Court Opinion

ID: 9436893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 03:11:20.117559+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:48:17.545572
License: Public Domain

PORFILIO, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring.
Because I am not persuaded the intent of Congress is as clearly expressed as the court concludes in Part I, I can only concur in the results arrived at in that section of the opinion. My reading of all the interpretive aids available to us leaves me with a sense that as employed in Rule 413, the meaning of the word “proceeding” is totally ambiguous. Every argument raised by the parties, and every interpretation they offer, is equally sensible, and I cannot find one more persuasive than the other. Thus, because there has to be an answer to this dilemma, I would grasp at the reasoning behind the Rule of Lenity and interpret the word in a manner that benefits the defendant. The result would be the same as that reached by the court, so I write here only to express my belief the court has reached the right decision, but the means it employed to do so are not as satisfactory to me as they are to the majority. In all other respects, I join in the court’s opinion.