Court Opinion

ID: 9453815
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:24:46.058828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:48.872665
License: Public Domain

SEITZ, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the conclusion that this matter should be remanded to the district court. But to avoid any possibility of impinging on the Supreme Court’s mandate here, I prefer to ground my vote on reasons that are not dependent upon the soundness of our interpretation of the Supreme Court opinion in this case. However, while not condoning Ginzburg’s activities, I think it is appropriate to note how finely the line may be drawn between freedom and imprisonment, even among commercial operators in this field. Compare Redrup v. State of New York, 386 U.S. 767, 87 S.Ct. 1414, 18 L.Ed.2d 515 (1967).
In his timely petition for reconsideration of sentence under F.R.Cr.P. 35, Ginzburg prayed for an evidentiary hearing. The district judge heard counsel and, without delineating his reasons, entered an order denying the prayers of the petition. This appeal followed.
I believe the refusal to grant Ginzburg an evidentiary hearing on his petition was incompatible with a sound exercise of discretion. I base my conclusion on at least the cumulative effect of the factors of record which I shall discuss.
1. At the time of the original sentencing Ginzburg’s counsel made no statement on his behalf and when the court asked the defendant himself if he wished to “address” the court, defendant said that his counsel had “expressed my messages.” I need not decide whether Ginzburg was afforded a sufficient opportunity to make a statement and presentation under Rule 32(a) when he was invited to “address” the court. The court did have a presentenee report but its contents were not disclosed. The petition for reconsideration recites that Ginzburg did not take advantage of his original opportunity because he was relying on the advice of his counsel, who presumably felt that a reversal of the conviction was a certainty. It was not of decisive importance that Ginzburg did not take advantage of the opportunity to speak, for whatever reason. What was important was that at the reconsideration stage he wanted to do so and was denied that privilege. Had he been permitted to speak he might have supplied the trial judge with material which would have been helpful to the judge in deciding the merits of the petition. It is not a matter of waiver in this context. Rather, it is the desirability of the sentencing judge being as fully informed as *57possible before deciding an application for reconsideration.
2. There was a lapse of over two and one-half years between the date of the original sentencing and the proceedings on the present petition. Insofar as the petition showed, the refusal to grant the hearing precluded the development of certain relevant matters which arose after the original sentencing. One of the reasons for Rule 35 would seem to be to permit the updating of a sentenced defendant’s personal history in aid of an informed reconsideration.
3. At the argument on this petition the district court, referring to his sentencing notes, stated that Ginzburg had been convicted on 28 counts. It then indicated that it could have sentenced him to 140 years. The court then asked counsel: “Now, then, do you want to compare 5 to 140?” I believe that the district court was not legally warranted in assuming that it could have imposed prison sentences aggregating 140 years. I think the allowable units of prosecution were six at most (one for each of the three publications and one for the advertising in connection with each). See Ladner v. United States, 358 U.S. 169, 79 S.Ct. 209, 3 L.Ed.2d 199 (1958). It is true that this would still have permitted the district court to impose a substantially greater prison sentence than was in fact imposed. But that is not the point. The point is that when it fixed the five year prison sentence the district court believed it was being lenient in relation to 140 years. The district court might well desire now to reconsider entirely the nature of the sentence in the light of a corrected understanding of the permissible maximum sentence.
4. In the Government’s response to Ginzburg’s petition, it was suggested that a hearing would be appropriate. Indeed, it stated further that the Government did not take a position insofar as the petition sought a reduction in sentence.
I believe the product of a full eviden-tiary hearing may well cause the district court to find merit in the petition. I am confident that it will evaluate the matter afresh and discharge its duty as the evidence and the law dictate.
In my view, the assignment of error based on the refusal of the sentencing judge to disclose the contents of the pre-sentence investigation need not now be considered. Rather, I believe the ruling thereon should be vacated so that it can be renewed before the district court, if deemed important, after the development of the facts at the evidentiary hearing. The court’s exercise of discretion, if invoked, can then be made in the light of the developed facts.
Judge FREEDMAN concurs in this opinion.