Opinion ID: 345511
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plain, Clear and Convincing Proof of Prior Similar Offenses

Text: 50 The critical deficiency in the government's proof was its failure to show that the credit cards had been stolen. The essential links that might have established that fact circumstantially were Locus' and McFarland's non-receipt of the credit cards, or perhaps alternatively evidence of Beechum's unauthorized use of the credit cards. Were either of these facts true, it would have been an easy matter for the prosecution to obtain competent evidence of its truth. The government failed to offer evidence of either at trial. 51 It might, of course, be argued that even without establishing the addressees' non-receipt or the defendant's use of the cards, the government sufficiently proved that the credit cards had been stolen. The issue is whether the fact of Beechum's possessing two credit cards not in his name constitutes clear and convincing proof that the cards were stolen. We think it manifestly does not. 52 We do not question the validity of the inference from the fact of unexplained possession of concededly stolen items to the conclusion that the possessor knew such items were stolen. See Barnes v. United States, 412 U.S. 837, 93 S.Ct. 2357, 37 L.Ed.2d 380 (1973). In the case at bar, however, the essential matter of whether the credit cards were stolen was itself open to conjecture. This distinguishes Beechum's possession of the cards from otherwise similar conduct punished under 18 U.S.C. § 1708. In similar cases prosecuted under that statute, the fact that the checks possessed by a defendant have been stolen is established either directly, as by testimony of a witness to the theft, or circumstantially, by evidence that the addressees never received the checks, that the payees did not know the defendant, and often that the defendant cashed the check. See e. g., United States v. Dobson, 512 F.2d 615 (6th Cir. 1975); United States v. Kimbrell, supra, 487 F.2d 219; United States v. Johnson, 463 F.2d 216 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1028, 93 S.Ct. 472, 34 L.Ed.2d 322 (1972); United States v. Hughes, 418 F.2d 1222 (5th Cir. 1969). To be sure, evidence of non-receipt tends to show that the checks were stolen from the mails. Evidence that defendant cashed a check made out to a payee who did not know him tends to show that the defendant knew the stolen character of the check. But both of these also tend to show, a fortiori, that the check was stolen. 53 The price of going forward with evidence of non-receipt by the addressees or of Beechum's using the cards, assuming these facts were true, would have been but a few minutes of the government's time. The price of omitting this evidence was the admission of dangerously prejudicial evidence of what the trial court termed a substantially similar offense without convincing verification of its similarity to the charged offense. One can convincingly infer no more from the government's proof than that Beechum's was an unexplained possession of the two credit cards. 54 It follows, a fortiori, that the government also failed to prove that the credit cards had been stolen from the mail. We pretermit the question whether the manner in which the cards were stolen was a requisite point of similarity between a prior offense sought to be admitted to prove intent and a charged violation of § 1708. As a practical matter the distinction may be of little import in Beechum's case, since evidence of Locus's and McFarland's non-receipt of the cards would convincingly demonstrate that the cards were stolen from the mail. See generally United States v. Martinez, supra, 466 F.2d at 687-883; Allen v. United States, 387 F.2d 641 (5th Cir. 1968). 55 At least one circuit has already answered in the negative the question we pretermit, while lending affirmative support to our decision on the question we reach. In United States v. Fearns, 501 F.2d 486 (7th Cir. 1974), the court addressed the issue of the admissibility of similar offenses for purposes of showing intent in a prosecution under § 1708. Defendants were charged with stealing government checks from the mails. A former codefendant testified that, in addition to the four checks that formed the basis of the charged offense, she had received from the defendants between twenty-five and thirty other checks, which she endorsed and cashed, splitting the proceeds with the defendants. The Seventh Circuit said that this evidence failed to show all the elements of the claimed prior similar crimes because it did not show, first, that the payees of the other checks were persons other than the witness, and second, even assuming the witness was not a payee, that the proper payees had not authorized her to endorse their names to the checks. If this missing testimony had been supplied, the facts that the checks were stolen and known to be stolen could be inferred from the circumstances. Id. at 490. 56 The court went on to observe that it was unnecessary to prove that the checks were stolen from the mails. Id. at 490. We express no opinion regarding the Seventh Circuit's view that Broadway would have required proving the manner in which the checks were stolen, but we firmly agree with that court's staunch insistence on proof that the checks had been stolen in some manner. 57 The government's reliance on United States v. Robertson, 460 F.2d 1250 (5th Cir. 1972) is misplaced. Robertson involved a postal employee charged with unlawfully possessing a department store credit card stolen from the mails in violation of § 1708. The government was permitted to show that the defendant gave a witness another credit card (the other card) from the same department store and that the witness and defendant went together to the department store to make purchases. 17 The court, while not specifically identifying this as other crimes evidence, admitted it as evidence tending to show defendant's knowledge that the card found in her possession was stolen from the mails. Although there was testimony regarding the non-receipt of the charged credit card, it is not clear from the opinion in Robertson whether the government also established the non-receipt of the other credit card. In any case, the defendant's use of the other credit card from the same department store, combined with defendant's admission that the card had been given her at the post office, provided sufficient circumstantial evidence that the card had been stolen. By contrast, in the case at bar there was no evidence how Beechum had received the credit cards and no evidence that he or anyone else had ever used them. 58 Finally, the fact that Beechum delivered mail to the addresses of the persons named on the credit cards on one or more occasions during the ten month period after the issuance of the cards does not indicate that the cards were stolen, and certainly not that Beechum stole them. 18 Evidence that Beechum delivered mail to the specified addresses within the ten day period after Sears approved the credit card applications might have been somewhat more persuasive, since the parties stipulated that it was Sears's practice to mail such cards within a ten day period. No such evidence was introduced at trial. That the specified addresses fell within Beechum's assigned route on one or more occasions during the ten month period proves little or nothing. Beechum was a substitute mail carrier. It is likely that thousands of Dallas addresses fell within one or another of his assigned routes at some point during this period. A credit card that was misplaced or otherwise came lawfully into Beechum's possession would likely have borne a Dallas address. 59 Nobody would doubt that the evidence adduced by the prosecution would have been insufficient to prove that Beechum's possession of the credit cards was a § 1708 offense. On the other hand, the standard of proving prior similar offenses falls short of a reasonable doubt standard. 60 There was at least some circumstantial evidence from which it could be inferred that the credit cards had been stolen. After all, carrying two credit cards not in one's own name is an activity that justly arouses our suspicions. At the same time, however, we must be sensitive to the critical importance of similarity in an other crimes context, and thus adhere to the plain, clear and convincing standard of proof. Had the prosecution gone forward with the evidence that the cards were stolen, such as the addressee's non-receipt of the cards or Beechum's unauthorized use of them, the burden of rebutting that evidence would have fallen to the appellant. But on the facts of this record we cannot say that the prosecution has carried its initial burden of showing clearly and convincingly that Beechum's prior conduct was similar to the charged offense, i. e., that the credit cards were stolen.