Court Opinion

ID: 9651549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:25:39.695537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:35.401607
License: Public Domain

HOLMES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The hypothesis that the prosecuting attorney was not surprised by Hucel Hamilton’s testimony is not warranted by anything in the record, and the presumption is to the contrary. In spite of the letters which passed between Hucel and Beulah Hamilton, it is probable and should be presumed that the attorney talked to Hamilton before introducing him as a witness, and was told that the facts set forth in the statement were true and would be testified to by him on the witness stand. 28 U.S.C.A. § 391; Haywood v. U. S., 7 Cir., 268 F. 795, certiorari denied 256 U.S. 689, 41 S.Ct. 449, 65 L.Ed. 1172; St. John v. U. S., 7 Cir., 268 F. 808; Kuhn v. U. S., 9 Cir., 24 F.2d 910, certiorari denied 278 U.S. 605, 49 S.Ct. 11, 73 L.Ed. 533.
The court below ruled that counsel was surprised, and no contention to the contrary was even suggested on the trial by appellant’s attorneys. Hamilton was an unwilling witness, and the United States Attorney had the right to cross-examine him and to ask him leading questions. The trial court has a discretion with respect to the scope of the examination of witnesses, which, in the absence of abuse, an appellate court should not undertake to control. Levy v. U. S., 8 Cir., 35 F.2d 483, citing Hickory v. U. S., 151 U.S. 303, 14 S.Ct. 334, 38 L.Ed. 170, and St. Clair v. U. S., 154 U.S. 134, 14 S.Ct. 1002, 38 L.Ed. 936.
It is indisputably established by the verdict of the jury that an officer of the Alcohol Tax Unit was murdered by Pete Martinez, an employee at an illicit distillery owned and operated by appellant. The fatal bullet came from a pistol which had been put in Pete’s hands by appellant for the purpose of enabling him effectively to guard the still against interference by governmental officers. Moreover, this employer gave his employee specific instructions to “shoot it out with them.” The appellant said that he saw the officer walking into a death trap; that if it had been some other officer, he might have warned him; that he put the Mexican down there for a lookout man; that he knew nobody would ever get up to the still; that he heard the gun fire and knew it was the Mexican shooting, knew it was his gun, and knew that it never missed; that he was glad the Goddamned son-of-a-bitch was dead and would not bother anybody else; and that appellant had been expecting a raid on the still by federal officers.
After a two days trial, the jury returned a verdict of murder in the first degree without capital punishment, and appellant was sentenced to imprisonment for life. This verdict should not be set aside for slight and inconsequential errors (28 U.S.C.A. § 391); but I am not of. the opinion that the court erred. The effort to impeach the witness took a wide range— wider than should ordinarily be permitted —but if prejudice to appellant resulted therefrom, it was brought about by the insistence of his attorney that the whole statement and not just parts of it be admitted. It was in accordance with the *208principle insisted upon by appellant’s counsel that the United States Attorney offered the entire documents in evidence.
I respectfully dissent from the judgment of reversal.