Court Opinion

ID: 9452397
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:39:39.661295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:12.078593
License: Public Domain

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) .
With due respect, it seems to me that the majority opinion in its zealous effort to uphold the Jencks Act has misconceived the true purpose of that statute. The Jencks Act was never intended to apply to the admittedly harmless error which occurred here. The uncontradicted facts and a tight consideration of the whole case show that the testimony of Agent Szpak, which is relied upon for reversal, is de minimis in the situation before us. His evidence was unimportant to the required proofs for conviction because that same evidence was included in the full detailed testimony at the trial by Agent Vecchione. The latter was the agent with whom the defendant talked and to whom defendant sold the counterfeit money. Szpak was merely an observer of that meeting from across the street.
The defendant, Meisch, was indicted under Section 472 of Title 18 U.S.C.A. for “uttering counterfeit obligations or securities.” A conviction under Section 472 requires that the Government prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant passed the notes with the intent to defraud and with knowledge that the notes are counterfeit, United States v. Carll, 105 U.S. 611, 26 L.Ed. 1135 (1881) ; United States v. Litberg, 175 F.2d 20 (7 Cir. 1949). Agent Vecchione testified that he met with the defendant on the night of May 14,1964, that the defendant pointed out the package which contained the counterfeit bills and that the defendant told Vecchione that the money was “queer” (counterfeit). The package containing the counterfeit bills was also introduced into evidence and properly identified by Vecchione as the package which was purchased from the defendant on the night of May 14th. The only report made by Agent Vecchione which dealt with matters upon which he testified was given to defense counsel and his testimony was in no other way challenged.
The Vecchione evidence alone supplied the requisite proof to uphold the conviction. All the elements charged in the indictment were brought forth by that oral testimony backed up as it was by the real evidence of the counterfeit bills. What is decisive here is that Vecchione’s testimony was of such strength as to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the elements of the crime charged without the need of supporting witnesses.
The above conclusion is the doctrine of Rosenberg v. United States, 360 U.S. 367, 79 S.Ct. 1231, 3 L.Ed.2d 1304 (1959), a landmark Jencks Act decision where a witness had written a letter to the F.B.I. stating that she feared her memory of the events in issue would be poor, the Court found that the nonproduction of the letter, though a violation of the Jencks Act, amounted only to harmless error since the same information was revealed to defendant’s counsel by statements made by the witness under cross-examination and upon questioning by the trial judge.
In this appeal all the information in the Szpak report was revealed to the defense by Agent Szpak from the witness stand. I do not particularly stress that the Szpak testimony gave the defense more information than was in the report. I do point out that the one lone, insignificant item complained of in connection with the report is that it contained “information about contacts with an informant, William C. Barker, Jr., which did not coincide with his [Szpak’s] testimony, * * * it affirmatively appears that the report could have been advantageously used to impeach Szpak concerning his testimony of events about the informant, Barker, * * *.” (Emphasis supplied.) The definitive issue in *777this appeal is not whether there could have been some attempted attack on Agent Szpak’s credibility by way of his report. Our question is whether Szpak’s testimony “ * * * was unimportant to the proofs necessary for conviction;” Mr. Justice Brennan’s dissent in Rosenberg v. United States, supra, 376, 377, 79 S.Ct. 1237 (emphasis supplied). The very same problem confronting us was before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lewis v. United States, 340 F.2d 678 (8 Cir. 1965). There the report of Charles Hill, an undercover agent for the Bureau of Narcotics was improperly withheld. The court ruled p. 684:
“In the light of the above uncontradicted facts established at appellant’s trial, and from a consideration of the whole record before'us, we think the District Court’s action and conduct in relation to the Jencks Act claim of error here made can only be considered and deemed to be harmless. Appellant’s guilt of the charge as made against him in counts IX and XII of his indictment, supra, was established beyond a reasonable doubt by competent testimony other than that as given by Witness Hill.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Mr. Justice Frankfurter’s conclusion in Rosenberg, supra, is categorically applicable to this appeal. He said on p. 371 of that opinion in 360 U.S., on p. 1234 of 79 S.Ct. “There is such a thing as harmless error and this clearly was such.”
In the light of the admitted facts and the governing law I suggest that it is a grievous mistake to reverse this lawfully established conviction on the erroneous theory that in so doing the Jencks Act is being upheld.
The concurring opinion expresses disapproval of the Assistant United States Attorney’s statement to the jury that he was convinced that when the jury heard and saw the evidence presented before it “there will be no question but that defendant, Meisch, is guilty of the crime charged.” In effect, the Assistant United States Attorney told the jury that he expected to present evidence to it which would prove the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. In giving his professional view of his proofs the Assistant United States Attorney in no way departed from his overall duty to see to it that justice be done. I strongly urge that the proposed comment which cannot but at the very least unwarrantably confuse our district judges, be withdrawn.