Court Opinion

ID: 9453838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:25:40.536947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:49.754574
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Chief Judge, with whom MOORE, Circuit Judge,
concurs (concurring in the result):
I reluctantly concur in the reversal of Tarrago’s conviction.
I voted in favor of en banc consideration of this case because it seemed to me that it is important in all situations where, after submission to all active judges, we announce a new rule for the district courts to apply in determining issues raised in criminal cases that all of the active judges of the court should pass upon the question of the extent to which the new rule is to be applied to cases tried prior to the time the court announces the new rule. Unfortunately we did not give such consideration to the application of the new test for determining criminal responsibility which was announced in United States v. Freeman, 357 F.2d 606 (2d Cir. 1966).
In Freeman, the court adopted the test of criminal responsibility in § 4.01 of the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code. United States v. Malafronte, 357 F.2d 629 (2d Cir. 1966), was argued and decided concurrently with Freeman. The court held, “because the trial judge, in assessing [the criminal incompetence] defense, applied a standard which we have today declared in Freeman to be outmoded and hence insufficient, we reverse and remand for a new trial,” 357 F.2d at 629, applying the Freeman rule retroactively to a ease on direct appeal without explicitly considering whether this new rule should only be applied prospectively. Since both Freeman and Malafronte were circulated to all of the active judges of the court and neither my brethren nor I objected or desired to give these cases en banc consideration, I feel compelled to accept the logical consequences of the remand in Malafronte. If the issue of retrospective application of Freeman were being posed for the first time in this case, I would at least vote to limit Freeman to cases tried after the decision was announced. United States v. Shapiro, 383 F.2d 680 (7th Cir. 1967); Durham v. United States, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 228, 214 F.2d 862, 874, 45 A.L.R.2d 1430 (1954). See United States v. Youngblood, 379 F.2d 365, 370 (2d Cir. 1967).
The panel in United States v. Sheller, 369 F.2d 293 (2d Cir. 1966) announced explicitly what was implicit in Mala-fronte: that Freeman has at least limited retroactive effect. But in neither case was the issue of possible prospective application of the Freeman rule fully briefed for consideration by the entire court. There was no argument against retroactivity in Malafronte and the government’s argument against retroactivity to the panel in Sheller, citing Johnson v. State of New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 731-733, was, as the panel itself said, merely pro forma. See 369 F.2d at 295 n. 3.
I am sure that had our attention been directed to the retroactivity issue in Freeman and Malafronte, or had the United States Attorney sought en banc *626consideration of it, we might well have decided the matter differently from its decision by a panel of the court in Shelter.
As in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 622 and n. 4, 88 S.Ct. 1731 (1965) and Tehan v. United States ex rel. Shott, 382 U.S. 406, 409 n. 3, 86 S.Ct. 459, 15 L.Ed.2d 453 (1966), the cases upon which the Shelter panel relied, the court had already reversed a conviction on direct appeal before the retroactivity issue was even raised and it was compelled to decide between full retroactivity and limited retroactivity rather than between full retroactivity and prospective application. See Mishkin, The Supreme Court 1964 Term — Foreword: The High Court, The Great Writ, and the Due Process of Time and Law, 79 Harv.L.Rev. 56, 72-73, 76, 100 (1965); Schaefer, The Control of “Sunbursts”: Techniques of Prospective Overruling, 42 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 631, 644-646 (1967).
We have been informed by the United States Attorney that of the four defendants in this circuit, other than Freeman, who might be affected by Freeman because they had been tried before Freeman was announced on February 28, 1966, but the proceedings on appeal had not yet been concluded, two defendants have already received the benefit of Freeman by reversal of their convictions, namely, Malafronte and Sheller. Even though I believe this action to have been erroneous, I reluctantly con-elude that we cannot treat Tarrago and Caballaro differently.
But inasmuch as it seems likely, in these times of new concepts of justice and newly discovered constitutional rights, that we may announce new rules or doctrines for application in criminal cases, I take this occasion briefly to set forth the reasons why it seems to me to be of the utmost importance to the orderly, efficient and fair administration of the criminal laws that such new rules should be prospective only and that they should be clearly and emphatically stated to be such at the time that they are announced. Indeed, I would go further and advocate that in situations such as faced us in Freeman, it would have accomplished our purpose to announce that the rule would be applied to all cases tried after the date the rule was announced and not even apply it to Freeman.
