Court Opinion

ID: 9883649
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:05:16.615509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:52.976453
License: Public Domain

ROBB, Associate Justice
(dissenting) :
There has been an alarming increase in the number of murders committed in the District in recent years. Anyone who reads local newspapers will have observed that there has been an equal increase in other crimes of a serious nature, particularly armed robbery. Indeed, conditions are such that no part of the city is safe for persons afoot, especially after dark. To meet the situation, indicted persons should be speedily -brought to trial and, if properly convicted, punished without delay.
In the present case the evidence of defendant’s guilt is overwhelming. In my view the charge of the court, taken as a whole, is not subject to criticism. It is conceded in the majority opinion, as indeed it must be, that the words,
“There must be something more than such an assault with the fists. There must be the honest belief, on the part of the defendant, that death or serious bodily harm was imminent at the hands of the decedent,”
“contained the implication that under such circumstances, despite the use of bare fists only by Jordan, there might be lawful resort to a dangerous weapon by the defendant.” “But,” it is said, “this implication arose only out of an abstract statement * £ * »
*886At the close of the charge, the court inquired, “Are there any suggestions?” In' response counsel for the defendant said: “I was going to make this suggestion, your Honor, in view of some other cases: I think it would be well for your Honor to tell the jury that they can take into consideration the sizes and the physical makeup of the two parties, in the plea of self-defense.” To this the court responded, addressing the jury: “Mr. Whelan has asked me if you may take into account the difference in the physical size of the accused and of the deceased. That you are entitled to do. You have evidence upon it, and you should properly give weight to all of the facts and circumstances, including those which have been suggested by Mr. Whelan.” (Italics supplied.)
No other suggestion was made by counsel, nor was there any objection or exception to the court’s charge.-
While it is true that appellate courts in certain unusual circumstances, not here present, have noticed serious error, even though there was no objection, exception, or assignment. (Freed v. United States, 49 App.D.C. 392, 266 F. 1012), the general rule (recognized by the Supreme Court2) is to the contrary. Miller v. United States, 57 App.D.C. 228, 19 F.(2d) 702; Allis v. United States, 155 U.S. 117, 15 S.Ct. 36, 39 L.Ed. 91; Holt v. United States, 218 U.S. 245, 31 S.Ct. 2, 54 L.Ed. 1021, 20 Ann.Cas. 1138; Holmgren v. United States, 217 U.S. 509, 30 S.Ct. 588, 54 L.Ed. 861, 19 Ann. Cas. 778.
Prior to the trial of this defendant the Supreme Court of the United States promulgated rules governing proceedings in criminal cases after plea of guilty or verdict or finding of guilty, which as to such proceedings superseded pre-existing rules of all lower Federal courts.3 Rule IX there of provides that “bills of exceptions shall conform to the provisions of rule 8” of its general rules. Rule 8 (28 U.S.C.A. following section 354) provides that judges of district courts (including the Supreme Court of the District) shall not allow a bill of exceptions “on a general exception to the charge of the court to the jury in trials at common law. The party excepting shall be required before the jury retires to state distinctly the several matters of law in such charge to which he excepts.; and no other exception to the charge shall be allowed by the court or inserted in a bill of exceptions. (2) Only so much of the evidence shall be embraced in a bill of exceptions as may be necessary to present clearly the questions of law involved in the rulings to which exceptions are reserved. * * *”
In the Allis Case (in which Allis was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary) the court said (155 U.S. 117, at page 122, 15 S.Ct. 36, 38, 39 L.Ed. 91): “But the exception taken is not sufficient to bring all these matters before us. There is no intimation in the exception that the defendant at the time thought that the court was trying to coerce the jury or suggested that its language might have such an influence upon them. Evidently the claim of coercion is an afterthought from subsequent study of the record. But it is settled that no such afterthought justifies a reviewing court in reversing the judgment. A party must make every reasonable effort to secure from the trial court correct rulings, or such at least as are satisfactory to him, before he will be permitted to ask any review by the appellate tribunal; and to that end he must be distinct and specific in his objections and exceptions.”
In the present case defendant merely noted an exception to the refusal of the court to grant a tendered prayer. Since the substance of that prayer was given in the charge of the court that followed, the denial of the prayer was not assigned as error. Thus, an abandoned exception is used as a vehicle to bring up evidence to support an assignment of error not covered by an exception. Without the abandoned exception there would be no bill of exceptions, and the evidence and charge upon which the majority predicate error would not be part of a true bill of exceptions, being in violation of Rule IX of the criminal rules of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Defendant’s contention, as in the Allis Case, is an afterthought, and in noticing it this court violates Rule IX of the criminal rules of the Supreme Court of the United States and reverses a judgment that should be affirmed. Laxity of courts in enforcing their rules (which have the force of *887law), or the making of exceptions thereto, fosters attempts by attorneys to disregard or circumvent them, as here, and lessens respect for law and its enforcement.

 Rule IX, Rules of Practice and Procedure in Criminal Cases, 292 U.S. 661, 664, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723a.

 Rules of Practice and Procedure in Criminal Cases, 292 U.S. 661, 28 U.S.C.A. § 723a, and rules following section 723c.