Court Opinion

ID: 9668786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:26:20.827027+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:48.274238
License: Public Domain

SIMS, Judge
(concurring).
I concur with the majority opinion that Mr. Brown’s conviction involved no moral *835turpitude and that the rule against him should be dismissed. But I feel so strongly that a conviction for income tax evasion based upon the “net worth” method, in the language of Mr. Justice Clark, “is so fraught with danger for the innocent that the courts must closely scrutinize its use.” Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, at page 125, 75 S.Ct. 127, at page 130, 99 L. Ed. 150.
While I would in ho event attempt to go into the trial of Mr. Brown in the United States District Court in an effort to determine whether he was justly or unjustly convicted, I do want this court’s opinion to show what the Supreme Court of the United States has said relative to the danger of the conviction of an innocent man when he is tried under the “net worth” method. Hence, I quote from pages 126, 128 and 129 of the Holland opinion, 348 U.S. 121, 75 S.Ct. 127 at pages 130, 131 and 132.
“One basic assumption in establishing guilt by this method is that most assets derive from a taxable source, and that when this is not true the taxpayer is in a position to explain the discrepancy. The application of such an assumption raises serious legal problems in the administration of the criminal law. * * * This has led many of our courts to be disturbed by the use of net worth method, particularly in its scope and the latitude which it allows prosecutors. * * *
“Although it may sound fair to say that the taxpaj^er can explain the ‘bulge’ in his net worth, he may be entirely honest and yet unable to recount his financial history. In addition, such a rule would tend to shift the burden of proof. Were the taxpayer compelled to come forward with evidence, he might risk lending support to the Government’s case by showing loose business methods or losing the jury through his apparent evasiveness. * * *
“Trial courts should approach these cases in the full realization that the taxpayer may be ensnared in a system which, though difficult for the prosecution to utilize, is equally hard for the defendant to refute.”
After comparing Mr. Brown’s conviction with what Mr. Justice Clark wrote in the Holland opinion as to prosecutions based on the net worth method and after a full consideration of what was said in the Hallinan case, I am in full accord with the majority opinion that Mr. Brown’s conviction involved no moral turpitude upon his part.