and credibility are not at issue. The evidence must be read from the viewpoint most favorable to the prosecution and if so read any rational fact-finder would find it sufficient, the motion must be denied. The latter, if granted, results only in a new trial. As a consequence, a court has more latitude in considering it, and may take into account factors such as credibility. To conclude otherwise is to make the two types of motions essentially indistinguishable when the issue is the extent of evidence presented to the trier of fact. Our rules do not contemplate the identity of these motions, and Art. 23 of our Declaration of Rights does not require that we so treat them, nor does it prohibit a court from considering, at least to the extent we shall shortly explain, weight of evidence and credibility. Indeed, as we have seen, one purpose of Art. 23 is to protect the criminal defendant from unfair oppression. Oppression may come from hostile or biased judges; the jury's ability to acquit via a general verdict protects against that, see n. 23, supra, and today's decision does not reduce that protection. But oppression may also flow from a jury swayed by emotion, bias, or popular clamor. Today's decision does look to protecting the defendant from that, since it gives limited authority to a trial judge to set aside a verdict that is against the weight of the evidence. Our conclusion that Art. 23 does not prohibit this is, therefore, consistent with that provision's overall goals or objectives. See Kaczorowski v. City of Baltimore, 309 Md. 505, 511, 525 A.2d 628, 631 (1987) (legislation should be construed in light of the legislative aim or goal).