Court Opinion

ID: 9454219
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:39:45.656699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:01.340600
License: Public Domain

HAMLEY, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
I concur in the result reached in Judge Madden’s opinion because in my view, under the circumstances of this case, the evidence pertaining to Burg’s criminal record was properly received under either the orthodox rule or the “balancing of factors” rule recently developed in the District of Columbia and Second Circuits. Judge Madden’s opinion demonstrates that there was compliance with the orthodox rule. Judge Ely’s concurring opinion demonstrates that, under the circumstances of this case, there was also compliance with the “balancing of factors” rule.
I do not fully concur in either opinion since Judge Madden’s opinion may be *238construed as breathing new life into the orthodox rule and Judge Ely’s opinion may be interpreted as foretelling the doom of that rule. I prefer to postpone a reexamination of the orthodox rule until this is necessary in order to decide the case. In the light of past and recent Ninth Circuit precedent, when the necessity for a reexamination of the rule arises, it ought to be undertaken by the Court in banc.
ELY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in the result reached in the principal opinion, but I find it unnecessary, presently, to express my fixed determination that we should adhere to the ancient rule. Its validity is now open to serious question, as recognized by responsible authorities who have expressed misgivings about the fairness of its rigid application. In addition to the opinions of the District of Columbia Circuit, discussed by Judge Madden, see United States v. Palumbo, 401 F.2d 270 (2d Cir. 1968); Goddard v. United States, 131 F.2d 220 (5th Cir. 1942); Uniform Rule of Evidence 21; Model Code of Evidence Rule 106; C. McCormick, Evidence § 43, at 94 (1954).
There has been enormous proliferation of proscribed offenses since the early times of Anglo-Saxon law. Business executives, not infrequently in these times, find themselves in technical violation of statutes affecting commercial enterprise. Regrettably, in my view, an unduly harsh federal statute provides that one convicted of crime in the federal courts is a felon if the court might have imposed a sentence of confinement for as long as one year, even if the punishment actually imposed by the trial judge did not exceed the severity of the mildest misdemeanor sentence. See 18 U.S.C. § 1 (1948). Until Congress amends this oppressive statute, the disabilities of felonious conduct will continue to hang around some individuals who do not really deserve the burden. A decent business executive may become a felon because he is responsible for the neglect of his corporation’s employees. He may be convicted of driving a vehicle under the influence of liquor, a felony in many jurisdictions. If he is subsequently charged with a crime of an entirely different nature in the federal courts, is it really fair that his prior convictions of offenses of the type I have described should be proved in his cross-examination? I think not. It is fiction," if not hypocrisy, to say, for example, that proof that a man has been convicted of drunk driving “affects his credibility,” if he should be on trial for a crime such as the use of the mails to defraud. One might be convicted of a felony for failing to support an undeserving wife. Would proof of this fact “affect his credibility” in a subsequent prosecution for violating the Selective Service Act or the provisions of federal laws regulating the sale of securities ? It would not, in my judgment, but it surely might prejudice him in the eyes of a juror who had been aggrieved by a neglectful husband.
I concur in the result because I believe that the district judge in the present case applied his discretion. He carefully considered the request that the prosecution be forbidden to cross-examine the appellant about the prior felony. He denied the request but imposed certain restrictions concerning the extent to which reference to the conviction could be made. It therefore seems to me that the less rigid rule of the District of Columbia and Second Circuits was substantially applied and that Judge Thompson clearly evidenced, as all courts ought to do, his intention not to permit the prosecution unfairly to prejudice the defendant by the injection of irrelevant material. My objection to Judge Madden’s view is that it would seem to divest our district judges of a discretionary power which I believe they should properly have and which was conscientiously and fairly exercised in the case at Bar.