Court Opinion

ID: 9745449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:57:47.201673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:01.074364
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice PIershey, dissenting: The court bases its decision squarely upon Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264. But the facts of this case do not square with those in Napue. Despite the reluctance of the majority to see any difference in the two cases, there are two significant points of distinction, and at least one of them is so fundamental that it should not be brushed aside as a distinction without a difference. In the first place, the question in the Napue case was definite and unambiguous, and the answer to that question clearly constituted perjury. Here, the question which evoked the allegedly perjured testimony was indefinite and ambiguous, and the answer, though undoubtedly misleading, was not unquestionably perjurious. If the foregoing were the only point of distinction between the two cases, I might not feel compelled to register my dissent. There is, however, a more fundamental difference, one that should have led to a different result in this case. In the Napue case, the fact that perjury had been committed was not known to the defendant until after his trial. Here, assuming that the testimony was perjured, the fact that false testimony was being given was known to the defense at the time of trial, and the means of combatting the false testimony were available at the trial. But the defense made no attempt at the trial to expose the falsity of the testimony or to combat its effect. Like other constitutional rights, the right to claim a denial of due process on the ground that testimony given for the prosecution was perjured may be waived (See Annotations: 2 L. ed. 2d 1575, 1577; 3 L. ed. 2d 1991, 1992) and it is waived when a defendant, knowing at the trial that testimony is false, makes no attempt to demonstrate its falsity either by cross-examination, by his own testimony, or by other evidence available. (McGuinn v. United States, (D.C. cir.) 239 F.2d 449, cert. den. 353 U.S. 942; Taylor v. United States, (8th cir.) 229 F.2d 826, cert. den. 351 U.S. 986; Green v. United States, (1st cir.) 256 F.2d 483, cert. den. 358 U.S. 854; Green v. United States, 158 F. Supp. 804. Cf. People v. Lewis, 22 Ill.2d 68.) That is the precise situation here. For this reason, I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.