Court Opinion

ID: 8912005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-27 03:22:44.999844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:08:36.652353
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
This case presents the opportunity to state certain controlling rules where evidence has been lost or destroyed in a criminal case. Some of our earlier cases, where the proper outcome was perhaps clearer than in the present instance, did not provide extensive analysis of the interests at stake or of the reasons behind the adoption of a particular approach. Loss or destruction of evidence probative in a criminal case occurs in circumstances so variant that we cannot set forth here the applicable rules for every case but certain principles of broad application may be stated with assurance and serve to resolve this appeal.
When criminal evidence is lost or destroyed, the court must protect a complex of interests, some conflicting. Our principal concern is to provide the accused an opportunity to produce and examine all relevant evidence, to insure a fair trial. Absent special circumstances, we do not reverse convictions or dismiss criminal charges based on events that do not cause harm to the accused; and so the degree of prejudice from loss or destruction of the evidence should be weighed. Other considerations which bear upon the right to a fair trial are also present if intentional or culpable government action has caused the loss or destruction. The significant interest in such cases is to avoid the impairment of judicial integrity that would occur if the prosecution were allowed to manipulate court processes, and protective rulings or sanctions may be required both to insure a fair trial in a specific case and to deter future violations. The degree of government fault is relevant, for if suppression of secondary evidence or other protective rulings and sanctions were automatic in every case in which the Government is responsible for the loss of the evidence, then we would not give proper recognition to the responsibility of the Government to prosecute crimi*1152nal cases. This right should not be forfeited in every instance where a government official has erred. In a rare case, government action may be so culpable that deterrence of future violations and protection of judicial integrity become the principal concern, and then only a plausible suggestion of prejudice or none at all would be required for suppression of evidence or the imposition of other sanctions, such as dismissal of the charges. In the more frequent case, the Government’s responsibility for loss of the evidence is caused by actions that are, alternatively, negligent in some degree, or inadvertent, or done intentionally but with an element of good faith, and in these instances a somewhat greater degree of prejudice may be tolerated. In cases of severe prejudice, suppression or other sanctions would be appropriate without regard to the good faith or culpability of the Government. However, in other cases, proper reconciliation of these competing interests requires us to resort to the familiar judicial process of balancing the factors in a given case.
The proper balance is that between the quality of the Government’s conduct and the degree of prejudice to the accused. The Government bears the burden of justifying its conduct and the defendant bears the burden of demonstrating prejudice. See .United States v. Mays, 549 F.2d 670, 677, 678 (9th Cir. 1977). In weighing the conduct of the Government, the court should inquire whether the evidence was lost or destroyed while in its custody, whether the Government acted in disregard for the interests of the accused, whether it was negligent in failing to adhere to established and reasonable standards of care for police and prosecutorial functions, and, if the acts were deliberate, whether they were taken in good faith or with reasonable justification. Federal courts have greater authority and control over the actions of federal officers than over the officers of a state, and the nature and degree of federal participation is relevant although not dis-positive. It is relevant also to inquire whether the government attorneys prosecuting the case have participated in the events leading to loss or destruction of the evidence, for prosecutorial action may bear upon existence of a motive to harm the accused.
Against all this must be weighed the degree of prejudice to the defendant. In analyzing prejudice, the court must consider a wide number of factors including, without limitation, the centrality of the evidence to the case and its importance in establishing the elements of the crime or the motive or intent of the defendant; the probative value and reliability of the secondary or substitute evidence; the nature and probable weight of factual inferences or other demonstrations and kinds of proof allegedly lost to the accused; the probable effect on the jury from absence of the evidence, including dangers of unfounded speculation and bias that might result to the defendant if adequate presentation of the case requires explanation about the missing evidence.
