Court Opinion

ID: 9465462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:47:10.925452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:11.664015
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I am uncomfortable with our continued adherence to an excessively narrow interpretation of the Marion standard for due process violations in cases involving pre-indictment delay. Not only does our interpretation of the standard run counter to the Supreme Court’s recent discussion of pre-indictment delay problems in United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 97 S.Ct. 2044, 52 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977), but it seems to be removed from the underpinnings of Marion itself. Even under our narrow approach to the problem, however, I believe a different result should be reached in this case. Since we are reviewing a trial court finding that the Marion rule was violated, application of the proper standard of appellate review dictates affirmance of the District Court.
In United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971), the Supreme Court observed that the statute of limitations did not fully define the pre-indictment rights of a defendant. The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment was said to require dismissal of a criminal indictment in certain circumstances. The Court did not delineate the particular circumstances in which due process would require this result, but left the determination to “delicate judgment based on the circumstances of each case.” Id. at 325, 92 S.Ct. at 466. Indeed, the Court indicated it would be “unwise” to forecast its decision in other cases involving pre-indictment delay. Id.
One example of the circumstances that could give rise to a dismissal was provided by the Court:
Thus, the Government concedes that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment would require dismissal of the indictment if it were shown at trial that the pre-indictment delay in this case caused substantial prejudice to appellees’ rights to a fair trial and that the delay was an intentional device to gain tactical advantage over the accused.
Id. at 324, 92 S.Ct. at 465. The discussion does not indicate that the Government’s concession was to be taken as the minimum standard for due process violation. I believe it represents only a flagrant example of due process abuse.
Certain decisions of this Court, however, have suggested that the example constitutes the rule. See, e. g., United States v. MacClain, 501 F.2d 1006 (10th Cir. 1974); United States v. Beitscher, 467 F.2d 269 (10th Cir. 1972). Even if the language of Marion can be construed to support our narrow rule, I believe we should modify our position in light of United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783, 97 S.Ct. 2044, 52 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977). In that case the Court said that to establish a due process violation, the defendant had to show both prejudice to his cause and an unconstitutional reason for the delay. While it is apparent that delay caused by an intent to harass the defendant or to gain a tactical advantage over him would not pass constitutional muster, the Court did not rule out the possibility that other unconstitutional reasons might exist. As in Marion, the Court indicated that it would leave to lower courts “the task of applying the settled principles of due process that we have discussed to the particular circumstances of individual cases.” Id. at 797, 97 S.Ct. at 2053. The Court also observed that
*553so few defendants have established that they were prejudiced by delay that neither this Court nor any lower court has had a sustained opportunity to consider the constitutional significance of various reasons for delay.
Id. at 796-97, 97 S.Ct. at 2052. The obvious implication of this comment is that, in the view of the Supreme Court, there may be constitutionally significant reasons for delay other than to harass the defendant or to obtain a tactical advantage over him.
This Circuit’s adherence to a narrow interpretation of the Marion rule prevents us from considering other types of delay that may violate due process. Furthermore, the rule binds us to a standard that is extremely difficult for a defendant to meet. Not only must the defendant show actual prejudice, but he must demonstrate that the Government was subjectively motivated by the sort of personal animus inherent in harassment or the kind of machiavellian machinations involved in obtaining tactical advantage. Given the practical difficulties in showing such motivations, our narrow rule takes on the trappings of a literary curiosity fit more for ritual invocation than practical application.
I do not quarrel with the proposition that the statute of limitations is the basic protection in this area. Neither do I take issue with the requirement that a defendant show both prejudice and a proscribed reason for the delay. What I object to is a rule formulation that eradicates the defendant’s due process protections unless he can meet the stringent test imposed by our narrow reading of Marion.
Even if our strict rule were to be applied in this case, however, I believe we should affirm the judgment below. This result follows from the fact that our standard of appellate review removes us one step from the process of applying the Marion rule to a given set of facts. Instead, we are required to apply a clearly erroneous standard to the findings of the trial court.1 I believe those findings require us to sustain the result below.
The District Court’s dismissal of the indictment came after an evidentiary hearing. Various findings of fact were made in connection with the District Court’s conclusion that the pre-indictment delay was “intentional, continuous, unreasonable and prejudiced [sic] to the defendant and violates defendant’s right to due process of law under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” As an appellate court, we are not in a position to re-try the facts. Instead, we must accept the findings of the trial court unless they are clearly erroneous.
The District Court indicated that several types of actual prejudice had been suffered by the defendant due to the more than four-year delay between the alleged criminal activity and the issuance of the indictment. The court specifically found that “essential witnesses which would have been available had the prosecution moved forward in a timely manner are no longer available to the defendant.” It also determined that she was unable to reconstruct the individual transactions out of which the alleged embezzlements arose. Further, the court found that records which would have been helpful in reconstructing the events and refreshing the defendant’s recollection were no longer obtainable. We are not asked in this case to review simple allegations of diminished recollection and litigation inconvenience; instead, we are dealing with well-supported findings of fact.
The District Court also made findings on the reasons for delay. It found that the delay had been caused by “unavailability of prosecutors, lack of attention to the case, backlog of cases in the United States Attorney’s office and more pressing matters.” A single investigatory effort conducted more *554than a year after the Assistant United States Attorney felt ready to present the case to a grand jury was “almost entirely duplicitous of information already furnished by the Department of Justice to the United States Attorney’s office in 1973.” The indictment was not returned until November 17, 1976, nearly two years after the duplicitous investigation had been completed.
The findings of the District Court sufficiently establish a violation of the Marion standard. In the context of a complicated embezzlement action in which the defendant’s case depended on the recollection of thousands of individual financial transactions, the availability of temporarily retained records, and the testimony of relatively transient witnesses, the Government’s decision to delay for more than three years the prosecution of the case in the face of the Assistant United States Attorney’s expressed readiness to proceed, circumstantially establishes an intent to obtain tactical advantage over the defendant. Absent a governmental confession of purposeful delay, it is difficult to imagine how such an intent could be otherwise shown. Certainly a prohibited purpose is implicit in the conclusion of the trial court. It may be reasonably inferred from the facts themselves.2 See, e. g., United States v. Alderman, 423 F.Supp. 847, 857 (D. Md. 1976); United States v. Harmon, 379 F.Supp. 1349, 1351 (D.N.J. 1974). Finally, it is apparent that a tactical advantage was obtained — the defendant’s case was indeed prejudiced.
In order to reverse the trial court, we must demonstrate that the findings of fact and the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom are clearly erroneous. This we have failed to do. I would therefore affirm.

