Court Opinion

ID: 9456623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:58:06.266643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:02.846002
License: Public Domain

*543BAZELON, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
Appellant was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and sentenced to imprisonment for life.1 The gravity of the charge and the severity of the sentence have led me, under familiar principles, to scrutinize the record with particular care.2 The first question encountered in this review is whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction.
I.
The evidence linking appellant with the killing was a statement made to his mother and her friend Mary Burwell on the afternoon following the crime, and a knife found in appellant’s possession when he was arrested five days later.3 While this evidence was far from overwhelming,4 it was sufficient to connect Bowles with Ingham (the deceased soldier), if believed by the jury. The prosecution’s theory to raise the killing to first degree murder was that Bowles had taken Ingham’s life while “perpetrating or * * * attempting to perpetrate * * * robbery.”5 Testimony describing the scene of the killing did suggest that someone had robbed Ing-ham as he lay in the alley. But there the prosecution’s evidence stopped; “there is no evidence, either direct or circumstantial which indicates” that Bowles robbed Ingham. Borum v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 48, 49, 380 F.2d 595, 596 (1967). “He was not shown to have been in possession of any of the stolen property.” Hiet v. United States, 124 U.S.App.D.C. 313, 314, 365 F.2d 504, 505 (1966) (Prettyman, J.). Moreover, the FBI Laboratory’s Analysis of Negroid hairs found on Ingham (who was white) determined that they were not appellant’s.
While the facts presented to the jury might support the conclusion that a robbery had taken place, they fell short of leaving one “under no delusion as to [Bowles’] intent” as the court found in sustaining the robbery conviction in Accardo v. United States, 102 U.S.App.D.C. 4, 249 F.2d 519 (1957). The evidence was equally consistent with other reasons for the appearance of a robbery at the death scene. Since every element of the charge must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, proof that the necessary specific intent to rob was merely probable is insufficient to sustain the conviction. See Cooper v. United States, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 343, 218 F.2d 39 (1954); Curley v. United States, 81 U.S.App.D.C. 389, 160 F.2d 229, cert. denied, 331 U.S. 837, 67 S.Ct. 1511, 91 L.Ed. 1850 (1947).
*544There is no burden on a defendant to elaborate on the prosecution’s ambiguous or inconclusive evidence,6 at the risk that the court will otherwise permit the jury to “act on what would necessarily be only surmise and conjecture, without evidence.” Campbell v. United States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 30, 32, 316 F.2d 681, 683 (1963), quoting Cooper, supra, 94 U.S.App.D.C. 343, at 346, 218 F.2d at 42. Even if such a burden did exist, it seems to me that it was adequately met in this case, through evidence which the prosecution itself introduced. The only motivation provided for the alleged murder was contained in Mrs. Burwell’s testimony that Bowles had “said he don’t like for anyone to put his hands in his face.” This “explanation” on appellant’s part suggests manslaughter rather than felony murder based on an intent to rob. Since there was “substantial evidence to support [a] reasonable hypothesis of innocence” of intent to rob, there was no “jury question presented on the issue of” felony murder, and the case should have been submitted to the jury only on the lesser offense of manslaughter.7 Hunt v. United States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 4, 316 F.2d 652, 655 (1963). See Austin v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 180, 382 F.2d 129 (1967) (first degree murder conviction set aside for insufficient evidence of premeditation).
II.
