Court Opinion

ID: 9455887
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:36:35.994031+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:46.695228
License: Public Domain

MAJOR, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In my judgment, the decision in Downum v. United States, 372 U.S. 734, 83 S.Ct. 1033, 10 L.Ed.2d 100, that jeopardy attached at the time the jury was impaneled under facts as similar to those in the instant case as two peas in the same pod, is controlling. Both cases were dismissed on motion of the Government because of its own fault. In Downum, it was the failure of the Government to procure the attendance of a material witness; in the instant case, it was an allegedly defective indictment for which it was responsible.
The quotation from Downum in the majority opinion is not complete. In that case the court further stated'(page 736, 83 S.Ct. page 1034):
“Harassment of an accused by successive prosecutions or declaration of a *1339mistrial so as to afford the prosecution a more favorable opportunity to convict are examples when jeopardy attaches. Gori v. United States, supra, 367 U.S. 369, 81 S.Ct. 1526-1527, 6 L.Ed.2d 901. But those extreme cases do not mark the limits of the guarantee. The discretion to discharge the jury before it has reached a verdict is to be exercised ‘only in very extraordinary and striking circumstances,’ to use the words óf'Mr. 'Justice Story in United States v. Coolidge, 25 Fed. Cas. pp. 622, 623. For the prohibition of the Double Jeopardy Clause is ‘not against being twice punished, but against being twice put in jeopardy.’ United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 669, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 1194, 41 L.Ed. 300.”
The proclamation in Downum cannot be swept aside because the court recognized and referred to some cases where defendant’s right to have his trial completed was subordinated to the public interest — when there is “an imperious necessity to do so” or in “very extraordinary and striking circumstances.” These so-called exceptions were of no avail to the Government in Downum, nor are they in the instant case.
The decision in Downum as to when jeopardy attaches, given the facts of that case, has never been overruled or criticized by any court of which I am aware. In fact, it has often been recognized as the prevailing rule.
There are, of course, cases where the courts have refused to apply the rule of Downum, because of different factual situations. Usually such cases distinguish Downum on the basis that a judgment of conviction was vacated, reversed on appeal or the indictment dismissed on motion of the defendant. Even these cases, however, recognize the vitality of Downum where the dismissal is made on motion by the Government. Typical of such cases is United States v. Tateo, 377 U.S.. 463, 84 S.Ct. 1587, 12 L.Ed.2d 448, where a judgment of conviction was set aside as a result of a collateral attack by the defendant. The court held that defendant could not rely on double jeopardy, and in doing so stated (page 467, 84 S.Ct. page 1590):
“Downum v. United States, 372 U.S. 734, 83 S.Ct 1033, 10 L.Ed.2d 100, is in no way inconsistent with permitting a retrial here. There the Court held that when a jury is discharged because the prosecution is not ready to go forward with its case the accused may not then be tried before another jury.”
A case much in point which vividly illustrates the distinction between cases where a dismissal is procured on motion of the Government and those where it is procured on motion of the defendant is the recent decision of this court in United States v. Franke, 409 F.2d 958, where we denied defendant’s plea of double jeopardy on the ground that the case relied upon as constituting jeopardy was dismissed on defendant’s motion. In doing so we recognized Downum but distinguished it on the facts. We reasoned (page 959):
“We think that since the original indictment was dismissed on defendants’ motion the denial of the double jeopardy motion was proper. See United States v. Ewell, 383 U.S. 116, 124-125, 86 S.Ct. 773, 15 L.Ed.2d 627 (1966), where defendants’ convictions were set aside on their own motion and the Double Jeopardy Clause was found not to bar retrial for the same offense. See also United States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 84 S.Ct. 1587, 12 L.Ed.2d 448 (1964), where the Court held the Double Jeopardy Clause not violated by retrial of the same alleged crimes after Tateo’s conviction on a plea of guilty had been set aside on his motion. It is enough for us to say that here defendants’ motions caused dismissal of the indictment — even though the order of dismissal came after the selection of jury — and retrial under the corrected indictment is not precluded by the Double Jeopardy Clause. If, after convictions are overturned at instance of defendants, retrials are not barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause, a fortiori, defendants’ trial under the corrected indict*1340ment here is not barred.” (Italics supplied.)
As to Downum we stated (page 959):
“In Downum the jury was discharged because the prosecution was not ready to proceed. Pleas of former jeopardy were denied and the Supreme Court reversed. The Supreme Court in Tateo said that Downum was not inconsistent with the Tateo rule. 377 U.S. at 467, 84 S.Ct. 1587. Since we follow Tateo it follows that our decision is not inconsistent with Downum. Ipso facto our decision here is not inconsistent with Comero v. United States, 48 F.2d 69, 74 A.L.R. 797 (9th Cir. 1931), a ease involving facts ^similar to Downum, and which was approved in Downum, 372 U.S. at 737, 83 S.Ct. 1033.”
The Supreme Court in Downum quoted from Cornero (372 U.S. page 737, 83 S.Ct. page 1035):
“ ‘The situation presented is simply one where the district attorney entered upon the trial of the case without sufficient evidence to convict. This does not take the case out of the rule with reference to former jeopardy. There is no difference in principle between a discovery by the district attorney immediately after the jury was impaneled that his evidence was insufficient and a discovery after he had called some or all of his witnesses.’ ”
United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 41 L.Ed. 300, is wholly irrelevant to the issue as to whether jeopardy attached at the time the jury was impaneled as no such issue was before the court. The sole pertinency of Ball to the situation before us is that it completely refutes the State’s argument that the defendant was not in jeopardy because the indictment, allegedly defective, stated no offense and a judgment entered thereon would have been void. In Ball, the court held (page 670, 16 S.Ct. page 1195):
“But, although the indictment was fatally defective, yet, if the court had jurisdiction of the case and of the party, its judgment is not void, but only voidable by writ of error, and until so avoided cannot be collaterally impeached.” (Quoted with approval in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 797, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707.)
In the instant matter the court had jurisdiction of the ease and the parties, and a judgment rendered after trial would have been voidable, not void.
The majority opinion places much stress on Ball, supposedly for the purpose of showing that jeopardy did not attach when the jury was impaneled. In my view, for reasons previously stated, such reasoning is not sound. If it has any merit, it is strange that the Supreme Court when it decided Downum April 22, 1963, and determined that jeopardy attached when the jury was impaneled, was unaware of its previous decision in Ball.
In my view, the decision in Downum requires a reversal of the order appealed from.