Court Opinion

ID: 9459392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:19:10.701215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:08.669329
License: Public Domain

WILKEY, Circuit Judge,
with whom concurs Mr. Justice CLARK.
We concur in Parts I, II and III of Judge Bazelon’s opinion which speaks for the unanimous court. We disagree with Parts IV and V in which Judge Bazelon suggests that a new trial might be appropriate in this case due to the alleged inadequacy of trial counsel. Since our view of the point raised differs from that expressed by Judge Bazelon, we feel obligated to say why.
Judge Bazelon’s concern arises from the failure of the physician who examined the rape victim to appear. “The conscientious and perceptive trial judge” inquired as to the physician’s absence and commented:
Now, I take it from that no one of the three felt the testimony of that physician would strengthen his case. Of course, the Government has the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on this issue as well as any other issue of fact in this type of case.
We suggest that those two sentences of Judge Gasch should have assuaged all of our dissenting colleague’s fears. The Government does bear the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Without the testimony of a physician, it is much more difficult than otherwise to prove a charge of rape, and the trial court here recognized that by dismissing the original charges of rape while armed and simple rape. The appellants were convicted of assault with intent to commit rape while armed, a lesser included offense, which may very well have been required because of the absence of the m'edical testimony.
When Judge Bazelon says “we are left to speculate as to why, counsel failed to elicit the examining physician’s exculpatory testimony,” he not only ignores Judge Gasch’s statement, he does not give sufficient credit to the astuteness of defense counsel. Without any medical testimony in the record, each defense counsel knew he was highly likely to get his client off on the serious charges of rape while armed or simple rape, and this did occur. Both defense counsel were informed of the physician’s negative written report after examination of the victim. Each confronted the probability that if he introduced the report, it would be followed by the Government’s putting the doctor himself on the stand. Defense counsel had heard the colloquy between the prosecutor and the court, to the effect that the prosecutor “talked to the doctor on the phone and confronted him with the photographs [sic] I had told him I had photographs, described the mental condition as I knew it of the defendant. He conceded to me he had absolutely no idea that night she was retarded.”
If the defense had offered either the physician’s negative report or the physician himself, the physician would have been drastically embarrassed by photographs showing the bruised and cut condition of the face of the victim in con*1137trast to his own completely negative report as to bruises, scratches, etc. The jury might have believed the doctor in contrast to a police officer witness, if that were all the prosecution had to offer, but the photographs would have forced the doctor into admitting in front of the jury what he had told the prosecutor.
He conceded to me he had absolutely no idea that night she was retarded. He told me his method of operation was to ask alleged rape victim what injuries she had and only then would he look at them. I combined this with the knowledge that has been public in the papers recently [sic] and other prosecutors that the doctors at D.C. General or [sic] giving negative medical reports of rape victims so they won’t be called to court.
The physician’s negative report on indicia of rape itself would thus likewise have been impeached, and who knows that the doctor would then have said? Certainly defense counsel did not.
Given this situation as to the physician’s possible testimony, both defense counsel made a calculated trial tactical judgment and did not offer either the physician’s report or the physician in person. It is not for this Court to say whether a witness who was never called would be convincing or not — to do so would not only infringe on defense counsel’s and the jury’s role but would also, amount to little more than idle speculation. The doctor’s testimony was definitely a double-edged sword. The defense counsels’ tactics paid off by securing the dismissal of the rape while armed and the rape charges; a different tactic may have made sure of the conviction of the defendants for rape while armed, a much more serious offense.
It is obvious that the trial judge, one of the most experienced in the courtroom of any on our District bench, thoroughly understood the situation in regard to the trial strategy of the prosecutor and the two defense counsel, made inquiry of it, saw that the defense was fully informed of all the facts, and very properly left it up to two experienced counsel as to what in the best interest of their clients they desired to do about it.
In light of the colloquy between bench and counsel, in light of the complete revelation by the prosecution to the ■ defense not only of the physician’s report but also of his comments in the telephone conversation, we cannot understand Judge Bazelon’s intimation that counsel’s “trial decisions were [not] informed, deliberate and rational.” How could counsel have been better informed ? ' What now will be gained by a remand to the trial court — except the prolongation of the time before these defendants embark upon the punishment a judge and jury have found they deserve?
We have noted that the two defense counsel have been admitted to the bar for 16 and 8 years, respectively, and judging from this record are not novices at defending criminal cases. We have examined their closing arguments and, while neither would rank as a classic at the bar, the facts, issues, and dramatis personae of this case hardly called for the intellectual and forensic powers of a Webster or Darrow.
All convictions, except those rendered ' under 22 D.C.Code § 502, are
Affirmed.