Court Opinion

ID: 9445003
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:18:02.266336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:05.790195
License: Public Domain

MURRAH, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As this case comes to us, the defendant stands convicted and condemned on the testimony of two witnesses testifying through an interpreter after having taken an oath, the obligation of which they did not comprehend because they did not understand the language in which it was administered.
No one would gainsay the fundamental right of an accused to be convicted only on the oath or affirmation of his accusers. And, “In order that the ceremony of swearing the witness may be effective at all, it is certainly necessary that he understand something of the meaning of it. If he has no such understanding whatever, the form is idle; under such circumstances the witness is not sworn at all in any reasonable sense, or in contemplation of law. If he merely holds up his hand and nods his head in response to the formula propounded him, not understanding that in doing so he has assumed any additional obligation to tell the truth, or risk of punishment should he fail to do so, he has no more bound himself than if he were of unsound mind. The assent he yields, to be effective, must be an intelligent assent, and it cannot be intelligent if he has no idea of the meaning of what he is doing.” Lee v. Missouri Pac. Ry. Co., 67 Kan. 402, 73 P. 110, 112, 63 L.R.A. 271.
It is assumed for the purposes of this case that an oath without understanding is no oath at all, but the conviction is affirmed on the ground of waiver for failure to timely object or bring the matter to the attention of the court. The cited authorities support this view but they take no account of the salutary rule of federal criminal procedure to the effect that plain errors or defects in the trial of a case affecting substantial rights of the defendant, are noticeable although they are not brought to the attention of the court. Rule 52(b) Federal Rules Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A. This rule is in recognition of the inescapable duty of a federal court to see that the trial is “conducted with solicitude for the essential rights of the accused.” Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 71, 62 S.Ct. 457, 465, 86 L.Ed. 680.
To be sure, the right or privilege, like any other right, may be intelligently waived, but I do not believe that it was deliberately and intelligently waived in this case. These witnesses were sworn en masse with other witnesses, and admittedly, it did not occur to the court or counsel that they had not been sworn until the third day after the trial of the case. If, through inadvertence or mistake, the witnesses were permitted to testify without an understanding of the sanctity of their oath, it is never too late to correct the error and I should not hesitate to so order it.
This indecorous situation demonstrates the propriety of having the oath administered to each witness after he has taken his place in the witness box. If the oath is to be more than an empty gesture; if it is a pledge to tell the truth with the help of God under penalty of vengeance of the law of God and man, it ought to be done at a time and place and in a manner which befits the sanctity and solemnity of the ceremony. It ought certainly to be done in a manner to bring home to the witness the solemn obligation it imposes. It obviously was not done in this case and I would reverse for a new trial.