Court Opinion

ID: 9488673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:52:08.404467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:01.778264
License: Public Domain

BLACK, Circuit Judge, specially
concurring:
I concur. I write separately as to the redaction of the term “willfully” from counts 6 and 7 of the indictment.
I view the redaction as more closely resembling a variance than an amendment1 and must, therefore, consider the question of whether or not the redaction was prejudicial. Keller, 916 F.2d at 633 (citing United States v. Figueroa, 666 F.2d 1375, 1379 (11th Cir.1982)). In this case, the defense attorney built his entire defense around the inclusion of the term “willfully” in the indictment. At the end of trial, after the close of evidence, the term was deleted from the indictment and was not included in the instructions to the jury. Although I believe the evidence might well have supported a verdict of guilty with the term “willfully” remaining, that is not the issue. Deleting “willfully” at the last minute undermined the credibility of the defense attorney to the extent that it was impossible for him to make a credible argument to the jury. The redaction was prejudicial, and I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority.
Feb. 2, 1996
BY THE COURT:
Appellant’s “motion for rehearing/clarification,” construed as a motion to clarify this Court’s opinion, is GRANTED. The judgment is amended by adding: “This case is REMANDED to the district for further proceedings consistent herewith.”

. The majority holds that the redaction in this case more closely resembles an impermissible broadening of the indictment as discussed in United States v. Keller, 916 F.2d 628 (11th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 978, 111 S.Ct. 1628, 113 L.Ed.2d 724 (1991), and United States v. Leichtnam, 948 F.2d 370 (7th Cir.1991), than the elimination of unnecessaty averments as discussed in United States v. Miller, 471 U.S. 130, 105 S.Ct. 1811, 85 L.Ed.2d 99 (1985). Keller and Leichtnam are amendment cases and if the redaction of "willfully” were an amendment, the conviction on counts 6 and 7 would be per se reversible. Keller, 916 F.2d at 633. This would also mean that the term could not have been redacted before trial without the grand jury returning an amended indictment. See Miller 471 U.S. at 135, 105 S.Ct. at 1815.