Court Opinion

ID: 9453630
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:19:25.237524+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:44.342827
License: Public Domain

McGOWAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
Although not unsympathetic with Chief Judge Bazelon’s strictures upon the concept of the retaliatory prosecution, I limit my concurrence to the result.
At the oral argument of this appeal, these things became clear: (1) the record clearly shows that this was a retaliatory prosecution; (2) it was instituted at a time when the Corporation Counsel’s office was under direct instructions from the Commissioners of the District of Columbia that prosecutions of this kind were forbidden; and (3) there is a new Corporation Counsel, with the Assistant who started this prosecution no longer being around. Accordingly, there is little likelihood that, even if we were to reinstate the charge, it would be actively prosecuted. In any event, it was expressly signified to us by the Government that it had no objection to the result which we now reach. Under these circumstances, I conclude that this particular litigation has become meaningless to the point where familiar principles of sound judicial administration alone dictate that both judgments below should be vacated and the charge dismissed with prejudice.