The trial court refused to allow appellant to call as a witness one Raymond Smith, who appellant contended was the person who had actually killed the soldier. The court would not allow Smith to take the stand because he said he would not testify for fear of self-inerim-ination. The court could not, of course, have compelled Smith to testify, once he had asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege to remain silent. Ellis v. United States, 135 U.S.App.D.C. 35, 416 F.2d 791 (1969). Appellant contends, however, that his Sixth Amendment right to compel testimony included the right to have Smith assert his privilege against self-incrimination in the jury’s presence. The fact that there were other witnesses who supported Bowles’ story that Smith was the one actually responsible for the killing bolsters this position, for it indicates that Bowles was not merely fabricating a story and then buttressing it with Smith’s refusal to testify. Yet, in the jury’s view, the failure of Smith to appear could not help but make much less credible Bowles’ protestations of innocence and his explanation that his “confession” to his mother was only the braggadocio of a poor, unsuccessful man.8 Furthermore, under the jury’s *545eyes a witness may decide to testify instead.
Fletcher v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 137, 332 F.2d 724 (1964), relied on by the majority, is not to the contrary. In Fletcher, a robbery conviction was reversed where the Government put on the stand a juvenile who had told the grand jury that Fletcher had participated with him in the robbery. Although the juvenile “had already been subject to the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court and committed to a training school,”9 at Fletcher’s trial he asserted his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer any of the Government’s numerous questions concerning his knowledge of Fletcher and the crime. Drawing on Namet v. United States, 373 U.S. 179, 83 S.Ct. 1151, 10 L.Ed.2d 278 (1963), this court found two distinct grounds of error in this situation:
One of these grounds relates to pros-ecutorial misconduct, and the other “seems to rest upon the conclusion that, in the circumstances of a given case, inferences from a witness’ refusal to answer added critical weight to the prosecution’s case in a form not subject to cross-examination, and thus unfairly prejudiced the defendant.”10
This reasoning may not apply to a case, such as the one now before us, in which it is the defense, not the prosecution,11 which is attempting to obtain his testimony.12
Yet we need not decide whether, by analogy to Namet and Fletcher, all inferences based on a refusal to testify are improper.13 In the present case, the en*546tire defense was that Raymond Smith and not appellant was responsible for the murder. Since the jury was not permitted to hear Smith testify (or refuse to do so on grounds of self-incrimination), I believe the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury that no inference should be drawn from Smith’s absence on the witness stand was plain error. The need for such an instruction was especially great in a first degree murder case where the evidence of guilt was so thin. The record indicates that the court below was aware that no inference unfavorable to the accused should be drawn, but it failed — probably only through inadvertence — to convey this point to the jurors. In my view, this defect is too important for us to overlook.
III.
Finally, since I conclude that appellant’s conviction should be reversed for insufficient evidence and for the prejudice caused by the trial court’s failure to instruct regarding the inference from witness Smith’s absence, I do not reach the question whether appellant’s arrest (and the incidental search) at his mother’s apartment was proper in the absence of an arrest or search warrant. On remand, the District Court found that there was no explanation for the failure to obtain a warrant, since judges were available at the relevant times to issue a warrant. I remain unconvinced by the two justifications which are advanced by the court today: (1) that the police have subsequently changed their procedures, and (2) that one who tells the police that a person usually visits his home at a certain time gives “constructive consent” to the police searching for that person. I note, however, that the absence of a warrant in this case was mitigated somewhat by the full written statements of Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Burwell which existed prior to the arrest and search.

