Court Opinion

ID: 9639065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:03:31.674413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:11.959839
License: Public Domain

MANTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting). No one may complain of the action of the trial judge in sending for the jury at 10 p. m. to address them on the matter of his own convenience, and providing for the jury’s confinement at the hotel overnight if they did not arrive at a verdict at 11 o’clock, and for their further deliberation the next morning. As pointed out in the prevailing opinion, juror No. 4 announced that the jury would not be able to agree that night. There was no dissent or comment adverse to'such a statement by any of the other jurors. It may well be said that he spoke the mind of all. Whereupon the court delivered an unrequested charge as follows:
“The Court: Then there is just one other word I will say to you now, gentlemen, and that is that when in the jury room you want to be open-minded about matters, and listen to what the other fellow has got to say, and never stick to a thing just because you have said it. A wise man is always open to reason, to argument, and he never closes his ears to that, just because he has at one time made up his mind. You have heard all this evidence; you have listened to it carefully. The real question is whether these things happened, or any of them, that are vital to the case, or whether they did not happen, and whether these men entered into a conspiracy or conspiracies as charged, or whether they did not, *699and -whether any of the overt acts stated in the indictment as to each count — any one of them — was or was not done, and whether you believe that beyond a reasonable doubt on the evidence, and, as I have said so often, it comes down to a question of whether it is all a cock and bull story, made up by somebody for some reason or other, or whether it is a fact that has been testified to, or facts.”
Recalling, as pointed out in the prevailing opinion, that no defense was interposed, and that the only evidence offered was that of the government, the language of this unrequested charge, thus given, with its commanding tone and intemperate plea, was tantamount to an advisement to the jury to convict the defendants. After excepting to this additional charge, counsel very appropriately requested the court to again charge as to the presumption of innocence, as to reasonable doubt, the rule as to credibility of witnesses, and then asked to charge, that which had not theretofore been charged, that the jurors were the sole judges of the fact, and “that every juryman has a right to his own well-founded and conscientious opinion.” He said: “Does your honor care to have me repeat?” To which the court replied: “The court has already fully charged the jury on just those parts.”
It is true that all of this was asked in one general request. It would have been much better if separated. But that is not fatal. Since the court undertook to deliver a charge in the language and manner described, it was needful to again call the jury’s attention to the presumption of innocence and the rule of reasonable doubt, which accompanied the defendants throughout the trial. It was particularly needful to let the jurors know that they, as the sole judges of the fact, and each of them, had a right to their well-founded and conscientious opinion. Burton v. United States, 196 U. S. 283, 25 S. Ct. 243, 49 L. Ed. 482; Nigro v. United States (C. C. A.) 4 F.(2d) 781; Stewart v. United States (C. C. A.) 300 F. 769; Allen v. United States, 164 U. S. 492, 17 S. Ct. 154, 41 L. Ed. 528.
The court had not charged the jury at any time, in his main charge or at the request of counsel, that every juryman had a right to his own well-founded and conscientious opinion. The1 animated argument, in this unrequested charge, stood alone. At this time the court did not advise the jury that they were the sole judges of the fact. The effect upon the jury is illustrated by a remark of one of the jurors in passing out, when he said: “In case we do reach a verdict sooner than most of us anticipate at this time, is there any possibility of a sealed verdict being given?” After having announced that it could not agree that night, this jury retired at 10:10, and returned at 10:30 with a verdict of guilty.
It was error to refuse the request to charge that every juryman had the right to his own well-founded and conscientious opinion, particularly in view of what had been charged. It was an error committed at a vital stage of the trial. It was harmful, as the hasty conviction, after a trial lasting from July 7th to July 27th, illustrates. Overlooking errors under the modern method of procedure in criminal cases has been fruitful in results; but, when jurors have not received the instruction which counsel was entitled to at an important time, such as this vital moment, we should not shut our eyes to this plain error.
The judgment should be reversed.