Court Opinion

ID: 9458016
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:40:48.383255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:36.680071
License: Public Domain

BARRETT, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur with the majority in the result only. I agree that the trial court should not have admitted into evidence the certified copy of Burkhart’s conviction of a Dyer Act violation which was entered June 2, 1955, some fifteen years prior to the Dyer Act violation charged here. That conviction was too remote in time. Having thus determined, I believe that trial judges are entitled to specific guidance relating to the admission of prior convictions during the Government’s in-ehief presentation. Those guidelines are lacking, in my judgment, in the majority opinion. For that reason I respectfully dissent in part.
The majority opinion has placed almost insurmountable roadblocks to receipt in evidence of prior convictions during the Government’s in-chief case in keeping with the exceptions heretofore recognized by this Court. This Court should either: (a) uphold the exceptions to the rule with specific guidelines relating to the aspects of admissibility and remoteness which are crystal clear, or (b) overrule the exceptions to the rule entirely.
Notwithstanding the commands of Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109, 88 S.Ct. *209258, 19 L.Ed.2d 319 (1967), holding that a constitutionally invalid prior conviction is inherently prejudicial and cannot be admitted into evidence, or, if admitted, constitutes prejudicial error, the majority opinion condemns the admission of constitutionally valid prior convictions unless there is evidence of “factual or other similarity” between the principal charge and the prior convictions. The majority makes it clear that the fact alone that the prior convictions were for Dyer Act violations does not satisfy its requirement that the prior convictions for the same and identical offense charged are, per se, related transactions unless there is evidence of “factual or other similarity”. The majority does not clearly explain what is meant by “factual or other similarity”. Nor is there any attempt to explain how the “factual or other similarity” is to be proved. If it is suggested that a government officer or government chief witness from a prior Dyer Act conviction trial appear at the principal trial and testify as to the “facts” in the prior proceedings, certainly an accused could be expected to challenge such testimony as violative of due process. It could not be the best evidence. Or if it is intimated that the trial judge obtain and read the entire transcript of trial leading to a prior conviction, this burden could not be carried. The requirement of “factual or other similarity” used in the majority opinion is unwarranted. The elements of the Dyer Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2312, require proof that the defendant transported a vehicle or aircraft in interstate commerce knowing, at the time, that it was stolen. As a practical matter Dyer Act violations are never factually or otherwise similar except in relation to the elements of the crime.
The majority, while recognizing that trial courts are vested with discretion in the in-chief admission of prior convictions, nevertheless finds that this discretion was abused on the issue of remoteness. Here the principal charge dated to a Dyer Act violation which occurred on September 26, 1970. The prior Dyer Act convictions were entered on June 2, 1955 and March 17, 1966. The first dated back some fifteen years, the second only four years. Yet the majority opinion couples both prior convictions in observing that they are remote in time and space and lacking in any similarity. The 1966 conviction was simply not remote.
I agree that a prior conviction dating back fifteen years is too remote. Having so determined, it follows that trial courts are entitled to specific guidelines. I would hold that evidence of prior convictions involving the identical or similar offenses represented by certified copies of judgments of convictions meeting the commands of Burgett v. Texas, supra, may be admitted into evidence at the discretion of the trial judge if not entered more than six (6) years immediately preceding the date upon which the principal offense is alleged to have been committed.