. Appellant also received a concurrent three to ten year sentence for assault with intent to rob, 22 D.O.Code § 501 (1967), as a lesser included offense on a count charging robbery. Id. § 2901.

. See, e.g., Lampe v. United States, 110 U.S.App.D.C. 69, 70, 288 F.2d 881, 882 (1961) (en lane); Tatum v. United States, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 386, 388 n. 3, 190 F.2d 612, 614 n. 3 (1951), and eases cited therein.

. Dr. Linwood Rayford, who performed the autopsy, stated that Ingham’s fatal wound was 5%" deep. He testified that any knife with a blade about 5%" long (appellant’s knife had a 4" blade) could have inflicted the wound. The FBI reported that no blood, hair or cloth fibers were found on appellant’s knife.

. The problems raised by Bowles’ “confession” are discussed at pp. 544-545 and note 8 infra.

. 22 D.O.Code § 2401 (1967).

. The court rejects appellant’s contention that the Government’s evidence was inadequate to go to the jury on first degree murder, because it finds that appellant did not “negative” the harmful inference with “some other explanation” of the evidence. Supra at 4.

. For the same reasons, the robbery count should also have been withdrawn from the jury’s consideration.

. Bowles claimed that his “confession” was not given in earnest, but was only an attempt to take credit for a “big deed.” There is support in the record for this claim: (1) Mrs. Burwell testified that Bowles asked his mother and her whether they had heard about the killing “over the radio”; (2) when Bowles “confessed” to his mother, Mrs. Burwell said the mother replied “that’s your business. You are 35 years old. You do what you want to do”; (3) Mrs. Burwell stated that appellant joked a lot and that she did not know whether his confession was a joke, although he had said it wasn’t; (4) Bowles’ mother stated that he told her that he was only joking, after Mrs. Bur-well had left the room; (5) three days after the killing, Mrs. Burwell was with a police officer at her apartment when Bowles came in, but she had not taken Bowles’ story seriously enough to report it to the policeman.
Consideration of the “confession” is complicated by the fact that the trial judge failed to instruct the jury (in accordance with Model Instruction #36) that it should consider the admissions attributed to Bowles only if it found substantial independent evidence which corroborated the statements. See Smith v. United States, 348 U.S. 147, 75 S.Ct. 194, 99 L.Ed. 192 (1945); Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 75 S.Ct. 158, 99 L.Ed. 101 (1954); Scarbeck v. United *545States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 135, 155, 317 F.2d 546, 566, cert. denied, 374 U.S. 856, 83 S.Ct. 1897, 10 L.Ed.2d 1077 (1963).

. 118 U.S.App.D.C. at 140, n.5, 332 F.2d at 727 n.5.

. Id. at 139, 332 F.2d at 726, quoting 373 U.S. at 187, 83 S.Ct. 1151, 10 L.Ed.2d 278.

. The differing situations of the defense and prosecution, which we have recognized in other contexts, see, e.g., McRae v. United States, 137 U.S.App.D.C. 80, 420 F.2d 1283 (1969), is central to an understanding of the appellant’s contention. Of. Goldstein, The State and the Accused: Balance of Advantage in Criminal Procedure, 69 Yale L.J. 1149 (1960). The position of a defendant asserting his Sixth Amendment right to bring witnesses before the jury is not analogous to that of a prosecutor attempting to insinuate that a defendant is guilty because his confederates refuse to answer incriminating questions. See Fletcher, supra. This tactic on the prosecutor’s part is equivalent to an outright denial of the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and it is unconstitutional to employ a defendant’s silence as an element of the proof needed to convict beyond a reasonable doubt. Fontaine v. California, 390 U.S. 593, 88 S.Ct. 1229, 20 L.Ed.2d 154 (1968); Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965). By contrast, when the accused suggests that another person is the culpable party, the other’s refusal to testify is merely being used as corroboration.

. The present case is, in fact, much closer to Wilkes v. United States, 136 U.S.App.D.C. 102, 419 F.2d 684 (1969), in which we denied a similar Sixth Amendment claim, but only because Wilkes withdrew his co-defendant, one Morgan, as a witness after he determined (out of court) that Morgan would “take the Fifth.” We concluded that Wilkes’ “trial counsel apparently made the tactical decision that appellant’s case was better served by forgetting about Morgan than it would have been for counsel to put the co-defendant on the stand and make him invoke the Fifth Amendment.” Id., 136 U.S.App.D.C. at 103, 419 F.2d at 685. No such “tactical decision” can be said to have been made in the present case; Bowles’ counsel attempted to have Smith testify before the jury, even to invoking his privilege before them, and in lieu thereof he sought a missing witness instruction, lest it appear to the jury that Bowles’ testimony concerning this “Mr. Smith” had been so much pure fabrication.

. There is some danger that a defendant might misuse the inference from another’s refusal to testify. This potential abuse is mitigated, however, by jurors’ natural skepticism of any “buck passing,” and by the prosecutor’s right to demonstrate to the jury that the person accused by the defendant is someone on whom he has prevailed (through friendship, or by threats of injury) to come to court and then refuse to testify.