We adopted a flexible approach, consistent with the balancing test proposed here, in United States v. Higginbotham, 539 F.2d 17 (9th Cir. 1976) (alternate holding).1 In that opinion the court stated that in destruction of evidence cases, “the following factors should be considered: (1) the degree of negligence or bad faith involved, (2) the importance of the lost evidence, and (3) the sufficiency of the other evidence adduced at the trial to sustain the conviction.” 2 Id. at *115321. The proposed test is also quite similar to the test which the First Circuit has adopted. In United States v. Picariello, 568 F.2d 222 (1st Cir. 1978) the court articulated what it called a three-pronged examination which considered “first, was the evidence material to the question of guilt or the degree of punishment; second, was defendant prejudiced by its destruction; and third, was the government acting in good faith when it destroyed the evidence.” Id. at 227. The appropriate test as set forth here is more detailed than in Higginbotham or Picariello with the purpose to provide more guidance when this question arises in later cases.3
In an analogous area, that of prearrest delay, this circuit has adopted a balancing test similar to the one proposed here. United States v. Mays, 549 F.2d 670, 677 (9th Cir. 1977). Where the police delay in arresting a defendant or in otherwise notifying him that he is under investigation, he may later contend he had no notice to preserve evidence such as records, and that testimony of witnesses or his own recollection of the day in question may be blurred by the passage of time. These cases present concerns which closely parallel those in destruction of evidence cases, including fairness to the defendant, the discouraging of police or prosecutorial misconduct, preserving the integrity of the judicial system, and protecting society’s interest in the prosecution of criminal violations. In United States v. Mays, supra, this court rejected the two absolute approaches suggested by the parties: that prejudice alone is sufficient or that both prejudice and improper intentional delay must be shown. It adopted instead a test which balances all the circumstances, including the prejudice to the defendant and the reason for the police delay. Such a balancing test seems equally appropriate for the case at hand.4
The test proposed here is not of constitutional dimensions. The Supreme Court in United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 89 S.Ct. 528, 21 L.Ed.2d 537 (1969) has stated that destruction of evidence becomes a problem of constitutional dimensions only in the most extreme case:
The Court of Claims, in a conscientious effort to undo an injustice, elevated to a constitutional level what it deemed to be an infraction of the Jencks Act and made a denial of discovery which “seriously impeded his right to a fair trial” a violation “of the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.” . . . But apart from trials conducted in violation of express constitutional mandates, a constitutionally un*1154fair trial takes place only where the barriers and safeguards are so relaxed or forgotten . . . that the proceeding is more a spectacle ... or trial by ordeal . . . than a disciplined contest.
Id. at 356, 89 S.Ct. at 534. Rarely will the unfairness that might be caused by the destruction of evidence rise to the level of making the proceedings “a spectacle or trial by ordeal.” The rule advanced here is simply a judicially-created rule designed to prevent police misconduct and permit as fair a trial as possible.
Turning to the facts of this case, we examine first the reasonableness of the Government’s conduct. The starting point is the findings of the district court. In its initial decision, the court found as follows: The police did not act in bad faith in destroying the evidence. Dynamite is a dangerous substance that should only be handled and stored by experts. The Oregon State Police did not have adequate facilities in which to store this dynamite. There was a commercial magazine located about 60 miles away, however, and the dynamite could have been transported there with relative safety. In its supplemental findings on remand, the district court found that the decision not to keep the dynamite was made by officer Fettig of the state police pursuant to an unwritten policy. The practice of destroying explosives was based on the lack of state storage facilities, problems with chain of custody, and public safety considerations. The record indicates that Fettig’s principal responsibility for the state police was as a bomb and explosives expert, for which he was highly qualified. He effected frequent and routine destruction of explosives, although it appears that in almost all such cases the explosives were not relevant to any pending criminal investigation. It is unclear the extent to which the supplemental finding that the decision not to transport was based on “public safety considerations” negates the prior finding that the dynamite could have been transported with “relative safety;” but, there were at least some safety considerations which militated against transporting the dynamite. It should be noted that in addition to destroying the dynamite itself, the police also destroyed the containers in which the dynamite was stored when found. This was apparently done because, as the defendants’ expert witness explained, when dynamite is improperly stored, nitroglycerin from the dynamite sticks sometimes seeps into the container, making the container itself highly explosive. Moreover, officer Fettig testified that the reason fingerprints were not taken was that the cartons were wet, and it was unlikely identifiable fingerprints could have been detected.
