Court Opinion

ID: 9456886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:05:05.528535+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:08.010323
License: Public Domain

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Circuit
Judge (dissenting):
While I can hardly fault my brother WATERMAN’S conclusion that defendants’ cocaine must have been imported, I cannot persuade myself to follow in the majority’s second crucial step and hold that Gonzalez, Miranda, and Ovalle must therefore have known that it was imported. Nor do I relish the prospect of facing a subsequent case, where the questions presented here must again be weighed in grams and ounces.
In Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 90 S.Ct. 642, 24 L.Ed.2d 610 (1970), the Supreme Court instructed us that the presumption of guilt permitted by 21 U.S.C. § 174 cannot be applied to defendants charged with possessing a small amount of cocaine. My brothers, however, attempt to bypass that holding by placing their reliance entirely upon that portion of Turner which upheld the § 174 presumption with respect to heroin — not cocaine.
I believe that this analogy, which admittedly offers its surface attractions, cannot withstand analysis. The Turner Court found that the defendant must have been knowledgeable about every facet of the heroin business, but not until Justice White had shown by painstaking elaboration that the Court was impelled to the conclusion that virtually all heroin in this country is imported. “To possess heroin is to possess imported heroin.” 396 U.S. at 416, 90 S.Ct. at 652 (original emphasis). Even supported by so rare an absolute, it will be noted, the Court felt nonetheless constrained to concede that the question of knowledge was not then decided a for-tiori. Rather, the Court reasoned, that while an “ordinary jury” may not be aware of the dearth of heroin produced here, common sense would not permit dealers in heroin to disclaim knowing the source of their livelihood.
*704In sharp contrast to the state of the heroin market, “much more cocaine is lawfully produced in this country than is smuggled into this country.” 396 U.S. at 418, 90 S.Ct. at 653.1 In this case, the majority has determined that, despite this key statistic, it is peradventure clear that defendants’ cocaine was imported. My quarrel goes not to my brothers’ reasoning in this respect, but to the nexus between the court’s well turned syllogism and the defendants’ states of mind. The majority’s logic proceeds by three steps: relatively little of the cocaine produced here is stolen; each theft usually involves quite a small amount of cocaine; therefore, it says, it is far more likely that defendants’ substantial stash of the drug2 was imported all at one time than that it represented the accumulated fruits of petty thievery.
Apart from a bare expression of self-confidence in its conclusion, the majority’s authority for sustaining the presumption of knowledge in this case comprises this analysis, plus the observation that defendants are Chilean citizens. I am reluctant after Turner to permit a “presumption” of guilt in this cocaine case, absent some proof of defendants' knowledge. Mere attribution to them based on the refined, albeit acute, reasoning of the majority cannot overcome the Supreme Court’s clear holding. In the absence of any evidence whatever, one simply cannot say in light of Turner, except by fiat, that dealers in cocaine —whether they are citizens of Chile, Canada or Timbuktu — do or do not know its source. I am as ready as not to surmise, absent some facts, that although many sellers know that much cocaine is produced in this country, they may not have the slightest idea what part of this is pilfered and in what size lots.
Moreover, I find the majority’s opinion in this respect difficult to reconcile with the Supreme Court’s implicit mandate last year in Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1532, 23 L.Ed.2d 57 (1969), that such presumptions as that embodied in § 174 are tolerable only upon careful sifting of appropriate statistical information:
In order * * * to determine the constitutionality of the ‘knowledge’ inference, one must have direct or circumstantial data regarding the beliefs of marihuana users generally about the source of the drug they consume. Such information plainly is not within specialized judicial competence or completely commonplace; * * *. Since the determination of the presumption’s constitutionality is ‘highly empirical,’ * * * it follows that we must canvass the available, pertinent data.
395 U.S. at 37, 89 S.Ct. at 1549.3 Thus, wholly apart from Turner, I cannot understand how the majority can make its leap over the hurdle of Leary. We were clearly instructed there that a presumed fact must “with substantial assurance” follow “more likely than not * * * from the proved fact on which it is made to depend.” 395 U.S., at 36, 89 S. Ct. at 548. Moreover, the majority’s resourcefulness is even more remarkable in view of the admonition in Turner that the government was required to prove each of the three elements of the *705offense charged against these defendants (possession, illegal importation, and knowledge) “to the satisfaction of the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.” 396 U.S. at 405, 90 S.Ct. at 646.4 See generally, Ashford & Risinger, Presumptions, Assumptions, and Due Process in Criminal Cases: A Theoretical Overview, 79 Yale L.J. 165 (1969).
At the very least, I believe that the jury and not this court, should have determined whether, without the use of the presumption, the astute comments of the majority concerning quantity, thefts of cocaine, and nationality, established knowledge of importation beyond a reasonable doubt. This is not my mandate, but Turner’s and Leary’s.
Since it is impossible to tell whether or not the jury relied on the statutory presumption, see United States v. Romano, 382 U.S. 136, 138-139, 86 S.Ct. 279, 15 L.Ed.2d 210 (1965), the instruction which included the presumption cannot be regarded as harmless error.

. The absolute quantity of cocaine produced in this country is significant as well: some 609 kilograms were manufactured here in 1966. 396 U.S. at 418 n. 36. Defendants in this case were found with approximately one kilogram (see note 2, infra).

. 1,028 grams as compared with the 14.68 grams of a mixture of 5% cocaine and sugar in Turner.

. In Leary, Mr. Justice Harlan was able to dismiss with a brief footnote the phalanx of Circuit Court precedent contrary to the Court’s holding that knowledge of illegal importation may not be inferred from mere possession of marihuana. The Court found “no indication” in the contrary cases that “the court * * * took into account even a fraction of the evidence which we have considered : in one instance, the lack of evidence was expressly stated to be the ground of decision.” (citing this court’s opinion in United States v. Gibson, 310 F.2d 79 (2d Cir. 1962)).

. See also In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970) : “the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.”