Court Opinion

ID: 9419275
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:48:21.525512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:17.049931
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
dissenting:
The Patton case (281 U. S. 276) held that a defendant represented by counsel might waive under certain circumstances trial by a jury of twelve and submit to trial by a jury of only eleven. In view of the strictness of the constitutional mandates, I am by no means convinced that it follows that an entire jury may be waived. But assuming *282arguendo that it may be, I think the respondent should have had the benefit of legal advice before his waiver of a jury trial was accepted by the District Court. For I do not believe that we can safely assume that in absence of legal advice a waiver by a layman of his constitutional right to a jury trial was intelligent and competent in such a case as this.
Respondent was indicted under the mail fraud statute. 35 Stat. 1130, 18 U. S. C. § 338. It subjects to fine or imprisonment one who “having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud . . . shall, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, place, or cause to be placed, any letter, postal card, package, writing, circular, pamphlet, or advertisement . . . in any post-office ... or other letter box of the United States.” It would be unlikely that a layman without the benefit of legal advice would understand the limited nature of the defenses available under that statute or the scope of the ultimate issues on which the question of guilt usually turns. Without that understanding I do not see how an intelligent choice between trial by judge or trial by jury could be made.
The broad sweep of the statute has not been restricted by judicial construction. What might appear to a layman as a complete defense has commonly been denied by the courts in keeping with the policy of Congress to draw tight the net around those who tax ingenuity in devising fraudulent schemes. Thus an indictment will be upheld or a conviction sustained though the defendant did not intend to use the mails at the time the scheme was designed,1 though no one was defrauded or suffered any loss,2 though *283the defendant did not intend to receive3 or did not receive4 any benefit from the scheme, though the defendant actually believed that his plan would in the end benefit the persons solicited,5 though the means were ineffective for carrying out the scheme,6 and, perhaps, even though the mails were used not for solicitation but only in collection of checks received pursuant to the plan.7 In other words, the defenses in law are few and far between. As a practical matter, if the mails were employed at any stage, the question of guilt turns on whether the defendant had a fraudulent intent. That is the significant fact. Durland v. United States, 161 U. S. 306, 313.
I think a layman normally would need legal advice to know that much. And it seems to me unlikely that he would be capable of appraising his chances as between judge and jury without súch advice. Without it he might well conclude that he had adequate defenses on which a judge could better pass than a jury. With such advice he might well pause to entrust the question of his intent to a particular judge, rather than to a jury of his peers drawn from the community where most of the transactions took place and instructed to acquit if they had a reasonable doubt. On the other hand, if he had a full understanding of the issues, he might conceivably deem it a matter of large importance that he be tried by the judge rather than a jury. The point is that we should not leave to sheer speculation the question whether his waiver of a jury trial *284was intelligent and competent. Yet, on this record we can only speculate, since all we know is that respondent professed to have “studied law” and that he lost a civil suit which he had prosecuted pro se. McCann v. New York Stock Exchange, 107 F. 2d 908. Furthermore, the right to trial by jury, like the right to have the assistance of counsel, is “too fundamental and absolute to allow courts to indulge in nice calculations as to the amount of prejudice arising from its denial.” Glasser v. United States, 315 U. S. 60, 76. Moreover, as Judge Learned Hand stated in the court below, the answer to the question whether the waiver was intelligent should hardly be made to depend on “the outcome of a preliminary inquiry as to the competency” of the particular layman. If this constitutional right is to be jealously protected, there should be a reliable objective standard by which the trial court satisfies itself that the layman who waives trial by jury in a case like this has a full understanding of the consequences. Dillingham v. United States, 76 F. 2d 36, 39. At least, where the trial judge fails to inform him, the only safe and practical alternative in a case like the present one is to require the appointment of counsel. Only then should we say that the trial judge has exercised that “sound and advised discretion” which the Patton case required even before a waiver of one juror was accepted. 281 U. S. p. 312.