It is clear that accepted standards of police conduct require that a sample should be obtained whenever it is possible and safe to do so, and we think the enforcement officials, state and federal, erred in not considering the possibility of taking a sample before destroying all the evidence. However, in view of the exigencies of the situation and the police policy of destroying all explosives, this error in judgment ought not be weighed too heavily against the Government.
In this case, the error is neither intensified nor diminished by the actions of federal agents. The dynamite was discovered during a search of the vehicles pursuant to a state search warrant while the vehicles were in the custody of the state police. The district court found that the decision to destroy the evidence was made by officer Fettig, pursuant to state police policy and in his discretion. No federal agent participated in this decision. The one federal agent who was present at the destruction of the dynamite and containers neither encouraged nor discouraged the destruction. The court also found, however, that if the federal agent had requested that a sample be preserved, the state police would have complied. The federal agent was not responsible for the decision, but neither can he be given full exoneration from it. The practical necessity for a federal officer to maintain a good relationship with state police does tend to excuse the federal agent’s determination in this delicate situation to *1155allow the state to proceed to render the area safe without requesting an evidentiary sample. It is our conclusion that the actions of both the state police in destroying all the evidence and the federal agent in not preventing that destruction can be excused substantially, although it cannot be recommended as the standard for future cases.
We next consider the prejudice to the defendant. The most important part of our analysis of the degree of prejudice in this case is an evaluation of the reliability or trustworthiness of the remaining secondary evidence. The evidence includes, among other things, photographs and eyewitness descriptions of the boxes which were found in the impounded vehicle and the red cylindrical sticks contained in the boxes. Each of the seven boxes was marked “High Explosives Dangerous” and on the side had the following markings:
“50 lbs
Gelex 2 1X8
70% Strength
D73MAO 7B”
together with the logo of the DuPont company prominently displayed. Inside were red cylindrical sticks with heavy wrapping paper covering the contents and marked:
“Explosives Dangerous
Gelex 2
70% Strength
E I Dupont De Nemours & Co. (Inc.).”
and again carrying the number D73MAO 7B, with a last letter as Q or A, or Y. A representative from The DuPont Co. was shown seven wrappers that had been saved by the police before destroying the dynamite. He identified the wrappers as having come from a DuPont plant in Washington. By consulting other records, he was able to determine that the code numbers on the wrappers were the same as the numbers on dynamite shipped to a customer in Montana. He confirmed that the shipment to Montana was of full cases of dynamite, not just wrappers. In addition, a chemical analysis of the wrappers indicated the presence of six of the seven ingredients necessary to make dynamite.
We consider this secondary evidence to be probative and reliable. The evidence also includes photographs taken by the police when several of the sticks were detonated with blasting caps. The defendants did produce an expert who on direct examination testified that in his opinion the photographs did not show dynamite exploding and that the pictures were completely consistent with an explosion of only the blasting caps themselves. The district court found that this testimony “cast substantial doubt on the assertion that the photographs showed the detonation of dynamite.” Worded this way, the finding seems to suggest that the testimony of the expert raised substantial doubt as to whether the substance seized was dynamite. To the extent that the finding implies this, it must be deemed erroneous. On cross-examination the expert explained that the photographs could also show an incomplete detonation of dynamite. The testimony of this expert simply demonstrates that the photographs of the detonation are not completely reliable. A determination that the photographs are inconclusive evidence is far different from a determination that there is substantial doubt whether the substance seized was dynamite. The testimony of the expert supports only the former proposition, not the latter. In ascertaining the degree of prejudice, it is necessary to evaluate all the secondary evidence, not just one piece of it.
The trial court found further prejudice to the defendants because they lost an opportunity to show whose fingerprints were on the boxes. This too was error. There is no question that the boxes were in the defendant’s station wagon. And even if the prints of third persons, and not the defendants’, were discovered on the boxes such evidence would not be exculpatory of necessity. Moreover, the testimony was that fingerprints were not likely to be discovered on the wet boxes in any event.
