Court Opinion

ID: 9643972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:45:25.224225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:06.108304
License: Public Domain

KENYON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In the majority opinion it is stated: “The testimony of the witness Carpenter given on rebuttal and assigned as error was not competent to impeach the defendant Miller. It related to a statement made by a third person in Miller’s presence, to which no reply was made and which called for none.” With this statement I am in accord.
The majority opinion also states: “The question then arises as to whether this error requires a new trial.” I am unable to agree that the error is without prejudice to the substantial rights of defendant, or that section 269 of the Judicial Code is applicable to the situation presented.
An effort had been made by counsel for the government to get before the jury, in the testimony of Miller’s codefendant, Carpenter, an alleged statement of a relative of Miller named Galinsky, as follows: “Do you think we will leave Herman Miller go to the penitentiary with all our money?” This statement the government claimed was made in the presence of .Miller. Such testimony after admission without objection was stricken from the record by the court, and the jury admonished not to consider it. When defendant Miller was upon the stand, he was asked on cross-examination: “Q. I will ask you if it isn’t true that at that time and place when Mr. Galinsky was present, I will ask you if it isn’t true that Mr. Galinsky said, in substance, to Mr. Carpenter and in your presence, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ and that Carpenter said he didn’t know what he could do, and that Mr. Galinsky said to him, ‘Well now, I want you to understand one thing, we are not going to let this boy,’ referring to you, ‘go to the penitentiary with all the money we have got.’ I will ask you if it isn’t true that that was said at that time *39between Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Galinsky in your presence ?” and his answer was, “No, sir; that is a lie.”
Carpenter was placed upon the stand in rebuttal, and testified over objection that Galinsky in Miller’s presence had said: “Do you think that we are going to let this young fellow (referring to Herman Miller) go to the penitentiary with all the money we have got?” This was an attempted impeachment on an immaterial matter, as the majority opinion states, as well as on an incompetent matter. It seems to me the effect of this testimony would tend to prevent a jury from a calm and dispassionate consideration of the ease. In the minds of some jurors it would arouse prejudice against defendant because of the insinuation that the wealth of his family would bo used in some way to prevent his punishment. Other jurors with this evidence before them might hesitate in the light of such statement from a relative of the defendant to vote for acquittal for fear of suspicion attaching to them that they might have been wrongfully influenced. The paralyzing effect of such evidence upon a fair trial, it seems to me, is quite evident. Its admission was a grave, substantial and prejudicial error. Section 269 of the Judicial Code admonishes appellate courts to give judgment after an examination of the entire record before the court without regard to technical errors which do no affect the substantial rights of the parties. This was not a technical error. In my judgment it clearly affected the substantial rights of defendant. The ease was carefully tried by the learned District Court, and I find myself in entire agreement with the opinion of the majority, except as to this one question. The conceded error, it seems to me, is so serious and prejudicial as to require a reversal of this case.