Court Opinion

ID: 9460758
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:59:34.628047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:46.123416
License: Public Domain

STEVENS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
The majority seems to interpret Williams v. New York, 337 U.S. 241, 69 S.Ct. 1079, 93 L.Ed. 1337, and the many cases which have followed it, as establishing the broad proposition that the trial judge has no obligation to disclose any information contained in a presentence report even though it may be of critical importance in his determination of the sentence. As I rea'd Williams, it decides a much narrower issue.
In Williams the Court held that the sentencing judge is not limited to the consideration of evidence received in open court or factual matter which would be admissible under accepted rules of evidence. But the Court did not address the narrow question whether the sentencing judge may rely upon critical information about the defendant’s past without at least giving him notice of the substance of the matter relied upon. Indeed, it is of interest that in Williams the sentencing judge discussed in specific detail the items in the presentence report which had persuaded him to impose the death penalty. See Record 12-20. *179Williams v. New York, No. 671, O.T. 1948. And, in defending the fairness of the sentencing procedure before the Supreme Court, the State emphasized the fact that neither the defendant nor his counsel had questioned the accuracy of any of the information in the report:
“It is significant that although the court revealed the foregoing information, neither appellant nor his counsel made any claim that all or any part of it was untrue or inaccurate in the slightest respect. No request was made to be confronted with the witnesses supplying the information. Nor was any request made for an opportunity to offer rebuttal evidence. Since appellant and his counsel remained silent when confronted with the information above related, the court acted on its conclusion to reject the jury’s recommendation and imposed the death penalty (R. 20).” Appellee’s brief at 6, Williams v. New York, No. 671, O.T. 1948.
The rationale of three other Supreme Court decisions persuades me that the sentencing procedure must avoid the risk that the trial judge has relied upon critical misinformation which the defendant has had no opportunity to contradict or to explain. If the judge regards any information in the presentence report as sufficiently important to affect the sentence, the substance of that information must be disclosed to the defendant or his counsel before sentence is pronounced. I draw that conclusion from the holdings in Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U.S. 129, 88 S.Ct. 254, 19 L.Ed.2d 336; Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 68 S.Ct. 1252, 92 L.Ed. 1690; and Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 562-563, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 16 L.Ed.2d 84.
Mempa, of course, established the basic proposition that sentencing is a critical stage of the criminal prosecution; for that reason, counsel must be provided. Kent reminds us that counsel cannot adequately represent his client unless he is provided with the information on which the trier of facts bases its determination. And in Townsend the Court squarely held that the imposition of sentence on the basis of misinformation “which the prisoner had no opportunity to correct [rendered] the proceeding lacking in due process.” 334 U.S. at 741, 68 S.Ct. at 1255.
The fundamental elements of due process are required in the sentencing procedure. The most fundamental of all such requirements is adequate notice. Unless the defendant is given an opportunity to correct material misinformation, or to explain facts that might be given improper weight in a secret presentation, he has not had such notice. In my opinion, if a trial judge denies a motion seeking access to a presentence report, he must either make it clear that his sentence determination is not predicated on the contents of the report or describe the substance of any matter he considers significant. In order to avoid the kind of error exemplified by Townsend v. Burke, I believe the Constitution mandates a procedure comparable to that employed by the trial judge in Williams v. New York. It may require more; to the extent that the majority approves anything less, I respectfully dissent.