All must concede that the secondary evidence is less reliable than chemical tests of the substance itself and that, as the explosive quality or no of the substance is an *1156essential element of the offense, the loss of the evidence does bear upon an issue that lies at the core of the case. In view, however, of the convincing and probative value of the secondary evidence as presented in the record at this point, it cannot be said that the defendants have met their burden of showing prejudice in any significant degree. The defendants have not made any offer of proof from which the trier of fact might infer the substance was other than dynamite, and in this posture of the case the secondary evidence is a satisfactory substitute for a physical sample. If at trial the defendants can make a plausible argument that the substance was something other than from what all appearances it must have been, the trier of fact can weigh the credibility of such arguments against any perceived defects in the Government’s proof by secondary means. The prejudice in the case is slight or nonexistent, and the Government’s conduct, while consisting in part of some errors in judgment, was on the whole reasonable and taken in good faith.
The dissent complains that, having remanded the case, we now accord no deference to the district court’s findings. All of the subsidiary findings in the record developed with care by the district judge have put the case in the proper perspective. Perhaps the remand should have stopped short of asking the trial court to draw the ultimate conclusion as to whether or not there is prejudice, absent a statement of its definition and the factors that are to be considered in making that determination. Having now stated at some length the applicable rules for this case, we reach the conclusion that secondary evidence offered by the Government should . not be suppressed.
The appropriate order now is to reverse the trial court’s ruling suppressing the secondary evidence and to remand the case for further proceedings.

. The balance test of Higginbotham is helpful, but the same cannot be said for the discussion in that case of federal participation. We cannot accept the implication that the destruction of evidence by state officers acting alone, no matter how egregious their conduct or how important the evidence destroyed, could never be sufficient for a federal court to invoke a protective rule to guard the rights of the defendant or the integrity of the judicial process. In Higginbotham itself, the particular evidence was of minimal importance and the conduct of the state police was at worst careless.

. It appears that a type of balancing was used in this circuit, even before Higginbotham. In United States v. Sewar, 468 F.2d 236 (9th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 916, 93 S.Ct. 972, 35 L.Ed.2d 278 (1973), the defendant had been subjected to a blood alcohol test. After the test *1153was performed the sample was destroyed by a technician who thought the sample was no longer necessary. The court stated that “[njot every blunder by investigators should result in the exclusion of relevant competent, important evidence,” 468 F.2d at 237, and concluding that in the circumstances, using the remaining secondary evidence would not be “so unfair as to require its exclusion,” id. at 238.

. We think this test is consistent with the result in United States v. Heiden, 508 F.2d 898 (9th Cir. 1974). Heiden states that where evidence has been lost or destroyed the conviction will be reversed if the defendant can show “(1) bad faith or connivance on the part of the Government, or (2) that he was prejudiced by the loss of the evidence.” As the discussion in Heiden demonstrates, “prejudice” as used there means serious impairment of the accused’s ability to present his defense. In cases of severe prejudice the Heiden formulation would lead to the same result as under the test set forth in this case.

. A similar problem to the one faced here arises when the Government intentionally deports potential witnesses before the defendant has had an opportunity to interview them. See United States v. Mendez-Rodriquez, 450 F.2d 1 (9th Cir. 1971). This circuit has held that despite good faith on the part of the Government, the defendant need not show that the testimony of the lost witnesses would have been favorable, although he must demonstrate at least some possibility that the testimony could have been of benefit. See United States v. Orozco-Rico, 589 F.2d 433 (9th Cir. 1978); United States v. McQuillan, 507 F.2d 30, 33 (9th Cir. 1974). In these cases, even a small possibility of prejudice is sufficient despite good faith government conduct. We do not believe, however, that a similar approach is required in destruction of evidence cases. Deportation of witnesses involves the fundamental and specifically guaranteed right of compulsory process for obtaining witnesses provided by the sixth amendment. The sixth amendment is in no way implicated in the case at hand.