Court Opinion

ID: 9466642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:21:38.875289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:50.630139
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I dissent.
In this case, a jury, having had a full opportunity to see and hear the Government’s key witness on whose credibility the outcome depended, found the defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of trafficking in heroin. To prevent such traffic— or at least to try to discourage it- — the Government spends millions of dollars. Despite the jury’s opinion of guilt the majority speculates that their verdict may have been reached because of the introduction of an item of evidence against one of the defendants — an item quite collateral to the main issue. Thus, instead of adhering to the real issue, as charged in the indictment, of heroin trafficking, the majority poses the issue as: “This criminal appeal concerns primarily the admissibility of prior crime evidence in a multi-defendant trial”. Starting with this hypothesis, the opinion discusses the disadvantages of multi-defendant trials, the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of jury instructions, and the spill-over effect of evidence admitted against one defendant on the others.
Interesting though these subjects be, the facts before us in simplified form are: A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, Victor Aponte, arranged to buy heroin for $8,500 from the defendant Figueroa. They were joined by defendants Acosta and Lebrón. Lebrón produced a brown paper bag containing cellophane packets inside of which was a brown powdery substance with a vinegar-like odor. Aponte concluded that it was brown rock heroin. Shortly thereafter Acosta appeared on the street with a portion of the brown paper bag sticking out of his pocket. As Acosta walked away, Aponte pursued him to make the arrest. During the scuffle, Acosta threw the bag into the crowd of by-standers. Needless to say it was never retrieved. The record of the trial discloses more than sufficient evidence of the attempted heroin transaction and the defendants’ participation therein.
The majority refers to the fact that “the only witness was Aponte”, but many a multi-defendant narcotics case has been built around a single prime witness, and the jury was properly charged with determining Aponte’s credibility.
However, on appeal the emphasis is turned by defense counsel — wisely as a matter of strategy — from guilt or innocence to collateral matters. As the majority phrases it, “The principal claim of all three appellants concerns the introduction into evidence of a 1968 conviction of Acosta for selling heroin”. Yet this very statement would seem to be at odds with their conclusion as to Acosta that: “The case against Acosta rested entirely on the testimony of Aponte, whose credibility was a seriously contested issue in the trial”. If this be so, of what importance is their speculation immediately following that: “The impact upon Acosta of the introduction of his prior narcotics conviction may well have been decisive to the outcome of the jury’s deliberation”. Scarcely, an attack on, or relevant to, Aponte’s testimony.
The trial court gave a “specific limiting instruction” with respect to “the prior conviction of Mr. Acosta”. The court said: *949“First, I caution you that that evidence was admissible against Mr. Acosta only and only against Mr. Acosta and not against the other defendants”. The court continued: “The fact that the particular defendant may have committed another offense at some time is not any evidence or proof whatever that, at another later time, the accused committed the offense charged in the indictment, even though both offenses are of a like nature. Evidence as to an alleged earlier offense of a like nature may not, therefore, be considered by the jury, in determining whether the defendant did the act charged in the indictment.” App. 388. In my opinion the jury could not have been more clearly instructed as to the restrictions placed upon them.
The majority satisfy themselves with placing the burden of jury compliance with the court’s instructions on the trial court itself, saying: “The trial court should carefully consider the likely effectiveness of a cautionary instruction that tries to limit the jury’s consideration of the evidence to the purpose for which it is admissible.” This suggests interruptions by the trial court during the charge to inquire of each juror whether he or she understands the purpose for which the evidence has been introduced. Reference is made to the comment of that distinguished jurist, Mr. Justice Jackson, in Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 453, 69 S.Ct. 716, 723, 93 L.Ed. 790 (1949).1 Fiction though it be, to tell a juror to disregard what he or she has just heard, as the majority concede, is still “an accepted part of our present trial system”.
I next take issue with the majority’s attack on the “joint trial” system and the suggestion that “the trial court can confront the prosecutor with the choice of forgoing either the evidence or the joint trial”.
Practically all heroin prosecution cases are multi-defendant and many trials are of substantial duration. In almost all there are variations in the degree of guilt among the defendants. To say that “The trial judge must weigh not only the probative value and the risk of unfair prejudice to the defendant against whom the evidence is offered, but also the appropriateness of permitting the prosecution to introduce the evidence in a joint trial” is to assign to him the jury’s function as well as to compel him to speculate as to any spill-over effect such evidence might have in the mind of any particular juror. The evil, if such it be, can easily be eliminated by a rule forbidding all joint trials but it should come from rule-making bodies — not appellate court decisions.
Nor do I agree that limiting instructions were inadequate to safeguard Figueroa and Lebrón. Their guilt was clearly established quite apart from any reference to Acosta’s previous conviction. In my opinion any spill-over effect as to Figueroa and Lebrón was either of no effect or minimal.
If the majority opinion is intended to be a guide for prosecutors and trial judges, they will have to try to decipher and cope with it. To me implicit in the opinion is the thought that prosecutors and trial judges alike will try multi-defendant cases at their peril; that the trial judge will have to obtain the assurance of each juror that he or she understands the instructions and more importantly will in the deliberative process abide by them; that the use of a single informant is subject to risk; and that if the trial judge, after three or four weeks of trial, thinks some testimony might have an adverse “spill-over” effect on other defendants, he should declare a mistrial and order separate trials regardless of the possibility of double jeopardy. The problems of judges are sufficiently onerous now: I would not add additional burdens.
As to the issues before us on this appeal, namely, the sufficiency of the evidence, the limitation on the evidence introduced against Acosta, the fairness of the court’s charge, and the propriety of a joint trial, I would affirm.

. “The naive assumption that prejudicial effects can be overcome by instructions to the jury, cf. Blumenthal v. United States, 332 U.S. 539. 559. 68 S.Ct. 248. 257. 92 L.Ed. 154. all practicing lawyers know to be unmitigated fiction. See Skidmore v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 2 Cir., 167 F.2d 54.” Krulewitch, 336 U.S. at 453. 69 S.Ct. at 723.