Court Opinion

ID: 9467060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:37:00.319989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:07.881554
License: Public Domain

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I wholeheartedly concur in Judge Winter’s scholarly opinion herein in which he has carefully and perceptively canvassed the troublesome law of criminal espionage, except for its ruling on the count charging a violation of § 641, 18 U.S.C., as set forth in Part V of the opinion.
In the district court the defendants were convicted under the espionage counts in the indictment and each received a sentence of fifteen years. They also were convicted under three other counts, including the count under § 641. They received sentences of five years under each of these counts. All sentences were to run concurrently. The opinion of Judge Winter sustains all these convictions save that under § 641. His opinion would reverse the conviction under this count. It was, however, the position of the Government, as stated in its brief, and reiterated in oral argument, that “if this Court affirms appellants’ convictions on any of those counts (that is, the counts other than that under § 641), there is no occasion for it to consider appellants’ contentions regarding their Section 641 convictions.” In short, it declares that under the concurrent sentence rule, it is unnecessary in this case to review the conviction of the defendants under § 641. I agree.
The concurrent sentence rule provides that where a defendant receives concurrent sentences on plural counts of an indictment and where the conviction on one count is found to be good, a reviewing court need not pass on the validity of the defendant’s conviction on another count. This familiar rule has been repeatedly approved by both the Supreme Court1 and by this court.2 In recent decisions — particularly because of the decision in Benton v. Maryland (1969) 395 U.S. 784, 791-92, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 2060-2061, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 — the application of the rule has, though, been restricted to situations where there is no substantial possibility that the unreviewed conviction will adversely affect the defendant’s right to parole or expose him to a substantial risk of adverse collateral consequences. See United States v. Vasquez-Vasquez (5th Cir. 1980) 609 F.2d 234, 235; United States v. Rubin (5th Cir. 1979) 591 F.2d 278, 280, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 864, 100 S.Ct. 133, 62 L.Ed.2d 87; United States ex rel. Weems v. Follette (2d Cir. 1969) 414 F.2d 417, 419, cert. denied, 397 U.S. 950, 90 S.Ct. 973, 25 L.Ed.2d 131 (1970). We recognized this limitation upon the rule in Close v. United States (4th Cir. 1971) 450 F.2d 152, 155, cert, denied, 405 U.S. 1068, 92 S.Ct. 1513, 31 L.Ed.2d 799 (1972).
*932There is, though, no substantial likelihood of adverse effect on defendants’ possible parole rights or of other adverse collateral consequences arising out of the failure to review the convictions under § 641 in this case. See United States v. Smith (8th Cir. 1979) 601 F.2d 972, 974-75, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 879, 100 S.Ct. 166, 62 L.Ed.2d 108. The conviction under the espionage charges resulted in á sentence of fifteen years. Under § 4205(a), 18 U.S.C., the defendants must serve at least five years under this sentence before they will become eligible for parole. The defendants, therefore, cannot be eligible for parole until they have served five years of their concurrent sentences. When, however, they have served that five years, they would have completed their concurrent sentences under the § 641 count. Neither is there any possible adverse effect on the defendants’ place or conditions of confinement by reason of the application of the concurrent sentence rule in this case. See United States v. Holder (8th Cir. 1977) 560 F.2d 953, 956, n.4. Moreover, there could be no adverse effect under the Parole Commission’s “salient factor score,” since the guidelines for such “score” provide that multiple offenses arising out of a single set of circumstances (which is the situation here) will be treated as a single offense thereunder. See United States v. Smith, 601 F.2d at 975. Accordingly, allowing defendants’ convictions under the § 641 count will not increase the time defendants will have to serve nor cause them any adverse collateral consequences. I, therefore, would apply the concurrent sentence doctrine in these cases, and decline to review the merits of the defendants’ convictions under § 641. I find support for this view in the action taken by the court in United States v. Boyce (9th Cir. 1979) 594 F.2d 1246, 1252, also an espionage case, in which there was, as here, a concurrent sentence under a § 641 count which the court declined to review for the same reasons assigned by me for declining to review like convictions in these cases.
K. K. HALL, Circuit Judge, concurs in this opinion.

. Barnes v. United States (1973) 412 U.S. 837, 848, n.16, 93 S.Ct. 2357, 2364 n.16, 37 L.Ed.2d 380; Lawn v. United States (1958) 355 U.S. 339, 359, 78 S.Ct. 311, 322, 2 L.Ed.2d 321; Roviaro v. United States (1957) 353 U.S. 53, 59, n.6, 77 S.Ct. 623, 627 n.6, 1 L.Ed.2d 639; Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) 320 U.S. 81, 85, 63 S.Ct. 1375, 1378, 87 L.Ed. 1774.

. United States v. Powell (4th Cir. 1969) 407 F.2d 582, 585, cert. denied, 395 U.S. 966, 89 S.Ct. 2113, 23 L.Ed.2d 753; United States v. Wechsler (4th Cir. 1968) 392 F.2d 344, 348, cert. denied, 392 U.S. 932, 88 S.Ct. 2283, 20 L.Ed.2d 1389; United States v. Jacobs (4th Cir. 1967) 386 F.2d 170, 172.