Opinion ID: 323055
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Lesser Included Offense Standard of Whitaker Applied

Text: 40 'Both sides agree that United States v. Whitaker, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 344, 447 F.2d 314 (D.C.Cir. 1971) sets forth the controlling standards for applying the lesser included offense doctrine.' 21 For that reason we shall apply, but not repeat in toto, the analysis of Whitaker to Brewster's case. 41 In interpreting Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(c), which provides that 'the defendant may be found guilty of an offense necessarily included in the offense charged,' and our previous decisions relating thereto, we 'held that for the defense (or prosecution) to be entitled to a lesser included offense charge five conditions must be met. First, . . . a proper request . . .. Second, the elements of the lesser offense must be identical to part of the elements of the greater offense . . .. Third, . . . some evidence which would justify conviction of the lesser offense. Fourth, the proof on the element or elements differentiating the two crimes must be sufficiently in dispute so that the jury may consistently find the defendant innocent of the greater and guilty of the lesser included offense. Fifth, 'in general the chargeability of lesser included offenses rests on a principle of mutuality . . .. 22 42 That the first condition has been met here is undisputed. As to the second condition, the language of the two sections of the statute, embracing the elements of the two offenses, has been discussed graphically and in detail under II. and III.A., supra, and our discussion demonstrates that the elements of section 201(g) are in part identical to the elements of section 201(c)(1). 23 The third is virtually undisputed, as discussed under III.B., supra. The fifth, mutuality, is not in issue, as the right of the defense to such a charge was never asserted and is unchallenged, and the prosecution wisely did not and does not rest its right to a lesser included offense charge on a claim that the defense would have been entitled to the same. 43 What remains to be analyzed is the fourth, the element differentiating the two crimes of accepting a bribe and accepting a gratuity. As in Whitaker, the additional element involves intent; in Whitaker, an intent to commit a crime after entry; in Brewster's case, a higher degree of criminal intent to constitute accepting a bribe under section (c)(1) than to constitute accepting a gratuity under section (g). 44 We thus turn to those clauses of the two statutory sections which we have labelled 'A' and 'C' (see p. 67 supra). 45 The requisite intent to constitute accepting a bribe is to accept a thing of value 'corruptly' under section (c)(1); the comparable intent under the gratuity section (g) is to accept a thing of value 'otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty.' On the face of the statute the two comparative clauses are not equivalents. Congress did not use the same language in defining criminal intent for the two offenses. 'Corruptly' bespeaks a higher degree of criminal knowledge and purpose than does 'otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty.' It appears entirely possible that a public official could accept a thing of value 'otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty,' and at the same time not do it 'corruptly.' Congress obviously wished to prohibit public officials accepting things of value with either degree of criminal intent; it did so, but it legislated a difference in the requisite criminal intent and correspondingly in the penalties attached. 46 There is more, on the face of the statute itself, relevant to criminal intent. What we have labelled as comparative clause 'C' relates to clause 'A' and to criminal intent. To accept a thing of value 'in return for: (1) being influenced in (the) performance of any official act' (section (c)(1)), appears to us to imply a higher degree of criminal intent than to accept the same thing of value 'for or because of any official act performed or to be performed' (section (g)). Perhaps the difference in meaning is slight, but Congress chose different language in which to express comparable ideas. The bribery section makes necessary an explicit quid pro quo which need not exist if only an illegal gratuity is involved; the briber is the mover or producer of the official act, but the official act for which the gratuity is given might have been done without the gratuity, although the gratuity was produced because of the official act. 47 Our conclusion is reinforced when the two clauses 'A' and 'C' and transposed in each section to be read consecutively. To accept a thing of value 'corruptly . . . in return for being influenced in his performance of any official act' evidences a higher degree of criminal intent than to accept the same thing of value 'otherwise than as provided by law for the proper discharge of official duty . . . for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by him.' When clauses 'A' and 'C' are thus considered together in each section, the bribery section (c)(1) obviously prescribes a criminal intent different from and of a higher degree than that specified in the illegal gratuity section (g). 48 The different and higher requisite degree of criminal intent, then, is the additional element which is essential to make the offense of bribery under section 201(c)(1) the greater offense in relation to the lesser included offense of accepting an illegal gratuity under section 201(g). 49 Although neigher party made in brief or oral orgument the same analysis based on Whitaker as we have above, yet both defense and prosecution seem to agree that the element of criminal intent, however differentiated, is the vital distinction between the bribery and gratuity sections. 'Under 201(c), the Senator's defense necessarily focused upon the question whether the payments were accepted 'corruptly . . . in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act.' This defense was successful.' 24 'Both of these defenses were directed solely to the critical issue in the bribery case, namely corrupt intent . . .. In defending the charge under 201(c) it was irrelevant whether or not the payments were for Brewster or another entity; the entire defense was aimed at the element of corrupt intent.' 