Opinion ID: 487412
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Errors Believed To Have Been Committed By The District Court.

Text: 77 For the reasons stated below, we hold that the district court erred in reaching its ultimate finding that the government failed to prove that no conditions or combination of conditions would reasonably assure the presence of Shakur at trial. That finding rests on a series of legal errors and clearly erroneous findings of fact. 78 First, the court committed both factual and legal errors in determining that there was a plausible explanation for Shakur's lengthy period as a fugitive. 79 We have held that a defendant's history of flight must be given careful consideration in determining whether bail should be granted. Claudio, supra, 806 F.2d at 343. That history is particularly important here. Shakur's flight was not some incident remote in time and unrelated to the matter at hand. Rather, his flight was precisely to avoid the charges now pending against him. Shakur presumably has the same motive to flee if released on bail now as he had when he became a fugitive in 1982: to avoid being convicted of serious pending charges and receiving significant punishment. Claudio, supra, 806 F.2d at 338. As the district court here recognized, Shakur would still be lead[ing] a life of exile had he not--in Shakur's words--been captured. Moreover, Shakur has demonstrated great skill in avoiding arrest for those very charges. Although on the FBI's list of the ten most wanted fugitives, Shakur was able to evade law enforcement authorities through the use of fictitious names and by moving from city to city. There is no reason to believe that Shakur's evasion skills have diminished since his incarceration in February 1986. 80 Even assuming that Shakur's asserted explanation for his original flight was not--in the words of the district court--inherently implausible, that explanation was insufficient as a matter of law to justify his subsequent failure to surrender. In United States v. Bailey, 444 U.S. 394, 415 (1980), the Supreme Court held that a defendant to an escape charge cannot meet the minimum standard for submitting the affirmative defense of duress or necessity to a jury unless the defendant proffers evidence of a bona fide effort to surrender as soon as the claimed duress or necessity ceased. The district court in the instant case sought to distinguish Bailey on the ground that it involved a prosecution for past escape. In our view, however, the Bailey Court's burden of production holding is directly relevant to whether the district court properly considered Shakur's explanation for his flight plausible. We hold that Shakur's failure to arrange, with the assistance and protection of a court or counsel, to surrender at any time between his flight in March 1982 and his arrest in February 1986 renders his explanation implausible as a matter of law. 81 The district court also committed a factual error in its assessment of the likelihood that Shakur would be convicted. That error resulted from a misperception of the results of the trial leading to our opinion in Ferguson, supra, 758 F.2d 843. True, that trial resulted in some acquittals. The only defendant, like Shakur here, who was charged with having been one of the five core family members, was convicted on substantive and conspiracy RICO counts. 758 F.2d at 847. That defendant--Sekou Odinga--was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of 40 years and was fined $50,000. Id. at 848. Moreover, although certain members of the family's secondary team were acquitted on more serious charges, they were convicted of being accessories after the fact to a robbery for [their] activities ... in connection with Mutulu Shakur. Id. at 851 n. 2. We hold that the district court here erred in its attempt to minimize the likelihood that Shakur will be convicted in the instant case. 82 The district court also was clearly erroneous in discounting Shakur's numerous challenges to the court's jurisdiction. A challenge to jurisdiction of course is not in and of itself a ground to deny bail. Such a challenge, when made in a proper motion, should be interpreted to constitute nothing more than a respectful assertion of lawful rights. Circumstances in the instant case, however, render untenable the district court's refusal to equate Shakur's challenge to a likelihood of flight. 83 Shakur's challenge is frivolous, as his attorney surely knows. Ferguson, supra, 758 F.2d at 846-47 & n. 1 (rejecting as without merit Odinga's claim that the district court did not have jurisdiction over him because he was a political prisoner-of-war); United States v. Lumumba, 741 F.2d 12, 15 (2 Cir.1984) (rejecting claim of Shakur's present counsel that the district court was without jurisdiction to hold him in criminal contempt because he was  'Vice President and Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika' ), cert. denied 107 S.Ct. 192 (1986). When the frivolousness of Shakur's challenge is considered in light of the manner in which on numerous occasions he has made that challenge, it becomes all too apparent that Shakur will subject himself to the court's jurisdiction only if, at the time of trial, it is still in [his] strategy to do so. From his first appearance before the district court--during which he conveyed greetings from a fellow fugitive--until the evidentiary hearing on the instant application--where he testified that since the court [was] one of [the FBI's] tools to harass ... the movement, the movement need not comply with grand jury subpoenaes--Shakur has displayed nothing but defiance of the court's power to try him unless he chooses to be tried. We hold that the district court committed clear error in discounting Shakur's challenge to the court's jurisdiction. 84 Finally, we hold that the district court erred as a matter of law in placing primary reliance on its assessment of Shakur's demeanor. It is clear from what we have stated above that the court relied almost exclusively on Shakur's testimony to discount his history of flight and defiance of the court. In the Act, however, Congress requires the court to consider the defendant's history and characteristics, as well as other factors, in determining whether conditions can be imposed that reasonably will assure the defendant's presence at trial. We recognize that an assessment of demeanor often may be a helpful aid to the court in reaching its ultimate finding on this issue. In a case such as the instant one, however, where the factors enunciated by Congress compel the conclusion that the defendant should be detained, the court may not second guess Congress by relying almost exclusively on an extrastatutory inquiry. 85 This principle is particularly applicable here because the court's assessment of Shakur's demeanor was made in the absence of cross examination by the government. Cf. Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 295 (1973) (absence of cross examination calls into question the ultimate ' integrity of the fact-finding process ' ) (quoting Berger v. California, 393 U.S. 314, 315 (1969)). While the court did not err in prohibiting cross examination--thereby protecting Shakur's privilege against self-incrimination--the court did err in relying so heavily on a fact-finding procedure of limited utility to the exclusion of the factors prescribed by Congress. 86 The district court erred in its ultimate finding on the existence of conditions to assure Shakur's presence. That finding is infected by its clearly erroneous findings of fact regarding Shakur's explanation for his long period as a fugitive, the likelihood that he will be convicted, and his defiance of the court's jurisdiction. The court's ultimate finding also rests on legal errors. First, Shakur's explanation for his period as a fugitive is implausible as a matter of law since he never took steps to surrender. The district court therefore misperceived the legal significance of the historical fact of Shakur's period as a fugitive. Second, the court erred in relying almost exclusively on its assessment of Shakur's demeanor to the exclusion of the factors prescribed by Congress in Sec. 3142(g). 87 When considered in light of a proper factual and legal analysis, the record makes clear that Shakur poses a serious--probably inevitable--risk of flight and that no condition or combination of conditions could be imposed which reasonably would assure his presence at trial. In light of the nature of the crimes with which Shakur is charged, the likelihood that he will be convicted, and his history and characteristics, we disagree with the district court that the pledging by his political supporters of their homes will dissuade Shakur's flight. Indeed, it is more likely that those supporters would seek to obtain his freedom through flight by any means necessary, including the loss of their homes. Moreover, we disagree with the district court that those conditions of bail which would have required Shakur to maintain daily contact with the government would prevent flight. In a case such as this, such conditions may serve as inconveniences, Colombo, supra, 777 F.2d at 100, but their principal effect would be simply to alert the court after Shakur had fled. 88 We hold that the government has sustained its burden under Sec. 3142(e). The district court erred when it found that conditions could be imposed which reasonably would assure the presence of Shakur at trial. That finding rests on errors of law as well as on clearly erroneous findings of fact.