Court Opinion

ID: 9474215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:50:53.276749+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:57.725680
License: Public Domain

GARTH, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I am satisfied that the authorities cited in the majority opinion support the court’s holding that Hoheb’s conviction may be sustained on the basis of evidence provided *143by Hoheb’s own admissions. However, I would go somewhat further than the majority has ventured, and I would hold alternatively that Hoheb’s conviction can be sustained as well by drawing upon the teachings of Standefer v. United States, 447 U.S. 10, 100 S.Ct. 1999, 64 L.Ed.2d 689 (1980) and United States v. Powell, — U.S. —, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461 (1984).
The government has argued, and I agree, that Standefer and Powell have undercut the common law “rule of consistency.” That “rule” provides that where all but one of the alleged co-conspirators have been acquitted, the conviction of the remaining co-conspirator must be set aside. In Stan-defer, (admittedly an aiding and abetting case) the Supreme Court held that even though the principal was acquitted in a separate proceeding, the defendant who aided and abetted the principal’s crime could, nevertheless, be convicted. Thereafter in Powell,1 Justice Rehnquist writing for the Court acknowledged once again that a jury may reach inconsistent verdicts in a criminal trial.
Thus, in my view it is clear that even though the crime charged is a criminal conspiracy which must involve at least two individuals, the acquittal of one defendant and the conviction of his co-defendant may nevertheless be upheld even though the verdict may be deemed inconsistent and irrational. As Chief Justice Burger wrote in Standefer, “While symmetry of results may be intellectually satisfying, it is not required.” 447 U.S. at 25, 100 S.Ct. at 2008.
I am satisfied that the lessons taught in Standefer and Powell are applicable even to a criminal conspiracy where inconsistent verdicts were reached during the same trial and by the same jury. While I acknowledge that Standefer involves aiding and abetting and not a conspiracy as is charged here, I believe the relevant teaching of Standefer is that a jury may reach conflicting results with regard to the same crime. This being so, I can discern no reason why the instant case should not be controlled by that principle.
It may be argued by some that neither Standefer nor Powell have affected the “rule of consistency” and that the Supreme Court if faced with the issue we are faced with here, would adhere to that doctrine. I cannot subscribe to that position. In my opinion, the rule of consistency since Stan-defer and Powell is no longer a viable doctrine. Accordingly, a jury which returns inconsistent verdicts in a case such as this one, where the defendant Parrilla was acquitted and the defendant Hoheb was convicted, may have its verdict upheld under the principle of those authorities. Thus, in my view, the rule of consistency is, as Judge Adams intimates, a rule which is “a vestige of the past.”2
I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority which reinstates Hoheb’s Count 1 conviction.

. In United States v. Powell, — U.S. —, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461 (1984), the Court reaffirmed Dunn v. United States, 284 U.S. 390, 52 S.Ct. 189, 76 L.Ed. 356 (1932), which held that a criminal defendant convicted by a jury on one count could not attack that conviction because it was inconsistent with the jury’s verdict of acquittal on another count.

. Maj. op. p. 142, n. 6.