Court Opinion

ID: 9483296
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:16:22.582367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:32.386803
License: Public Domain

SILER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Although the majority opinion does not discuss all the points raised on appeal, I would affirm the judgment of the district court in all respects. I dissent because I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that it was error to have excluded five items of documentary evidence, consisting of a book, three Supreme Court opinions, and excerpts from the 1943 Congressional Record.
Obviously, I agree that the defendant in this case could lawfully raise the defense that he could not be convicted for wilfully failing to file his tax returns if he held a subjective belief that the law did not impose such a duty upon him. See Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192, 111 S.Ct. 604, 112 L.Ed.2d 617 (1991). “[I]n deciding whether to credit [defendant’s] good-faith belief claim, the jury would be free to consider any admissible evidence from any source showing that [defendant] was aware of his duty to file a return and to treat wages as income, including evidence showing his awareness of the relevant provisions of the Code or Regulations, of court decisions rejecting his interpretation of the tax law, of authoritative rulings of the Internal Revenue Service, or of any contents of the personal income tax return forms and accompanying instructions that made it plain that wages should be returned as income.” Id., at-, 111 S.Ct. at 611. However, Cheek does not hold that such evidence in documentary form is admissible in support of such a defense, although the trial court allowed the defendant in that case to introduce certain materials containing references to quotations from opinions and statutes.
I agree that the defendant in this case at bar could testify as to his subjective beliefs that he was not required to file an income tax return, but the defendant was not precluded from testifying about that, nor that he was basing it upon cases or books he had read. However, I believe that this is a mine field for confusing the jury if the defendant in such a case could introduce documents of this sort in support of his defense. If he had been permitted to introduce these items, then the prosecution may have been allowed to introduce the evidence referred to in Cheek. Instead, the district court exercised its discretion in excluding the evidence. The district court did not cite any particular rule of evidence, but it is obvious that its ruling was based upon Fed.R.Evid. 403, because the exhibits were confusing and misleading to the jury.
The majority opinion discussed the decision in United States v. Willie, 941 F.2d *7261384 (10th Cir.1991), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 1200, 117 L.Ed.2d 440 (1992), but it finds the dissent by Judge Ebel as persuasive. I would follow the majority opinion in that case and in United States v. Hairston, 819 F.2d 971 (10th Cir.1987), for the proposition that the introduction of those documents was discretionary with the trial court, and that discretion was not abused.
I realize that there is dictum to the contrary in United States v. Powell, 955 F.2d 1206, 1214 (9th Cir.1992), but I foresee that policy as a mistake in the law, for it would encourage tax protestors or others who wish to raise a defense of willfulness, to introduce numerous outdated documents or opinions in support of their defenses, in order to confuse the issues at trial.