Court Opinion

ID: 9463664
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:12:41.073104+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:13.187663
License: Public Domain

KERR, District Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in that portion of the opinion which holds that Manetta’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial was not violated. Judge HILL in his opinion amply justified the delay.
With all deference to my colleagues, I am unable to persuade myself that Rule 16 contains sufficient elasticity to cover a refusal to make a statement.
Rule 16 in substance provides: “. the government shall permit the defendant to inspect and copy or photograph: any relevant written or recorded statements made by the defendant, . . . the substance of any oral statement which the government intends to offer into evidence at the trial made by the defendant . before or after arrest in response to interrogation by any person then known to the defendant to be a government agent;
In this case the prison guard asked the defendant if he wished to talk about the incident that had occurred, and the defendant’s response was “No,” that he would talk to his lawyer. In my judgment, the response has no resemblance to a statement contemplated by Rule 16. The government did not use this response in its case in chief. Only after the defendant interposed a plea of insanity did the government offer this evidence to show that Manetta was sufficiently competent to want to talk to his lawyer before making any statement. The comment was introduced as an observation by a layman as to the defendant’s mental condition at the time of the offense. In this instance the words spoken constituted verbal conduct rather than a statement within the purview of Rule 16.
It is my opinion that the interpretation of Rule 16 adopted by my colleagues is too far reaching and can lead to disastrous results, nor will the interests of clarity or future interpretation of the rule be served by the majority holding. For these reasons I respectfully dissent.