. This Circuit has repeatedly applied the clearly erroneous standard to findings of fact in criminal cases on issues other than guilt. E. g., Crail v. United States, 430 F.2d 459, 460 (10th Cir. 1970); Lucero v. United States, 425 F.2d 172, 173 (10th Cir. 1970) (per curiam); Wren v. United States, 352 F.2d 617, 618-19 (10th Cir. 1965), cert. denied, 384 U.S. 944, 86 S.Ct. 1469, 16 L.Ed.2d 542 (1966). The Supreme Court has also applied the standard in criminal contexts. E. g., Campbell v. United States, 373 U.S. 487, 493, 83 S.Ct. 1356, 10 L.Ed.2d 501 (1963).

. When, from facts that have been found, additional facts may be inferred which will support the trial court’s judgment, those inferences will be deemed to have been made. See Manning v. Jones, 349 F.2d 992, 996 (8th Cir. 1965); Zimmerman v. Montour R. R., 296 F.2d 97, 98 (3d Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 369 U.S. 828, 82 S.Ct. 845, 7 L.Ed.2d 793 (1962); Triangle Conduit & Cable Co. v. Federal Trade Comm’n, 168 F.2d 175, 179 (7th Cir. 1948), aff’d sub nom., Clayton Mark & Co. v. Federal Trade Comm’n, 336 U.S. 956, 69 S.Ct. 888, 93 L.Ed. 1110 (1949).