Court Opinion

ID: 9460198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:44:23.2747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:31.344424
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part):
Starting from an unduly broad statement of the “other crimes” rule,1 the majority has yielded to the temptation of second-guessing, in the peace and quiet of appellate chambers, the reasoned action of an experienced judge faced with an emergency that had unexpectedly developed in the course of a trial.
The transcript makes it clear that Judge Clarie was keenly aware of the competing considerations involved in admitting mug shot photographs. He first told the Government that he would not admit the photographs if there was anything that identified them as prison mug shots or revealed that the defendant had a prior criminal record. He then examined the pictures and ordered the clerk to mask a larger portion than the prosecutor had already done. In view of his obvious sensitivity to the problem, I would reverse only if convinced, which I decidedly am not, that he had clearly abused his discretion in handling it.
In my view the majority’s three-pronged standard should be regarded as a useful enumeration of factors to be given appropriate weight rather than as a strict rule each branch of which must be fully met. However, even on the majority’s approach, we should affirm this conviction.
The first of the three factors is need. I agree that this is highly relevant since, in weighing probative value against possible prejudicial effect, the probative value of merely cumulative evidence may be quite small. In addition, requiring a demonstration of need should help - to screen out cases in which the Government tries tó introduce evidence not for legitimate probative purposes, but merely to demonstrate that the defendant has a criminal record.2 In this case, however, the evidence was plainly needed. The prosecution’s eyewitness had unexpectedly faltered on the stand, and the Government required some means of rescuing this rather critical portion of *498its case. There is no indication in the record that the Government had any other means of doing so; indeed, the majority concedes that the need condition was met.
The majority next directs inquiry to whether the pictures themselves revealed or suggested to the jury that Harrington had a criminal record. In United States v. Calarco, 424 F.2d 657, 661 (2 Cir.), cert, denied, 400 U.S. 824, 91 S.Ct. 46, 27 L.Ed.2d 53 (1970), we noted that mug shots, without more, are not so suggestive of a criminal record that they should never be admitted into evidence:
introduction of these file photographs, as modified, was not likely to cause the jury to infer the existence of prior criminal convictions. It is much more likely that the jury assumed they were taken by the police when the appellants were arrested on the charges for which they were then being tried.
The same is true here.3 In fact, as the majority points out, the photographs in question were taken not after a conviction, but at the time of Harrington’s arrest for another crime. The majority says it is “unrealistic” to suppose that the jury may have believed that the mug shots were taken at the arrest in this case, but does not adequately explain why; despite the labored attempt in fn. 5 of the opinion, the majority is scarcely convincing in its argument that the jurors must have thought that Harrington’s photographs recorded a conviction which in fact they did not. On this point also the Government is entitled to a favorable finding.4
The majority ultimately rests its holding on the third branch of its three-pronged test, concluding that the manner in which the photographs were introduced drew the jury’s attention to them and rendered them more prejudicial than they might otherwise have been. Of course, there may be cases in which the manner of introduction adds substantially to the prejudicial effect of evidence, but it is not enough for the defendant simply to point out that the admission of the evidence occasioned objection, or even a heated bench conference. In order to warrant reversal, the manner of introduction must somehow create or reinforce the suggestion that the defendant has a criminal record. Although the bench conference in this case included vigorous protest from defense counsel, the prosecution did not cajole a reluctant judge into admitting the pictures, as was apparently the case in Barnes. Instead, it appears from the transcript that the judge handled the conference smoothly and efficiently. It would unduly strain the chain of inferences to suppose that a jury would be likely to conclude from the bench conference and subsequent taping of the pictures that the photographs, which, as stated, were taken at the time of defendant’s arrest in another case, must have been police file photographs indicating that the defendant had a prior criminal record. It is also unclear to me just what better course the judge had available once the bench conference had begun;5 if he or*499dered a recess to permit the Government “to produce photographic duplicates of the mug shots,” as the majority suggests, the jury’s interest and suspicion might have been excited even more. In fact, Judge Clarie offered to have the legends cut off, but defense counsel objected to the introduction or use of the pictures under any conditions.
I agree that when the Government anticipates or should anticipate the need for using mug shot photographs, it should take more effective means than taping to disguise their nature. But here the Government had no reáson to anticipate the need, and we do not even know in what respect its taping failed to measure up to the desires of Judge Clar-ie, who handled the matter fairly under the emergency that had unexpectedly developed. A degree of perfection attainable only by 20-20 appellate hindsight is not required of trial judges.

. The settled rule in this circuit, most notably expressed in Judge Anderson’s opinion in United States v. Deaton, 381 F.2d 114, 117 (2 Cir. 1967), is “that evidence of other crimes is admissible except when offered solely to prove criminal character,” although I agree with the majority that this precludes a generalized showing of some criminal record.

. The court in Barnes v. United States, 124 U.S.App.D.C. 318, 365 F.2d 509 (1966), upon which the majority heavily relies, was obviously concerned that the prosecution had sought to get the mug shots before the jury for the improper purpose of suggesting that the defendant had a criminal record. See 365 F.2d at 512. It stressed that the prosecution had already introduced an unobjectionable photograph of the defendant, but persisted in pressing the judge to admit the mug shot photograph, even though it would be merely cumulative for identification purposes.

. A similar point was forcefully made in Judge Prettyman’s dissent in Barnes: “to the lay public these ‘shots’ show a man wanted by the police, not necessarily one convicted.” 365 F.2d at 515.

. In both United States v. Reed, 376 F.2d 226 (7 Cir. 1967), and United States v. Har-man, 349 F.2d 316 (4 Cir. 1965), relied on by the majority, either the Government’s comments before the jury or the identifying marks on the photographs made it patently clear that the “mug shots” were prior prison photographs, and thus graphically demonstrated that the defendant had a prior record. The Seventh Circuit made plain the limited scope of the Reed decision in United States v. Dichiarinte, 385 F.2d 333, 337 (7 Cir. 1967), cert, denied, Mastro v. United States, 390 U.S. 945, 88 S.Ct. 1029, 19 L.Ed.2d 1133 (1968) ; United States v. Schwartz( 398 F.2d 464, 470 (7 Cir.), cert, denied, 393 U.S. 1062, 89 S.Ct. 714, 21 L.Ed. 2d 705 (1968), and United States v. Robinson, 406 F.2d 64, 65-66 (7 Cir.), cert, denied, 395 U.S. 926, 89 S.Ct. 1783, 23 L.Ed.2d 243 (1969).

. Defense counsel protested before us that the conference was held at sidebar without having the jury withdrawn. However, the transcript shows that the objection which counsel wished to make was to having “an agent sit through a trial and now go in *499front of the jury and start picking out pictures when the witness himself can’t identify the Defendant.” There was nothing in this to require withdrawal of the jury. In any event á trial judge’s decision on such a point should not be ground for reversal.