While the authorities were widely divided upon what circumstances justify a court’s refusal to apply newly declared principles to previous adjudication, those who have critically examined the decisions are unanimous in finding that making a distinction between cases on direct appeal and those that have gone to final judgment is arbitrary, as it subjects appellants to disposition of their appeals on the basis of fortuities unrelated to the merits of the points they would urge upon the court and seems to penalize the more diligent who have processed their appeals without delay.1
*627Since the Shelter decision, the Supreme Court itself has strongly condemned the finality distinction which it had used in Linkletter and Shott. DeStefano v. Woods, 392 U.S. 631, 88 S.Ct. 2093, 20 L.Ed.2d 1308 (June 17, 1968); Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 296-301, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). As Judge Schaefer put it, “But when a court is itself changing the law by an overruling decision, its determination of prospectivity or retroactivity should not depend upon the stage in the judicial process that a particular case has reached when the change is made. Too many irrelevant considerations, including the common cold, bear upon the rate of progress of a case through the judicial system.” 42 N.Y.U.L.Rev. at 645. Bender, The Retroactive Effect of an Overruling Constitutional Decision: Mapp v. Ohio, 110 U.Pa.L.Rev. 650, 678 (1962); Mishkin, 79 Harv.L.Rev. at 66 n. 37, 74; Schwartz, Retroactivity, Reliability and Due Process: A Reply to Professor Mishkin, 33 U.Chi.L.Rev. 719, 731, 733-734, 764 (1966). I do not see how we can justify this arbitrary dividing line between those who are permitted to raise Freeman retroactively and those who are not. Cf. Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed. 776. (June 3, 1968).
I would add another consideration which militates against drawing a distinction based upon whether or not appellant has completed his direct appeal: the court should not give appellants an added incentive to delay prosecution of their appeals by any means and thus postpone final determination of their appeals. It would be ironic if those who desire to protect final judgments from collateral attack make the incentives to postpone finality so great that appellants adopt a strategy that substantially delays operation of the principles of finality they wish to preserve. See, Mishkin, 79 Harv.L.Rev. at 77 n. 71, 80 n. 80; Schwartz, 33 U.Chi.L.Rev. 733, 742-743. I see nothing to be gained by applying an arbitrary cutoff point which rewards delay and penalizes those who promptly perfect their appeals in accordance with the rules of the court. In my view, this is seriously disruptive of the administration of justice and should not be permitted when it may fairly be avoided.
However, to reiterate, there are only five cases in the circuit in which limited retroactivity of the Freeman rule requires a new trial and three of those cases have already been reversed and remanded. Fairness dictates that the remaining two appellants be accorded similar treatment.
In the future I would hope that any decision which announces a new rule would not be applied retroactively in other appeals without thorough consideration of all arguments for and against retroactive application. See Griffin v. People of the State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 25-26, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956) (Mr. Justice Frankfurter, concurring) ; Mishkin, 79 Harv.L.Rev. at 64; Note, Prospective Overruling and Retroactive Application in Federal Courts, 71 Yale L.J. 907, 937 (1962). Cf. Chicot County Drainage District v. Baxter State Bank, 308 U.S. 371, 374, 60 S.Ct. 84, 84 L.Ed. 449 (1940). I would hope that any limitations upon retroactive effect of future decisions will not make arbitrary distinctions based upon the stage of the appellate process at which the case happens to be at the time of the decision announcing the new rule. I would also hope that any panel of this court which entertains for serious consideration a proposal to change any rule regarding criminal cases generally would ask the parties to brief and argue the question of when the proposed new rule should become effective and the nature and number of cases which would be affected by such proposed new rule. And lastly, all the active judges of the court should be alerted regarding such questions before a panel of the court files and publishes, its opinion.

. The history of the Shott case is a particularly striking example of what Professor Schwartz has called a “fortuitous and inequitable * * * pattern * * * unacceptable where human liberty is at stake.” Schwartz, Retroactivity, Reliability and Due Process: A Reply to Professor Mishkin, 33 U.Chi.L.Rev. 719, 733 n. 68.
Immediately following the affirmance of his conviction by the Ohio Supreme Court, State v. Shott, 173 Ohio St. 542, 184 N.E.2d 213 (1962), Shott sought Supreme Court review on appeal and certiorari, raising the same issue upon which the Court granted certiorari in Griffin v. State of California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965) ten months later. When the Supreme Court declined to hear Shott’s case, 373 U.S. 240, 83 S.Ct. 1295, 10 L.Ed.2d 409 (1963), Shott immediately sought federal habeas corpus. On the basis of Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653 (1964), the Court of Appeals granted the writ six months before Griffin. United States ex rel. Shott v. Tehan, 337 F.2d 990 (6th Cir. 1964). The State of Ohio appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari after Griffin and than reversed on the ground that Griffin was not retroactive. 382 U.S. 406, 86 S.Ct. 459 (1966).