Court Opinion

ID: 9472896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:14:14.232111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:13.180935
License: Public Domain

COFFEY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s conclusion to affirm defendant Bush’s conviction for armed robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), (d). I write separately, however, on the sufficiency of the evidence and the testimony concerning defendant Bush’s resemblance as one of the armed robbers.
In section I of the opinion, the majority properly reasons that there was sufficient evidence presented at trial for the jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Bush participated in the armed robbery. Indeed, an expert witness testified at trial that Bush’s fingerprints were found on a white box and a blue box stored in the bank safe. The testimony further revealed that these boxes were kept in the bank safe at all times and that access to the safe was restricted exclusively to bank employees. Bush was never an employee of the bank nor was he ever authorized to lawfully enter the safe. Accordingly, the boxes were inaccessible to Bush and it was reasonable for a jury to conclude, beyond any doubt, that his handling of the boxes occurred during the unlawful armed robbery. Rather than end the analysis at this point, the majority erroneously refers to the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Borum v. United States, 380 F.2d 595 (D.C.Cir.1967) (“Borum”).
In Borum, a divided court overturned a conviction for unlawful entry into a private dwelling because the only evidence against the defendant was the presence of four fingerprints on empty jars that were found in the ransacked home. According to the court, there was “no evidence indicating that the [jars] were generally inaccessible” to the defendant, and thus the jury could only speculate that the defendant handled the jars during the illegal entry. Borum, 380 F.2d at 596. The court concluded that “[w]ith evidence so inconclusive, a reasonable person must have a reasonable doubt about [the defendant’s] guilt.” Id. at 597. In stark contrast to the facts in Borum, the evidence in the present case is indisputably clear that the boxes were stored in the bank safe and were at all times inaccessible to Bush. Thus, the facts in the present case are wholly inapposite to the facts in Borum.
Moreover, in Borum, the jars on which police found the defendant’s fingerprints “were stored in the second floor closet of a private home to which [the defendant] had no lawful access.” 380 F.2d at 599 (Burger, J., dissenting). Common sense dictates that the defendant’s only opportunity to handle these hidden jars was during the course of his illegal entry. It was certainly reasonable for the jury to infer, beyond any doubt, that the defendant’s fingerprints were placed on the jars during his unlawful presence in the home. As then Circuit Judge Burger noted in dissent, “[t]he majority seems to assume that the prosecution’s case must answer all questions and remove all doubts, which, of course, is not the law because that would be impossible; the proof need only satisfy reasonable doubt.” Id. (emphasis original). The hypertechnical Borum analysis conflicts with the well-settled rule that a jury verdict must be sustained if “after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” United States v. Moya, 721 F.2d 606, 609 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 104 S.Ct. 1312, 79 L.Ed.2d 709 (1984) (emphasis original) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). Rather than refer to the Borum decision, which is easily distinguishable from the present case and contains faulty legal reasoning, I would cast it afloat on the troubled waters of the 60’s, ever to be forgotten in our annals of legal history, as a time when far too many of our courts were concerned with expanding the rights of the criminal defendant. In their zealous attempts to achieve this end, the courts upset the ever *1235delicate balance between the rights of the defendant as against those of society as a whole, known as the common good of all mankind, an underlying premise of our Ju-deo-Christian heritage.
I also distance myself from the majority’s reference to United States v. Archibald, 734 F.2d 938 (2d Cir.1984) (“Archibald”) in section II of the opinion. In Archibald, the defendant asked in advance of trial “that he be seated away from the defense table and that other black men be seated in the courtroom” because he feared that his lone presence at the defense table would lead to a suggestive in-court identification. 734 F.2d at 942. The trial court refused the defendant’s request and on appeal the Second Circuit reversed, ruling that “[t]he in-court identification procedure utilized here was so clearly suggestive as to be impermissible, however traditional it may be.” Id. at 942-43. In the present case there was no in-court identification, the prosecutor simply asked the witness whether or not anyone in the courtroom resembled one of the armed robbers. The witness pointed to the defendant Bush and stated that “[h]e resembles him.” This resemblance testimony did not constitute a positive identification and the defense counsel had ample opportunity to cross-examine the witness’ inability to identify Bush.
I further note that the majority quotes the Second Circuit’s broad due process holding in Archibald but completely ignores the fact that the defendant in that case feared irreparable suggestivity resulting from the in-court identification and asked, before trial, to be seated with other people of his approximate age and skin color. According to the Second Circuit, if a defendant fears a suggestive in-court identification, “ ‘his remedy is to move for a line-up order to assure that the identification witness will first view the suspect with others of like description rather than in the courtroom sitting alone at the defense table.’ ” Id. at 942 (quoting United States v. Brown, 699 F.2d 585, 594 (2d Cir.1983)). The record in the present case is absolutely void of any evidence that Bush believed, in advance of trial or anytime during trial, that resemblance testimony would be suggestive and/or prejudicial. Bush never asked the district court for a “line-up” order and thus the due process reasoning in Archibald is wholly inapplicable to the instant case.
Finally, this case is singularly inappropriate for addressing the parameters of a defendant’s proposed due process rights during an in-court identification. The witness not only failed to positively identify Bush but the defense counsel failed to object when the prosecutor posed the resemblance question. Because the alleged error was not preserved, the only issue before this court is whether the district court committed plain error in admitting the resemblance testimony. As the majority opinion acknowledges, “[tjhere is no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct; nor is there evidence that the defendant stood out physically from others in the courtroom. The only suggestive circumstance identified by the defendant is that he sat at counsel table.” (Footnote omitted). Accordingly, the instant case does not present facts that warrant reference to the Archibald opinion, much less a discussion of the possible due process rights to be afforded a defendant during an in-court identification.