Court Opinion

ID: 9451623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:20:44.35823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:49.374321
License: Public Domain

ELY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I must agree that the appellant was severely and improperly prejudiced by the challenged remarks made by the prosecuting attorney in his final argument to the jury. I reject the suggestion of my Brother Pope that the defense of insanity, of itself alone, has impelled the majority to a conclusion which, absent the defense, might have been to the contrary. In evaluating the propriety and effect of the argument which is claimed to have been prejudicially improper, it must be placed in perspective. The background is composed, only in part, by the defense itself. Contributing to it are all of the circumstances which are fairly shown by the record.
Here, the appellant had enjoyed a career of many years of honorable service in the United States Navy. At the time of the commission of his offense, he held the rank of Chief Petty Officer, was the head of a family, and could look forward, within a comparatively short time, to retirement and attendant benefits. In the record of his life, there was no history of the commission of crime, and yet, inexplicably, he robbed a bank at gunpoint and, fleeing, roamed as a wild beast through the Washington wilderness. From this conduct it fits every test of reason to infer that appellant, unrestrained, would constitute a dangerous menace to society. The prosecutor told the jury, in effect, that if the appellant were acquitted, he would walk from the courtroom a free man, loose for the possible immediate release of the force of further unlawful violence upon the community. The argument may have been reinforced by the prosecutor’s prestige as an officer of the United States. The representation made by the prosecutor was incorrect. The defense had no opportunity to reply, and it had been enjoined from, in its own argument, making a valid answer in anticipation.
I have said that the prosecutor’s representation was mistaken, and this conclusion is supported by the affidavit of Navy Captain Albrecht, quoted by my Brother Duniway. Moreover, we know from actual experience and common knowledge that the armed forces maintain strict regulation and supervision over their active members, especially those suspected of illness. It is inconceivable to me that the United States Navy, mindful of Evalt’s years of honor*548able Service, would have so far neglected its responsibility and its obligation as to abandon him upon his acquittal by reason of insanity and fail to provide ail necessary restraint and medical attention. If the trial judge properly forbade defense counsel to make known to the jury the Navy’s intent concerning the custody of Evalt in the event of acquittal, then at the same time the prosecutor should have been forbidden to utter his own incorrect and unsupported prophecy.
Finally, I see the record as clearly revealing the communication to the judge of adequate warning of the possibility of error in permitting argument by either party upon the subject. Upon inquiry by defense counsel as to whether or not he might make the argument which would have constituted a reply to that of the prosecution, the trial judge, properly I think, under the state of the record, replied, “No, I will forbid either Counsel to touch or dwell on the matter.” Compliance with this direction would have eliminated our problem, but the prosecution, by perseverance, persuaded the trial judge to retreat from his ruling as to it and thus acquired an advantage which I, with my Brother Duniway, cannot approve. After the discussion between the Court and counsel, it is surely understandable that defense counsel would have justifiably anticipated the overruling of objection to prosecution argument to which, although improper under the circumstances, the trial judge had already given approval. Although there are technicalities which attend most rules, they should not be interpreted or applied so as always to require indulgence in procedural steps of predetermined uselessness.