Court Opinion

ID: 9480939
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:03:25.858562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:00.441242
License: Public Domain

CHOY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority that the judge abused his discretion in declaring a mistrial. However, because I do not believe that the consequence of double jeopardy ineluctably follows from a finding that the trial judge abused his discretion, I respectfully dissent. Under the circumstances of this case, the defendants’ right to have their trial completed by a particular tribunal does not outweigh the public interest in affording the prosecution one full and fair opportunity to present its case.
The irony in the majority’s result is apparent. The defendants in an armed robbery trial have been immunized from prosecution because the trial judge was erroneously overprotective of their right to a fair trial. I do not think any Supreme Court or Ninth Circuit precedent compels us to swallow such a bitter pill in this case. Instead, a result allowing the Government to reprosecute follows from Gori v. United States, 367 U.S. 364, 81 S.Ct. 1523, 6 L.Ed.2d 901 (1961), which, despite its somewhat ambiguous status, is the most applicable Supreme Court authority for this case.1
*399The Court in Gori was faced with a situation similar to ours, where an overzealous trial court declared a mistrial to protect the defendant. The Court held:
Judicial wisdom counsels against anticipating hypothetical situations in which the the discretion of the trial judge may be abused and so call for the safeguard of the Fifth Amendment — cases in which the defendant would be harassed by successive, oppressive, prosecutions, or in which a judge exercises his authority to help the prosecution, at a trial which is going badly, by affording it another more favorable opportunity to convict the accused. Suffice that we are unwilling, where it clearly appears that a mistrial has been granted in the sole interest of the defendant, to hold that its necessary consequence is to bar all retrial. It would hark back to the formalistic artificialities of seventeenth century criminal procedure so to confine our federal trial courts by compelling them to navigate a narrow compass between Scylla and Charybdis. We would not thus make them unduly hesitant conscientiously to exercise their most sensitive judgment— according to their own lights in the immediate exigencies of trial — for the more effective protection of the criminal accused.
Id. 367 U.S. at 369-70, 81 S.Ct. at 1526-27. Thus the Court refused to rule that the judge abused his discretion in declaring a mistrial.
In contrast, I agree that the judge below abused his discretion in declaring a mistrial. However, I do not think that double jeopardy follows from this ruling for the reasons underlying the Court’s decision in Gori. The Court in Gori realized that the notion of abuse of discretion in and of itself is insufficient for purpose of double jeopardy analysis in cases of this sort. As Justice Stewart stated in his assessment of Gori:
Gori established, I think correctly, that the simple phrase “abuse of discretion” is not enough in itself to resolve double jeopardy questions in cases of this kind. Whether or not there has been an “abuse of discretion” sufficient to bar retrial cannot be determined without reference to the purpose and the effect of the mistrial ruling. The real question is whether there has been an “abuse” of the trial process resulting in prejudice to the accused, by way of harassment or the like, such as to outweigh society’s interest in the punishment of the crime.
Jorn, 400 U.S. at 492, 91 S.Ct. at 560 (Stewart, J., dissenting). Applying this reasoning to the facts of this ease, I believe that “the circumstances under which the mistrial was declared did not involve ‘abuse’ of a kind to invoke the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy.” Id. at 493, 91 S.Ct. at 561.
The majority reasons as follows. Defendants neither expressly nor impliedly consented to the judge’s sua sponte declaration of a mistrial, and would have objected if given a chance. This implicates one of the central protections of the Double Jeopardy Clause: the assurance that “the defendant retain primary control over the course to be followed in the event of [judicial or prosecutorial] error.” United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 609, 96 S.Ct. 1075, 1080, 47 L.Ed.2d 267 (1976). Therefore, the “manifest necessity” test applies. Because the judge declared the mistrial when it was not manifestly necessary, the *400court abused its discretion, and double jeopardy bars retrial.
The majority’s analysis follows the conventional approach applied to numerous double jeopardy questions. This approach, however, does not make sense when applied to the present situation. The majority is forced to characterize the defendants’ non-consent to the mistrial declaration as akin to an objection, because the manifest necessity test is unable to distinguish cases where defendants had no opportunity to object to mistrial, but where mistrial was declared solely for their benefit, from cases involving mistrial declared not for the defendants’ benefit and over their express objection.
While I disagree with the majority’s position that defendants would have objected if given the opportunity, like the majority I am not willing to imply consent to the mistrial in this case. This case simply does not fall into either the category of cases where defendant consented to the mistrial (and hence manifest necessity is not required to allow retrial), or the category of cases where defendant objected (and hence manifest necessity must be shown to allow retrial).
Rather than attempt to categorize this ease, I would balance competing considerations in the manner proposed by Justice Stewart in his dissent in Jorn. Thus, I would weigh all the relevant considerations to see whether there has been an abuse of the trial process resulting in prejudice to the accused such as to outweigh society’s interest in the punishment of the crime. Jorn, 400 U.S. at 492, 91 S.Ct. at 560 (Stewart, J., dissenting).
Applying this approach to the record in this case, it seems clear that a retrial would not violate the defendants’ constitutional rights. The judge clearly declared the mistrial for the benefit of the defendants, because he believed the prosecutor’s conduct resulted in irreparable prejudice to them. Up to the point of the mistrial declaration, as the majority concedes, the Government’s case was going quite well. Thus I disagree with the majority that the record is inconclusive on the issue of whether the court’s action was taken to benefit the defendants.2
It is true that defendants had no opportunity to object or consent to the mistrial, thus implicating the important concern that the defendants be allowed to “retain primary concern over the course to be followed in the event of [judicial or prosecutorial] error.” Dinitz, 424 U.S. at 609, 96 S.Ct. at 1080. But the harm to defendants in this case is less than where a defendant expressly wishes to proceed with the present tribunal. Here, the record indicates that the defendants up until their appeal thought that the judge acted properly; indeed, they felt that he should have dismissed the case because of the prosecution’s conduct. Thus, while the trial court did take control of the case away from the defendants when the prosecutor supposedly erred, there is nothing to indicate that the defendants wanted to follow a different course than that taken by the judge.
I agree with the majority that the judge overreacted to the inadvertent error made by the prosecution (or its witness), and that he should not have declared a mistrial. There is no showing, however, of an intent on the part of the judge or the prosecutor to harass the defendants, or to enhance the chances of conviction in a second trial. As in Gori, the defense was given a preview of much of the prosecution’s case, and had not yet revealed its own hand, thus minimizing the risk that the Government would gain an unfair advantage in the event of retrial. After considering all these factors, it is my view that even though the judge’s action was improper by any standard of good trial practice, “the circumstances under which the mistrial was declared did not involve ‘abuse’ of a kind to invoke the constitution*401al guarantee against double jeopardy.” Jorn, 400 U.S. at 493, 91 S.Ct. at 561 (Stewart, J., dissenting).
I would not remand for dismissal of the indictment.

