Court Opinion

ID: 9462412
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:40:35.970643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:34.903912
License: Public Domain

HENRY J. FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
Applauding Judge Van Graafeiland’s opinion as I do, I would go further in one respect, namely, by directing dismissal of the indictment rather than leaving the district court an uncharted discretion whether and how to proceed with this incubus. The opinion convincingly demonstrates that the indictment cannot fairly be' read as charging the Flynn conspiracy alone. Granted that we have authority to take the course directed by my brother, see United States v. Russano, 257 F.2d 712, 716 (2 Cir. 1958), we are not obliged to do so; one reason why the Russano court believed that dismissal “would not be in the interests of justice” doubtless was that, as to one of the two conspiracies, the statute of limitations apparently had run. Here the statute of limitations would present no obstacle to new indictments and neither, if Ball v. United States, 163 U.S. 662, 672, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 41 L.Ed. 300 (1896), retains the health I believe it has, would double jeopardy.
Under such circumstances the interests of the judicial system, of the defendants and, for that matter, of the Government would be best served by dismissing the indictment for failure of proof of the single conspiracy charged and allowing the Government to seek new indictments for the several conspiracies to which the evidence points. However, in order to permit a disposition to be made, I subordinate my personal views and join - in Judge Van Graafeiland’s opinion.