Court Opinion

ID: 9448089
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:22:58.831048+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:17.351870
License: Public Domain

VAN OOSTERHOUT, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring).
I agree with the view expressed in the majority opinion to the effect that error was committed in receiving detailed hearsay testimony from the witness Payne over appropriate objection. The question of whether the error is prejudicial is a close one. The Government made out a submissible case, but it is a rather thin one. I am persuaded by the majority opinion that the judgment should be reversed and the case remanded for new trial because of prejudicial error in receiving the hearsay testimony of the witness Payne.
I have serious doubt whether the court committed error with respect to permitting the jury to take out the Exhibits Nos. 2 and 3 in the absence of any appropriate objection on the part of the defendant to such action. It is clear the defendant knew the exhibits were being sent to the jury room. The introduction of the envelopes was part of the chain of evidence tending to identify the sample seized with that examined by the Government chemist. If appropriate objection had been made to sending these exhibits to the jury room, the court might well have kept such exhibits from the jury or limited the consideration to be given by the jury to the writing upon the exhibits. I find it unnecessary to determine this issue and limit my concurrence to the hearsay error.