Court Opinion

ID: 9455959
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:38:08.558063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:48.108872
License: Public Domain

JAMES E. DOYLE, District Judge
(dissenting).
The requirement of Rule 30, that the court inform counsel of its proposed action on requested instructions prior to closing arguments, is explicit, flat, and wholesome. It is fair to counsel and the parties. It improves closing arguments by making them more pointed and accurate. The chance for error is reduced when the court affords counsel an opportunity to be heard on proposed instructions.
I appreciate that minor oversights with respect to some provisions of the Rules of Procedure are bound to occur, and that it would be unwise and impractical to require reversal in the wake of every such oversight. On the other hand, for the appellate court to give effect to the Rules only when the aggrieved party can affirmatively show resulting prejudice is to give little force to Rules consciously and deliberately designed to direct the conduct of trial courts.
In the present situation, it is unnecessary to adopt a blanket doctrine with respect to failure to observe the Rules. We are presented with a situation in which timely request was made to the trial court to observe Rule 30; no response was made other than to direct counsel to proceed with closing argument. In such a situation, I would hold that the violation of the Rule requires reversal unless it appears affirmatively that the defendant was not prejudiced.
In the present case it does not appear affirmatively that the defendant was not prejudiced. With respect to Count V, the defendant had been indicted directly as a principal under 26 U.S.C. § 4705(a), but the evidence developed an aiding and abetting case. Without warning from the court to counsel, early in the instructions the court emphasized the aiding and abetting theory. I cannot conclude that defense counsel would not have been able to tailor his argument to this theory more effectively had he been forewarned.
With respect to Count VI, based on 21 U.S.C. § 174, the statute itself skirts perilously close to an invasion of the privilege against self-incrimination. The jury was instructed, correctly under the law of this circuit: “Unless defendant explains his possession to the satisfaction of the jury, such possession shall be deemed evidence to authorize conviction.”1 This is an unusual situation, and it lends special force to the question whether the defendant will desire the standard instruction (La Buy, 6.09) on the significance of his failure to testify. Without prior warning, this standard instruction was given.2
For the reasons stated, I would reverse.

 I note that the word “sufficient” which precedes “evidence” in the statute and in the La Buy instruction (17.01-1) was omitted. I cannot see that this omission either favored or disfavored the defendant.

. Neither United States v. Wick nor United States v. Schwartz, cited in the opinion of the court, involved a statute creating a presumption in the absence of a satisfactory explanation by a defendant.