The question for us is not whether a judge should be trusted as much as a jury to determine the question of guilt. We are dealing here with one of the great historic civil liberties — the right to trial by jury. Article III, § 2 and the Sixth Amendment, which grant that right, contain no exception, though a few have been implied. See Ex parte Quirin, ante, p. 1. We should not permit the exceptions to be enlarged by waiver unless it is plain and beyond doubt that the waiver was freely and intelli*285gently made. The Patton case surrounds such a waiver with numerous safeguards even where, as in that case, the waiver was made by one who was represented by counsel. We should be even more strict and exacting in case the waiver is made by a layman acting on his own. Then the reasons for indulging every reasonable presumption against a waiver of “fundamental constitutional rights” (Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458, 464) become even more compelling.
The fact that a defendant ordinarily may dispense with a trial by admitting his guilt is no reason for accepting this layman’s waiver of a jury trial. What the Constitution requires is that the “trial” of a crime “shall be by jury.” Art. Ill, § 2. And it specifies the machinery which shall be employed if a plea of not guilty is entered and the prosecution is put to its proof. Moreover, we are not dealing here with absolutes. Normally, admission of guilt could properly be accepted without more, since ordinarily a defendant would know whether or not he was guilty of the crime charged. But there might conceivably be an exception, where, for example, the issue of guilt turned not only on the admitted facts but upon the construction of a statute. Each case of necessity turns on its own facts. Nor is it a sufficient answer to say that if legal advice is required for a waiver of trial by jury, then by the same token a layman representing himself could not exercise his own judgment concerning any matter during the trial with respect to which a lawyer might have superior knowledge. Whether the waiver of counsel for purposes of the trial meets the exacting standards of Johnson v. Zerbst is one thing. Whether that dilution of constitutional rights may be compounded by a waiver of trial by jury is quite another. It is the cumulative effect of the several waivers of constitutional rights in a given case which must be gauged. Nor can I accede to the suggestion of *286the prosecution that a layman’s right to waive trial by jury is such an important part of his high privilege to manage his own case that its exercise should be freely accorded. That argument is faintly reminiscent of those notions of freedom of choice and liberty of contract which long denied protection to the individual in other fields.
Me. Justice Black and Me. Justice Murphy join in this dissent.
Mr. Justice Murphy:
I join my brother Douglas, but desire to add the following views in dissent.
The Constitution provides: “The Trial of all Crimes, . . . shall be by Jury; . . .” (Article III, § 2), and: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, . . .” (Amendment VI). Because of these provisions, the fundamental nature of jury trial,1 and its beneficial effects as a means of leavening justice with the spirit of the times,2 I do not concede that the right to a jury trial can be waived in criminal proceedings in the federal courts. Whatever may be the logic of the matter, there is a considerable practical difference between trial by eleven jurors, the situation in Patton v. United States, 281 U. S. 276, and trial to the court, and practicality is a sturdy guide to the preservation of Constitutional guaranties.
But if it is assumed that jury trial, the prized product of the travail of the past, can be waived by an accused, *287there should be compliance with rigorous standards, adequately designed to insure that an accused fully understands his rights and intelligently appreciates the effects of his step, before a court should accept such a waiver. Among those requirements in the case of a layman defendant in a criminal proceeding where the punishment may be substantial, as in the instant case, should be the right to have the benefit of the advice of counsel on the desirability of waiver. Of course the' capacity of individuals to appraise their interests varies, but such a uniform general rule will protect the rights of all much better than a rule depending upon the fluctuating factual variables of the individual case which are often difficult to evaluate on the basis of the cold record. In my opinion the Constitution requires this general rule as an absolute right if a jury is to be waived at all.

 United States v. Young, 232 U. S. 155.

 Cowl v. United States, 35 F. 2d 794; United States v. Rowe, 56 F. 2d 747.

 Kellogg v. United States, 126 F. 323.

 Calnay v. United States, 1 F. 2d 926; Chew v. United States, 9 F. 2d 348.

 Pandolfo v. United States, 286 F. 8; Foshay v. United States, 68 F. 2d 205.

 See Durland v. United States, 161 U. S. 306, 315.

 Tincher v. United States, 11 F. 2d 18; Bradford v. United States, 129 F. 2d 274.
But see Dyhre v. Hudspeth, 106 F. 2d 286; Stapp v. United States, 120 F. 2d 898.

 Compare Glasser v. United States, 315 U. S. 60, 84-85, and Jacob v. New York City, 315 U. S. 752.

 This is admirably stated by Judge Learned Hand below, 126 F. 2d at 775-776.