Court Opinion

ID: 9457408
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:20:50.780694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:20.244988
License: Public Domain

SEITZ, Chief Judge
(concurring).
The ultimate issue here, of course, is whether use immunity is compatible with Fifth Amendment rights. The practical importance of the answer is that it determines whether criminal prosecution is ever consistent with a grant of immunity.
Use immunity clearly offends the Fifth Amendment if, in a later criminal prosecution, a defendant granted such immunity is not in the same position as though he had not testified. In other words, the immunity granted must leave the substance of the Fifth Amendment right undiluted. There has been a natural tendency to discuss the issue in the context of the prosecutor’s ease, i. e., whether the prosecution’s evidence can be traced to the testimony given by the defendant under a grant of immunity. But what about the effect of such disclosures on the defendant’s defense to the criminal charges?
In a criminal case, one of the most important decisions a defendant must make is whether to testify. If an individual, after being granted use immunity, is subsequently prosecuted for the same or a related transaction and elects to testify at trial in his own behalf, he must of course subject himself to cross-examination. The prosecutor is obviously in a position to tailor his questions, consciously or otherwise, on the basis of his knowledge of the defendant’s prior testimony and can do so without any overt reference to the testimony given under immunity. In these circumstances, could defense counsel effectively object on the ground that the immunity grant was thereby violated? I think not. Indeed, how could a trial judge do other than accept the prosecutor’s representation, which might well be in good faith, that the questions were not inspired by the testimony given by the defendant under immunity? Furthermore, this same possibility may adversely influence a defendant to forego entirely his right to testify in his own behalf even though he is advised that his prior disclosures cannot be used against him.
Based on the important and largely subjective factors mentioned above, I cannot say with reasonable assurance that use immunity places an individual in substantially the same position as though he had not previously testified. I believe the Fifth Amendment dictates that the doubt be resolved in favor of the defendant and that transactional immunity must be considered the minimum requirement consistent with the Constitution.
I concur in the conclusion of the Court that the judgment of the District Court should be reversed.