Court Opinion

ID: 9448846
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:46:18.087683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:34.376186
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
(1)
I concur in remanding for a new trial acting under Rule 52(b), Fed.R.Crim. P., because the terms and language of the Waiver Order are such that there is grave risk of undue prejudice to appellant. Its recital that the Juvenile Judge acted “after full investigation” carries with it an implication that appellant’s case was so serious and his crime so grave that a “youth court” could not adequately deal with him. However we as judges might view the form and language of the waiver, we cannot escape the possibility, if not probability, that jurors would attach an inordinate weight to what appears to be a “finding” by the Juvenile Judge — a judicial officer experienced and skilled, as they would reasonably think, in making appraisals of juveniles. The fact that the jury called for the document after its legal effect had been fully and correctly explained by the District Judge, suggests a strong possibility that they wanted it for some purpose relating to their evaluation of the facts of the case.
(2)
As to the second phase of the remand I think we must leave it within the sound judicial discretion of the District Court to determine whether appellant’s allegations, as now made or hereafter amended, are legally sufficient to rebut the presumption of regularity in the proceedings which led to the Juvenile Court’s finding “after full investigation” that his jurisdiction should be waived. There is nothing which now appears to cast doubt on the adequacy of the “full investigation” which the Juvenile Judge states he made.
(3)
In United States v. Anonymous, 176 F.Supp. 325 (D.D.C.1959), Judge Young-dahl exercised undoubted power to hear a “waived” case sitting, for all practical purposes, as a Juvenile Court and using the same powers. In so doing it was appropriate for him, since he was no longer treating the accused as an adult, to have before him all records available to the Juvenile Judge. This is indicated further by his action in sealing the records in the case and maintaining anonymity of the accused youth as would be done in Juvenile Court but not in the District Court in an adult criminal case. In the case now before us the District Judge acted on the waiver and treated appellant as an adult offender. Hence the procedure followed by Judge Young-dahl in United States v. Anonymous, supra, is not relevant here.
I read the opinion of the court as meaning that a District Judge treating with a defendant whose case has been waived by the Juvenile Court may properly (a) examine Juvenile Court records in camera, (b) make available to defense counsel such parts of the Juvenile Court records which under the statutes and Juvenile Court Rules may be viewed by counsel but without access to portions as to which the District Judge considers secrecy should be preserved, specifically the sources of information supplied to *307the Juvenile Court in confidence. However, our holding does not relate to a case where, as in United States v. Anonymous, supra, the District Judge exercised his power to fulfill the functions as a Juvenile Judge. When the District Judge is so acting, the records are available to the “accused” juvenile only to the extent they would be available to him in the Juvenile Court and no more.