Court Opinion

ID: 9449719
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:20:39.177115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:57.400647
License: Public Domain

WRIGHT, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the well considered opinion of the court.
Pursuant to Rule 29(a), F.R.Crim.P., appellant moved for judgment of acquittal at the close of the Government’s case. Instead of granting the motion, the trial judge made no ruling. Under Rule 29, he was required to rule.1 ******And in view of the insufficiency of the evidence then in the record, the motion should have been granted.
The fact that exculpatory evidence offered by his co-defendant implicated appellant in the crime cannot deprive appellant of his rights under Rule 29(a). Nor can appellant's efforts, in introducing evidence in his own behalf to offset his co-defendant’s evidence, trigger the invocation of the waiver doctrine. Whatever continued validity that archaic doctrine may have, it certainly has no application to the facts of this case. Indeed, a simple reading of Rule 29(a) indicates that the waiver doctrine is without validity in any ease.2 A defendant cannot be boxed out of his Rule 29(a) rights by forcing him to go to trial with a co-defendant, or by waiting hopefully for him to convict himself.

. The requirement is clear. The motion for judgment of acquittal may. be made “after the evidence on either side is closed.” Rule 29(a). (Emphasis supplied.) But it is only as to the motion “made at the close of all the evidence” that “the court may reserve decision.” Rule 29(b). (Emphasis supplied.) Thus, the court has no authority to reserve decision as to the motion made at the close of the Government’s case. Jackson v. United States, 5 Cir., 250 F.2d 897 (1958). This facet of Rule 29 is in harmony with its basic command that when the Government has not made out its case, the defendant shall be acquitted without being required to put on his proof. And it is the inconsistency of the waiver doctrine with this command of the Rule that saps the authority it derives fi-om long years of habitude.

. The grant of the motion in proper cases is mandatory, and not a matter of discretion, for the Rule states in terms that the court “shall order the entry of judgment of acquittal * * * if the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction.” Rule 29(a). (Emphasis supplied.) See Cooper v. United States, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 343, 218 F.2d 39 (1954). The introduction of evidence after the denial of the motion does not “waive” the motion so as to prevent appellate review of the sufficiency of the evidence. Hemphill v. United States, 312 U.S. 657, 61 S. Ct. 729, 85 L.Ed. 1106 (1941) (per curiam). If the denial of the motion was erroneous when made, it should be corrected on appeal. Few errors of law are as prejudicial to the defendant. Subsequent testimony cannot “cure” the error. See generally Comment, The Motion for Acquittal: A Neglected Safeguard, 70 Tale L.J. 1151 (1961).