Court Opinion

ID: 9442991
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:06:03.987483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:19.048694
License: Public Domain

PROCTOR, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the opinion in the main.appeal, 10339; also in that part of the opinion in 10801 which upholds the conclusion of the District Court that the Government’s proof was not traceable to tapping of the defendant’s telephone wires. I dissent from the action of the majority in directing the District Court to determine whether government agents intercepted telephone conversations between the defendant and her attorney, and, if it so finds to grant a new trial.
Whatever may be thought of government officers surreptitiously intruding upon conversations between attorney and client, in my opinion that fact alone does not justify reversal of a conviction. .Yet, the majority opinion is grounded upon the theory that interception of any such conversation between defendant and her counsel must, as a matter of law, be deemed to have deprived her of the effective aid of counsel, and entitle her to a new trial.
I can see no justification for another trial. A complete report of the trial resulting in the defendant’s conviction does, I think, offer convincing proof that neither she nor counsel were, or could have been, in any way handicapped in the conduct of her defense. That record, and all the circumstances it reveals, satisfy me that the defendant did, at all times, enjoy the full and untrammeled aid of counsel. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how information, of whatever nature, secretly possessed by government agents, could affect the service of her counsel. The motion for a new trial specifies nothing on this point. There is the bare assertion that defendant was deprived of her right to aid of counsel. Still, under the broad ruling of the majority, nothing more is required. Their directive calls for a new trial if any interception of conversations between defendant and the attorney did occur, however irrelevant or harmless to her defense. This broad stand is justified as the only means of vindicating the guarantee of the Sixth Amendment to right of counsel. With this doctrine I cannot agree. Assuming a wrongful intrusion upon privacy of consultation between client and attorney, if it did not impair the aid of counsel defendant was not prejudiced, and there is no occasion to vindicate the guarantee.
For reasons stated, I think the conviction should be affirmed now, without further proceedings. However, as under the majority ruling the case must go back to the District Court, I do with all deference submit that the ultimate and controlling issue there should be: Was the defendant de*761prived of the full aid of counsel? If so, she should have a new trial. If not, it must follow that she has had a fair trial and should not be granted another. Resort to the drastic action of allowing a retrial cannot serve to vindicate a right which has not been abridged. Precious though the right to aid of counsel may be as a safeguard to life and liberty, it is not a fetish to he worshiped blindly.