25 The prosecution agrees: 'The sections are distinguished in one vital regard, that of intent. Section 201(c)(1), defining the more severe of the two offenses, requires the recipient of the bribe to have the specific intent of 'being influenced in his performance of any official act. 26 50 We turn now to defendant's agrument that, even though the gratuity offense under (g) may be embraced in the bribery offense under (c)(1), yet on our rationale in Whitaker 'the prosecutor's right to a lesser included offense instruction (is) governed by a more meticulous test, circumscribed by 'stringent constitutional limits.' . . . Those limits relate to the fundamental due process requirement of notice and the long-standing constitutional prohibition against alterations in the charging part of the indictment.' 27 51 In Whitaker we identified two important factors relevant to these points. First, Whitaker established that 'the idea that the simple mechanistic test of all theoretical elements of the included offense being present in the greater offense charged in the indictment . . . has not always been followed in this Circuit.' 28 Instead, we expressed the essential requisite as 'there must . . . be an 'inherent' relationship between the greater and lesser offenses, i.e., they must relate to the protection of the same interests, and must be so related that in the general nature of these crimes, though not necessarily invariably, proof of the lesser offense is necessarily presented as part of the showing of the commission of the greater offense.' 29 52 In addition to close identity of the elements of the lesser offense to those of the greater, in Whitaker we did establish a second requirement, i.e., there must be sufficient notice to the defendant when the indictment charges only the greater offense, to enable him to know that he may face a charge of the lesser offense as well. The right of the prosecutor is limited to the offense of which defendant has been given notice by the indictment. 30 'This stricture' on the options of the prosecutor is to prevent him from changing 'the charging part of the indictment to the jeopardy of the defendant.' 31 53 So far as a requirement of notice to defendant Brewster that at trial he would have to meet a charge based on the illegal gratuity section 201(g), we observe that any trial counsel is always on notice of Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(c), permitting an instruction to the jury and conviction on a lesser included offense, even though not specifically charged in the indictment. In Brewster's case specifically, trial counsel undeniably was also on notice of the similar language, textual proximity, and logical relationship of sections 201(c)(1) and (g), all of which raised the reasonable prospect that accepting an illegal gratuity under section (g) would be construed as a lesser offense included within accepting a bribe under section (c)(1). Given Rule 31(c), defendant therefore had ample notice of his need to prepare a defense against an unlawful gratuity charge. 32 54 To support his contention that he was deprived of proper constitutional notice of the charges he was to meet, defendant Brewster again points to two of the differences between the bribery and gratuity sections (which we have identified as comparative clauses 'A' and 'B'). Specifically defendant claims that the element of intent in the bribery section (c), 'corruptly,' which would not need to be proved in a charge under the lesser included gratuity section (g) offense, misled the defendant to center his defense principally on disproving the necessary element of intent embraced in the word 'corruptly.' If he had realized he was also charged or would be charged under the gratuity section (g), which does not contain the word 'corruptly,' he would have adopted a different emphasis in the presentation of his defense. Likewise, defendant claims he was diverted by the words 'or for any other person or entity' under the bribery section (c), because, if his defense had been directed to the gratuity section (g), he would have wasted little time on this part of the offense charged, because gratuity section (g) is limited to a receipt of funds 'for himself.' 55 We think there was no lack of notice, nor any misleading prejudice to the defendant here. It is always true that the greater offense contains an element which the lesser included offense does not; this is one of the reasons for the use of the terms 'greater' and 'lesser' to describe the two offenses, and why the lesser is thought to be included in the greater. It will nearly always be true that the defendant will strive mightily to disprove the extra element in the greater offense, to escape the usually greater punishment attached to the greater crime. Ordinarily, this would simply be good trial strategy. 56 It is also frequently true that the defendant is successful in making a defense to the extra element necessary to prove the greater offense, in this case the criminal intent defined by 'corruptly,' as the defendant did here. 33 But it is precisely the defendant's usual trial strategy of concentrating on the additional element or elements involved in the greater offense, and the likelihood of his success in this strategy, that induces the prosecution to ask for the lesser included offense charge, as the prosecution did here. So this should constitute no surprise to the defense, nor do we think it did in the case at bar. 57 We say this the more confidently because, even though defendant's trial strategy placed great emphasis on his defense against the charge under the bribery section (c)(1), he did not entirely overlook a defense against a charge under the gratuity section (g). The defense offered evidence that the Committee was a lawful entity acting normally as a compaign fund-raising organization, which was relevant as a defense to a charge under the gratuity section, but would have been completely irrelevant evidence as a defense to a charge under the bribery section. Under the language of the bribery section alone, the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the 'other entity' to which the payment was purportedly made would have been irrelevant and immaterial. However, evidence that the D.C. Committee was the alter ego of the defendant Brewster would have been highly relevant to a charge brought under the gratuity section. A contribution to an alter ego committee of the defendant could have been considered as having been 'for himself' under the more limited language of the gratuity section. Defendant Brewster's strategy was to cover this possible vulnerability by showing the legitimacy and separateness of the D.C. Committee, demonstrating that the defense did not ignore the possibility of a conviction under the lesser included offense of gratuity section (g). 58