Opinion ID: 271897
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Miscellaneous Conduct and Rulings of the Trial Court.

Text: 26 Appellants assert they were denied a fair trial as a result of the conduct and rulings of the trial court. They cite several instances, which may be summarized and disposed of briefly. 27 The trial court required appellants to choose between making their opening statements immediately after the opening statements of the prosecution, and not making them at all. This seems well within the trial court's broad power to regulate the conduct and timing of a trial, and not prejudicial to the defendants. 28 The trial court excluded offered testimony of a retired special agent of the IRS, by whose testimony appellants intended to show that the special agents watching from behind the cellar door could not have seen activities at the door of Apartment B. This evidence was of little relevance except as to the existence of probable cause, which had already been established in the preliminary hearing before Judge Weinfeld. Moreover, the testimony would tell the jury nothing it could not deduce by itself from the testimony as to the lay-out of the apartment and the landing. 29 The trial court declined to hold a new hearing on the admissibility of the fruits of the search, saying that he was content to abide by the results of the hearing before Judge Weinfeld. This was perfectly proper, in the absence of any offer of important new evidence of which appellants were not aware at the time of the preliminary hearing. United States v. Wheeler, 172 F.Supp. 278 (W.D. Pa.1959), aff'd, 275 F.2d 94 (3d Cir. 1960); Waldron v. United States, 95 U.S.App.D.C. 66, 219 F.2d 37 (1954). 30 The trial court urged throughout that the trial time be held to one week. Appellants do not indicate how they were prejudiced by this insistence. They contend that the court misled them into thinking that requests for charges would be considered timely up to the time of charge. This is simply not so. Nor is it true that the trial court denied them sufficient time to have their handwriting expert examine the exhibits which the Government claimed were in the handwriting of the appellants. The appellants had known that this material was in the possession of the Government for months, and knew as of the first day of trial that the Government intended to establish by means of a handwriting expert that the material was written by the appellants. 31 After the jury had been out for some time, the court called them in to question them as to whether it would be necessary to reserve hotel rooms for them. He called up counsel for a sidebar conference and told them that he intended to ask the jury, not as to how they were thinking, but as to which counts they were in agreement on, one way or the other. Counsel acquiesced, counsel for the appellants apparently in the belief that the trial court would accept the verdict on the last four counts and might dismiss the first count. The jury reported agreement on all counts except as to Count 1 against one defendant. The trial court accepted this as the verdict of the jury. We fail to see how appellants were prejudiced by this procedure. 32 Finally, in the charge to the jury, the court spoke in passing of the need to demonstrate a greater quantum of willfulness with respect to a felony count than with respect to a misdemeanor count. The language was not dissimilar to that used by the Supreme Court in discussing the same point in Ingram v. United States, 360 U.S. 672, 676, 79 S.Ct. 1314, 3 L.Ed.2d 1503 (1959). Moreover, the charge read as a whole is a fair statement of the different requirements of proof under the different counts. 33