Court Opinion

ID: 9468791
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:23:48.951396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:03.235141
License: Public Domain

WINTER, Chief Judge,
concurring:
While I concur in the opinion and the judgment, I am constrained to add a few words to explain my concurrence and to express my understanding of the scope of the majority’s decision.
There is present in this case the nice jurisdictional question of whether, after a mistrial was granted and the accused was once placed in jeopardy, the government can appeal from the denial of a pretrial motion to admit certain evidence, when the motion is made after the mistrial was granted and before the new trial began and when that motion related to evidence which had been ruled inadmissible at the original trial. The question is neither noticed by the majority, notwithstanding a court’s duty to be cognizant of its own jurisdiction, nor raised by the defendant. The government, however, is apparently aware that its right to appeal is fairly debatable, because it argues in its brief that it has a right to appeal under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 as applied in United States v. Barletta, 644 F.2d 50 (1 Cir. 1981).1 It is not my purpose to indicate how I would decide the issue but merely to assert that the answer is not self-evident.2
*791I agree, however, that even if we have jurisdiction, the appeal is lacking in merit. Because of this conclusion and the further understanding that by deciding the case on the merits, the majority does not rule on the question of whether the order excluding evidence, under the facts of this case, is appealable, I join in the majority decision.3

. 18 U.S.C. § 3731 authorizes the United States to appeal from a decision or order of a district court suppressing or excluding evidence “not made after the defendant has been put in jeopardy and before the verdict or finding on an indictment or information ...” In United States v. Barletta, 644 F.2d 50 (1 Cir. 1981), the government moved to admit a tape recording which had been excluded at an earlier proceeding which resulted in a mistrial. The motion was made before the second trial began. The district court declined to rule on the motion. Thus in Barletta the facts were essentially like those present here, but the issues were whether the government could appeal from an order of the district court staying decision on a pretrial evidentiary ruling and, if so, whether the district court could properly postpone a ruling on the admissibility of the evidence. Both questions were answered in the affirmative. Significantly, the issue of whether the government could appeal the merits of the ruling once made was not addressed. Therefore Barletta is not direct authority establishing the government’s right to appeal here.

. There can be little question that jeopardy attached during defendant’s first trial. Thus it can be argued that, by its terms, the statute does not grant a right of appeal because the motion for an evidentiary ruling was not made before the defendant was placed in jeopardy as the statute requires.

. To me, it is an acceptable ground of decision not to decide a debatable jurisdictional issue when the conclusion is inevitable that if jurisdiction exists, the appeal is otherwise lacking in merit. See Richardson v. McFadden, 563 F.2d 1130 (4 Cir. 1977) (in banc). Firestone Tire & Rubber Company v. Risjord, 449 U.S. 368, 101 S.Ct. 669, 66 L.Ed.2d 571 (1981), only holds that when a court of appeals affirmatively concludes that it lacks jurisdiction, it ought not to reach the merits of the controversy.