Court Opinion

ID: 9451133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:07:47.219809+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:35.259201
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Chief Judge
(dissenting):
In my opinion, the failure of the trial judge to include an instruction on the necessity of finding criminal intent in the list of essential elements which the jury was directed to find before it could convict does not call for reversal because he had already given sufficient general instructions on the question of intent and because the conduct of the defense had effectively eliminated the issue of intent from the case.
During his charge Judge Cannella instructed the jury that the acts must have been done purposely and not by mistake, inadvertence, or in good faith; indeed he said that an awareness by the defendant that the act committed was in violation of the law was necessary. The defense made no objection whatever to the charge. Although it would have been desirable to have included intent in the summation of the essential elements necessary for conviction at the end of the charge, in view of the fact that the issue of intent was never raised during the trial, it was not necessary to stress it by repetition. From a reading of the whole charge, I think it was apparent that intent was an element to be proven by the government.
In any event, Byrd cannot claim he was prejudiced by the absence of a charge concerning intent when there was no issue of intent in the ease. Byrd’s entire defense was that he did not receive the alleged bribes. Byrd flatly denied that he had ever received or been given any money by Kaufman or Goldstein. Thus there could never have been any question of the intent if the jury believed the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, or if they disbelieved them and believed Byrd. There was no issue of intent for the jury to consider. In the absence of any objection to the charge as it was given, I see no reason to invoke our power under Rule 52(b) Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure when the error concerned a matter which had not been in contention at any time during the trial.
Nothing in Screws v. United States, 325 U.S. 91, 65 S.Ct. 1031, 89 L.Ed. 1495 (1945) or United States v. Gillilan, 288 F.2d 796 (2 Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Apex Distributing Co., Inc. v. United States, 368 U.S. 821, 82 S.Ct. 38, 7 L.Ed.2d 26 (1961) suggests the contrary is required. In Screws the narrower instructions were considered necessary in order to preserve the constitutionality of the statute. There is no indication that the instructions were not objected to in Gillilan, supra, and it is apparent that they concerned issues which were contested during the trial. United States v. Noble, 155 F.2d 315 (3 Cir. 1946), cited by the majority, is also inapposite since the trial judge there had given no oral instructions whatever about the elements of the crime charged.
It seems to me highly undesirable for us to allow counsel to urge as error on appeal matters about which no complaint was made at the time. Moreover, I do not see how it can fairly be claimed that failure to stress what was understood should now be considered by us to be reversible error requiring a new trial.
*577I agree with so much of the majority’s opinion which holds that evidence concerning defendant’s commission of similar acts at other times should not ordinarily be admitted unless the question of intent is in dispute. In the circumstances of this case, therefore, the testimony concerning Sandberg’s tax return should not have been admitted on the government’s direct case. But because the evidence on that matter was largely cumulative and offered by a witness who, if believed on that matter, would doubtless also have been believed by the jury on the similar acts under indictment, we should not hold the admission of the evidence to be reversible error.
I would affirm.