Court Opinion

ID: 9454927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:04:06.041987+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:22.922146
License: Public Domain

BASTIAN, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I obtain from the record a different picture from that perceived by my colleagues. They agree with appellant’s contention that the evidence was legally insufficient to enable a jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant participated in the commission of the offense. Thus, they decide that the denial of appellant’s motions for judgment of acquittal was error. I emphatically disagree.
Several legal principles are applicable The first is that an appellate court, reviewing a conviction assailed because of insufficiency of the evidence, must view that evidence in the light most favorable to the Government and make full allowance for the jury’s right to assess the credibility of witnesses and to draw justifiable inferences from the evidence. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); Crawford v. United States, 126 U.S.App.D.C. 156, 375 F.2d 332 (1967).
Equally applicable to the instant case is the appropriate legal standard governing appellate review of a denied motion for judgment of acquittal. In this jurisdiction that standard has been clearly delineated in the leading case of Curley v. United States, 81 U.S.App.D.C. 389, 160 F.2d 229, cert. denied, 331 U.S. 837, 67 S.Ct. 1511, 91 L.Ed. 1850 (1947), as follows:
The true rule, therefore, is that a trial judge, in passing upon a motion for directed verdict of acquittal, must determine whether upon the evidence, giving full play to the right of the jury to determine credibility, weigh the evidence, and draw justifiable inferences of fact, a reasonable mind might fairly conclude guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If he concludes that upon the evidence there must be such a doubt in a reasonable mind, he must grant the motion; or, to state it another way, if there is no evidence upon *1117which a reasonable mind might fairly conclude guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the motion must be granted. If he concludes that either of the two results, a reasonable doubt or no reasonable doubt, is fairly possible, he must let the jury decide the matter. In a given case, particularly one of circumstantial evidence, that determination may depend upon the difference between pure speculation and legitimate inference from proven facts. The task of the judge in such case is not easy, for the rule of reason is frequently difficult to apply, but we know of no way to avoid that difficulty, (footnote omitted)
160 F.2d at 232-233.
Carrying a bag which contained about $5,100.00 in cash and checks, a bookkeeper of the Center Market Provision Company left the Company office, intending to deposit the funds in the bank. Appellant and an unidentified man were standing near the Company’s truck and the employee’s automobile. As the employee was about to put the bag in the trunk of his car, the unidentified man drew his gun and took the bag. Appellant, standing at this time only a short distance away, made no move to run until an eyewitness shouted, “They are robbing him!” Thus alerted by the eyewitness’ cry that they were robbing the victim, both the unidentified gunman and appellant ran away together. They were pursued (but kept running together) for some three or four blocks when they outdistanced their pursuers. They did not separate during these three or four blocks. Appellant was later arrested, but the unidentified gunman was never caught, nor was the money recovered. Added to these facts, the record reveals that appellant had been associated with the unidentified gunman for an appreciable period of time immediately preceding the crime. Then appellant was seen joining the robber just before the robbery, and, at the moment of the crime, appellant was no more than ten feet from the actual spot of the holdup.
In Crawford v. United States, supra, we stated that, in order to withstand a motion for acquittal, “the government need only introduce enough evidence to ‘sustain’ a conviction, i. e., such evidence that reasonable persons could find guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It is not a requirement that the evidence compel, but only that it is capable of or sufficient to persuade the jury to reach a verdict of guilt by the requisite standard.” Id. at 334. Thus does our inquiry focus on the question of whether the government introduced enough evidence to “sustain” a conviction of appellant’s aiding and abetting, such evidence, with inferences drawn appropriately in the government’s favor, that reasonable persons could find guilt of aiding and abetting beyond a reasonable doubt.
Judge Hand’s statement in United States v. Peoni, 100 F.2d 401, 402 (2d Cir. 1938), on the requirements necessary for one to be an aider and abettor was repeated almost verbatim by the Supreme Court in Nye & Nissen v. United States, 336 U.S. 613, 69 S.Ct. 766, 93 L.Ed. 919 (1949). There, at 619, 69 S.Ct. at 769, the Court declared, “In order to aid and abet another to commit a crime it is necessary that a defendant ‘in some sort associate himself with the venture, that he participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about, that he seek by his action to make it succeed.’ ”
In this case, prior to the commission of the crime, appellant was closely associated with the actual perpetrator and was with him immediately before the robbery. Furthermore, appellant was present at the scene of the crime. Finally, he ran away together with the other man after the robbery. Yet, my colleagues decide that only by impermissible conjecture could the evidence support a finding that appellant “in some sort associate himself with the venture, that he participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about, that he seek by his action to make it succeed.” Nye & Nissen v. United States, supra.
*1118In the District Court, an experienced trial judge denied appellant’s motions for judgment of acquittal and allowed the case to go to the jury. I submit that this was properly done and that the resulting jury verdict should be allowed to stand. I see no justification for my colleagues setting aside appellant’s conviction.
I, on the other hand, state forcefully that the totality of this evidence, when considered in the light most favorable to the prosecution, is surely adequate, yea, more than adequate, to meet the governing standard, “ * * * [that] a reasonable mind might fairly conclude guilt beyond a reasonable doubt * * * [and if the trial judge] concludes that either of the two results, a reasonable doubt or no reasonable doubt, is fairly possible, he must let the jury decide the matter.” Curley v. United States, supra. To the same effect is Crawford v. United States, supra.
So I dissent.