Court Opinion

ID: 9457448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:22:20.547671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:21.380375
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Chief Judge
(dissenting):
We granted the government’s petition for rehearing to consider its assertion that “it is most emphatically not true that ‘the government professes no interest in upholding appellant’s [vacated] convictions.’ ” At oral argument on rehearing government counsel mentioned, without elaboration, two possible interests in reinstating the vacated convictions : they would otherwise not be available for impeachment or for sentencing purposes in any future prosecution.1 It would appear that the government’s interest will arise only if rehabilitation efforts fail and appellant commits another crime. This contingency, it seems to me, does not suffice to justify the expenditure of judicial time and effort required to resolve the serious and difficult questions appellant has raised concerning the vacated convictions.2 The expenditure of our resources seems particularly unwarranted in view of the government’s statement in its supplemental brief that it fail[s] to see any appreciable difference in the collateral consequences of three simultaneous robbery convictions as opposed to just one.
For these reasons I would adhere to our original decision. As we recently had occasion to note in a similar situation:
We see no reason to devote our time and energies to the research, and opinion-writing, incident to appropriate determination of [the difficult issues presented by all the convictions underlying the concurrent sentences] when no present public interest or need is furthered thereby. It better serves the general interest of the administration of justice if the court limits its resources to the determination of those *985questions and cases that must be decided, especially in view of the ever-mounting docket that besets this and other appellate courts, (emphasis supplied)
United States v. Hooper, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 171, 173, 432 F.2d 604, 606 (1970); see also Kee v. United States, 135 U.S.App.D.C. 249, 418 F.2d 465 (1969); United States v. Henderson, 142 U.S.App.D.C. 21, 439 F.2d 531 (1970).

. Other possible government interests in the vacated convictions may involve such matters as recidivist statutes, parole, and later successful collateral attack on the affirmed convictions. But it would be unwise to pursue such inquiries without the assistance of counsel. My own brief research indicates that the government’s interest may be quite attenuated. Recidivist statutes become important only if appellant is convicted of another crime. And even then it is by no means clear whether the convictions presently before us will count as several or only one conviction for purposes of the recidivist statutes. Bee Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 790 & n. 6, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed. 2d 707 (1969) and sources cited therein. As to parole, it appears that multiple convictions will not affect appellant’s eligibility, see 18 U.S.C. § 4202 (1964) ; 28 C.E.R. § 2.3 (1970), but it is unclear whether the number of convictions is a factor — or how important a factor — in the parole board’s decision to grant parole to an eligible prisoner, see 28 C.F.R. §§ 2.2, 2.14 (1970). And as to successful collateral attack on the convictions affirmed previously, X do not see how the government suffers any harm here that it did not also suffer in United States v. Hooper, 139 U.S.App.D.C. 171, 432 F.2d 604 (1970).

. Appellant challenges, inter alia, three in-court identifications under United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967) and Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967). With respect to the Hamilton Liquor Store robbery, appellant contends, and the government concedes, that his identfication by Simmons at a one man show-up at a precinct station six weeks after the offense was unlawful. Appellant also contends that there was no “clear and convincing evidence that the in-court identifications were based upon observations of the suspect other than the [unlawful] identification,” United States v. Wade, supra 388 U.S. at 240, 87 S.Ct. at 1939, or at least that the case should be remanded for a hearing and findings by the trial judge as to independent source. With respect to the Colony liquor Store robbery, the police displayed appellant to McGain in much the same way as they showed him to Simmons, and appellant raises the same challenges. Another witness to this robbery, Press, had two challenged pre-trial identifications: he was shown six pictures, including appellant’s, about two weeks after the robbery; and then later he identified appellant at a preliminary hearing, after having been told by the police to see if he recognized anyone who walked through a certain door.