. The status of Gori was left unclear by the Court’s plurality decision in United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 91 S.Ct. 547, 27 L.Ed.2d 543 (1971). In Jorn, the trial judge had declared a mistrial because he felt that certain witnesses had not been adequately informed of their right against self-incrimination. Justice Harlan, writing for a plurality, concluded that the judge's abuse of discretion in declaring the mistrial resulted in double jeopardy. The Court distinguished the case from Gori on the ground that the trial judge had been motivated by "the desire to protect the witnesses rather than the defendant.” Id. 400 U.S. at 483, 91 S.Ct. at 556. *399In dictum, however, the plurality opinion criticized the approach in Gori of qualifying the abuse of discretion principle on the basis of which side benefited from the mistrial. Jorn, 400 U.S. at 483, 91 S.Ct. at 556. See also United States v. Gentile, 525 F.2d 252, 256-57 (2d Cir. 1975). In Illinois v. Somerville, however, the Court quoted Gori approvingly for the proposition that a trial judge retains broad discretion in declaring a mistrial, and cautioned against the application of “any mechanical formula” for determining the propriety of a mistrial deciaration. Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U.S. 458, 462, 93 S.Ct. 1066, 1069, 35 L.Ed.2d 425 (1973).
The majority in this case asserts that Jorn resolved "the precise issue before us." Majority Opinion at n. 10. Jorn, however, unlike the case before us, did not involve a mistrial that had been declared on behalf of the defendant. The Jorn Court explicitly acknowledged this when it distinguished the case from Gori. Gori, and not Jorn, therefore, addressed the "precise issue" before us.

. I do not see how the evidence could have been more overwhelming on retrial or why Silva’s misstep while testifying made it less likely the jury would convict, as the majority suggests. Unfounded speculation about how strong the Government’s case might be on retrial seems unnecessary to determine whether the court’s action was taken to benefit (or had the effect of benefitting) the defendants. Further, it is my view that this benefit analysis is irrelevant to determining whether the trial court abused its discretion.