Court Opinion

ID: 9443641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:26:29.99301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:33.609737
License: Public Domain

SANBORN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The record shows that the crime the defendants were accused of having committed was investigated by the Indian Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; that the grand jury indicted the defendants; that, on their pleas of not guilty, they were tried to a jury and before a judge who was fair and impartial; that the case was submitted to the jury under instructions to which no exceptions were taken; that the jury returned a verdict of guilty; and that the judge subsequently denied the defendants’ motions for a new trial. This Court now rules that the defendant Packineau was entitled to be acquitted, although the Government’s evidence shows that he was present at the time the crime was committed, that he was the one who first attacked the prose-cutrix, and that his striking her on the jaw enabled the defendant White Bear, Jr., to accomplish his purpose. White Bear, Jr., is granted a new trial largely on the ground that the defendants in their cross-examination of the prosecutrix were not permitted to ask her whether she had! had improper relations with another Indian ■about a year before the trial. The offer of proof made by the defendants in connection with her cross-examination did not state that she would so testify, and there was no basis for believing that she would have admitted what the defendants were offering to prove by her. The offer was-not renewed by the defendants after the Government had rested its case, obviously because each of them denied having attacked her or having had improper relations with her at the time the offense was. alleged to have been committed. The story of the defendants was that she and Neola Spotted Horse had a fight and that the. injuries and torn clothing of the prosecutrix resulted from her combat with Neola.
Whether the evidence proffered by the defendants in connection with the cross-examination of the prosecutrix as to alleged specific acts of immorality committed! by the prosecutrix with another Indian was-admissible at all is a very doubtful question, although, as the majority opinion states, the cases on the subject are in conflict. See Annotations in 65 A.L.R. 410 and 140 A.L.R. 364. Personally, I think that the proffered evidence was incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial and had no. bearing whatever upon any issue in the *689case. Assuming, however, that the evidence would have been admissible for some purpose and at some stage of the proceedings, the District Court was not required to permit the defendants, upon their cross-examination in chief of the prosecutrix, to question her about the matter. The extent to which a prosecutrix in a rape case may be cross-examined in chief as to alleged specific acts of sexual misconduct rests largely in the sound discretion of the trial court. See and compare, Lovely v. United States, 4 Cir., 175 F.2d 312, 314; State v. Brown, 185 Minn. 446, 241 N.W. 591; State v. Troche, 127 Minn. 485, 487, 149 N.W. 944. The fact that the District Court may have given a wrong reason for a correct or at least a permissible conclusion is of no help to the defendants. In my opinion, it was not reversible error or error at all to refuse to permit the defendants to cross-examine the prosecutrix with respect to the subject matter of their offer of proof. I am satisfied that if such proof was admissible it was properly admissible only in defense and for such hearing as it might have upon the probability of the prosecutrix having consented to the sexual relations which each of the defendants denied having had or having attempted to have with her. See State v. Perry, 151 Minn. 217, 219, 186 N.W. 310; State v. Wulff, 194 Minn. 271, 274, 275, 260 N. W. 515, 516.
There is no sound reason why a prose-cutrix in a case such as this, after her direct examination in chief, should he subjected on cross-examination to an attempted besmirching of her character for chastity by insinuation or innuendo. If a defendant in such a case has evidence that the prosecutrix was an immoral woman (either generally or specifically) who probably put up no resistance to his advances, the proper time for him to offer such evidence is in defense. Even an immoral woman has some freedom of selection, and consent obtained from such a woman by a stunning ‘blow on the jaw is no consent at all.
I am satisfied that, under the evidence in this case, the questions whether the prosecutrix was raped by White Bear, Jr., and whether the defendant Packineau deliberately aided White Bear, Jr., in the commission of the crime were questions of fact for the jury, that the trial was not unfair, and that the jury was warranted in convicting both defendants.
The errors referred to in the majority opinion which were not urged by the defendants as grounds for reversal were either not properly preserved for review or are too inconsequential, in view of other evidence in the case, to amount to prejudicial error. See and compare, Apt v. United States, 8 Cir., 13 F.2d 126; Hood v. United States, 8 Cir., 14 F.2d 925, 927; Miller v. United States, 8 Cir., 21 F.2d 32, 36-38, certiorari denied 276 U.S. 621, 48 S.Ct. 301, 72 L.Ed. 735; Salerno v. United States, 8 Cir., 61 F.2d 419, 424; Morgan v. United States, 8 Cir., 98 F.2d 473, 476-477; Lovely v. United States, 4 Cir., 175 F.2d 312, 314.
I think the Government is entitled to an affirmance of the conviction of the defendants of the crime charged against them.