Court Opinion

ID: 9459685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:28:36.019572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:17.107291
License: Public Domain

ROSENN, Circuit Judge
(concurring) .
I concur.
I agree there was insufficient evidence of a discriminatory prosecution to warrant vacating these convictions. We must be cognizant not only of the lack of evidence of improper motive but also of the content of the letters for which defendants were prosecuted.
*191The letter forming the basis for Count IV suggested that students be persuaded to “shut down ROTC and begin to zapp Sel. Service in college and university towns.” It also suggested establishing a secret code to be used in future letters. As the majority opinion reveals, Counts IX and X involved letters from Sister McAlister and Father Berrigan, respectively, specifically discussing the idea of kidnapping Henry Kissinger. The important aspect of the convictions under review on this appeal is not that the alleged criminal conspiracy was “bizarre”, but that the letters pertaining to it involved the participation of a prisoner in the planning of criminal activity. The prohibition against taking or sending anything into or out of a federal prison without the knowledge or consent of the warden is designed to guard against just this sort of conduct, as well as to prevent contraband from coming in and out of the prisons. Because letters aimed at the perpetration of criminal activity are an evil at which the regulation is aimed, I believe the Government had ample justification for its alleged selectivity in commencing prosecution. It is immaterial that the statute and regulation might not be enforced through prosecutions when prison authorities discover “innocent” letters being smuggled.
I also agree that the convictions of both defendants on Counts V through X should be vacated. The letters involved in these counts were all smuggled after June 3, 1970, i.e., after Warden Hendricks knew of Douglas’s activities. I think the regulation of the Attorney General, 28 C.F.R. § 6.1 imports into the statutory attempt offense the essential element of absence of knowledge and consent by the warden.
The regulation provides:
The introduction or attempt to introduce into or upon the grounds of any Federal penal or correctional institution or the taking or attempt to take or send therefrom anything whatsoever without the knowledge and consent of the warden or superintendent of such Federal penal or correctional institution is prohibited.
The prohibition, as it applies to attempts, is ambiguous. It can be read to apply when there is an attempt to smuggle a letter with the belief that the warden does not know about it. Reading the regulation in this manner, the focus would be on the defendants’ intent. On the other hand, it can be read to make the absence of the warden’s consent or knowledge an absolute element of the attempt offense. Lacking any indication of the intent of those who framed the regulation, I feel compelled to follow the maxim that penal statutes are to be narrowly construed. I therefore accept the latter reading and, finding in the evidence no proof that the warden lacked knowledge of the smuggling attempts, agree that the Government failed to sustain its burden of proof on these six counts.