Court Opinion

ID: 9492940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:53:48.025624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:33.788396
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent despite the tremendous effort of the panel majority in attempting to fathom what is, to me, an almost unfathomable record. I do so not because I disagree with the interpretation of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure (“F.R.A.P.”) 10 that the district court’s reconstruction of the record may be corrected only if it is “plainly unreasonable.” This is true even though that language originated and has been perpetuated in cases uniformly upholding, rather than abrogating as the majority does here, a district court’s reconstruction. See, e.g., United States v. Keskey, 863 F.2d 474, 478 (7th Cir.1988)(accepting district court’s reconstruction of the record under F.R.A.P. 10(e) unless “intentionally falsified” or “plainly unreasonable.”); see also Rogan v. Menino, 175 F.3d 75, 79-80 (1st Cir. *1201999) (applying the standard to F.R.A.P. 10(c)); Barilaro v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 876 F.2d 260, 263-64 (1st Cir.1989) (same); United States v. Mori, 444 F.2d 240, 246 (5th Cir.1971). I dissent because a sensible application of this doctrine requires us to accept the district court’s reconstruction of the record where, as here, the challenge to the record was raised at too late a time without an adequate explanation for the delay.
In the instant case, the charge was delivered to the jury on January 22, 1998. After a process of editing by the district court, the charge that contained the critical interlineations that appellants challenge on appeal was returned to the court reporter. This version, the so-called “Official Revised Charge,” was released to the parties in March of 1998. See Neiman Aff. ¶ 54. When the government and defense counsel received this version of the charge, neither party claimed that it inaccurately reflected what was read to the jury at trial. On appeal, appellants argued that the language contained in the charge was improper and, consequently, the conspiracy convictions should not stand. The government proceeded to answer the appellants’ brief on the basis that the Official Revised Charge was read to the jury. At no point in its brief did the government state that the challenged language was different from that read to the jury. Not until after the government’s appellate brief was filed and an AUSA on the case had a discussion with the district court judge’s former law clerk at a social event did the government set about to check on the questioned language. See Neiman Aff. ¶ 55, n. 18. Although “the government acknowledges that it would have been possible to investigate the matter of whether the challenged language was ever given” earlier than April 1999, the only explanation in the record for the lapse is: “To be sure, the AUSAs who were present at trial did not recall, more than a year later, the language being delivered, nor did they think that they would have failed to notice the deviations from the 1/12/98 Draft Charge.” Id.
I agree with the Fifth Circuit’s view in Buckelew v. United States, 575 F.2d 515, 520 (5th Cir.1978), that “[t]he procedural default rule has especially clear application to claims of incomplete records, it being appellate counsel’s first duty to settle the record.” That court accurately set forth my view when it stated:
[wjhen appellants attack the validity of the record in this case, they seek to undermine the administration of appellate justice — justice that depends upon the crucial assumption that records and transcripts are accurate reflections of the facts pertinent to the issues on review. Moreover, we discern nothing unfair about requiring that the adequacy of the record be challenged in accordance with Rule 10(e), so that the matter can be resolved at a time, soon after trial, when the statements and conduct of the trial participants are still fresh in the minds of any bystanders who might be called on for evidence and appellate review can be conducted on an honest record. Doing otherwise converts direct appeal into a farce.
Id. at 520 (emphasis added).
Here, the government should have moved to correct the record in March of 1998 when it first received the “Official Revised Charge” that contained language the government now claims was never read to the jury. Even accepting the government’s excuse that it had no reason to question the charge at that point, when a notice of appeal was filed and the parties compiled the record on appeal, the government should have set about fulfilling its duty as appellate counsel to insure the record on appeal was accurate. Finally, there is simply no excuse whatsoever for the government’s failure to examine the record after appellants’ brief was filed and before the government filed its response. It is hard to believe that bells did not go off for any of the AUSAs after reading the appellants’ brief that centered an argu*121ment around the disputed language. Indeed, a close reading of the Pearce Affidavit supports the conclusion that at least one AUSA who had been present in the district court when the charge was read suspected an inconsistency between the instruction as it was set forth in the appellants’ brief and as it was read at trial before she was tipped off by the district court’s former law clerk. See Pearce Affi ¶ 3 (recalling that AUSA Hirshman brought her suspicion of a discrepancy up to the former law clerk before the law clerk mentioned his own suspicion).
In light of the foregoing, I am not convinced that the government did not waive its F.R.A.P. 10(e) argument. In U.S. v. Quiroz, 22 F.3d 489, 490-91 (2d Cir.1994) (per curiam), the government petitioned for a rehearing of our decision that the district court had wrongly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress post-arrest statements. The government’s petition was based on its discovery, made after our decision was rendered, that the appeal had been decided on a mistaken record and that the defendant had, in fact, waived his right to object to the admission of the statements. See id. at 490. In Quiroz, we reasoned that where counsel, whose name was on the appellate brief, was present in the courtroom when the defendant failed to object and “the transcript showing objection by [the defendant] was in error,” counsel should have known it. See id. In such a situation we concluded there is “no excuse for the government’s failure to assert in a timely fashion that [defendant] had failed to preserve his objection.” See id. We therefore ruled that the government could not obtain a rehearing of the appeal based on the true record because the government had waived its waiver argument by failing to raise it on appeal. See id. at 491.
In this case, as in Quiroz, a number of AUSAs on the appellate brief were also present in the district court when the jury instructions were read. The same AUSAs received a copy of the “Revised Official Version” of the instructions that contained the disputed language shortly thereafter and were alerted to the possible inconsistency again when the appellants’ brief was filed. Under Quiroz, the explanation set forth by the government in this case — that the AUSAs simply did not remember — is no excuse for its failure to assert in a timely fashion that the jury instruction was not correctly set forth in the record. Ordinarily, failure to include an argument in the appellate brief waives the argument on appeal. See Frank v. United States, 78 F.3d 815, 832-33 (2d Cir.1996); Quiroz, 22 F.3d at 490; United States v. Babwah, 972 F.2d 30, 34 (2d Cir.1992).
Even if, as the majority suggests, all of the elements of a knowing waiver are not met here, my opinion rests on the principle of institutional integrity. It was sixteen months after the delivery of the charge to the jury and approximately a year after the disputed version of the charge was returned to the parties that anyone sought to correct the record. That is precisely the problem that I have with this case. Sixteen months after the fact, no one’s mind can freshly recall what actually happened at trial. Because no one attempted to correct the record for so long, we are forced on appeal to reconstruct the record based on conflicting accounts and foggy memory, with the result of casting aspersions on the district court.
While it is the district court judge’s “belief” that the Official Revised Charge properly recorded the charge as actually given at trial, there is considerable evidence recounted in the majority opinion that the trial judge’s belief was mistaken.
Where a correction of substance is mistaken and the court reporter or transmitter does not see it, it is the better rule to require appellate counsel to move promptly for correction after the revised version is submitted to them. The record should be corrected promptly in the trial court or at the earliest possible point in the appellate court. Under the circumstances of this case, where there is no explanation for *122the delay, this Court should not undertake the Herculean task of determining what actually happened at trial when over a year has passed before it is brought to a court’s attention. Of course, it makes no difference whether it is the appellees or appellants who seek to correct the record. This Court simply should not be faced with the task of sorting through a record that contains such an embarrassing administrative snarl with the aid of hazy and contradicting recollections.
I would therefore have treated the Official Revised Charge as our record on appeal, denied the Government’s motion, reversed and remanded on the conspiracy convictions, but affirmed on the remaining convictions.