Court Opinion

ID: 9448910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:48:56.377083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:36.207153
License: Public Domain

VOGEL, Circuit Judge
(concurring separately).
I concur in the result. There is no question but what the State of Arkansas was entitled to a reasonable time within which to try the defendant. This we stated in the original opinion. At the time of the writing of that opinion, we believed that a reasonable time for retrial was nine months from the filing date of our opinion. Subsequent events, such as the filing of the petition for rehearing and its consideration and later denial, the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court and its consideration and denial on October 15, 1961, 368 U.S. 877, 82 S.Ct. 121, 7 L.Ed.2d 78, the necessary withdrawal of defendant’s counsel and the substitution of two other attorneys who were completely unfamiliar with the details of the case, and the continuance from October 3, 1961 to January 29, 1962 to allow them time to gain such familiarity and to properly prepare for the trial of this capital case ■ — -all of these things together necessitate the conclusion that nine months from the filing date of our opinion was not a reasonable time.
A Court of Appeals is free to disregard the literal wording of its mandate on some minor point of limitation where subsequent events indicate that the purpose of such limitation is without foundation and where to follow such literalistic interpretation would create manifest in*845justice. See Milwaukie and Minnesota Railroad Company v. Soutter, 1864, 2 Wall 510, 69 U.S. 510, 17 L.Ed. 900; Wilkinson v. Massachusetts Bonding & Ins. Co., 5 Cir., 1926, 16 F.2d 66, 67. See also Ex parte Marks, 9 Cir., 1905, 136 F. 168, 170. The “reasonable time” limit is undoubtedly the more important facet. The “nine months” definition of reasonable time has been shown by subsequent happenings to be inadequate. The State of Arkansas has carried out the broader limitation of reasonable time.
Had Arkansas been forced to retry the defendant within nine months from the filing date of our opinion, there would have been gross injustice resulting to the defendant because of lack of time for preparation by his new counsel. To now deny Arkansas the right of retrial because it pursued its legal remedies of review and also attempted to protect the defendant by granting an extension would be grossly unjust to Arkansas. For the reasons stated, I concur in the result.