Court Opinion

ID: 9456548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:56:27.493952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:01.438849
License: Public Domain

ADAMS, Circuit Judge (concurring).
I concur with that portion of the majority’s opinion that holds Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965) applicable to the charge of the trial judge permitting the jury to infer from the silence of the ac*819cused “that he could not truthfully deny the charge.”
The statements made by the prosecutor, however, present in part a different problem, and in my judgment require a more detailed recitation of the events at the trial. Mitchell’s primary defense at his trial was that he left the scene before the victim was raped, and that the victim thereafter mistook a previously convicted participant, Raymond Forchion, for Mitchell. In his closing argument, Mitchell’s counsel stated with respect to the identification of Mitchell:
“Here’s something that I hope some of you may recall concerning this identification. When Miss Achey was asked if she had given a description of the man whom she now says was Esaw Mitchell to the police, and she said yes, and when she was asked what description of Esaw Mitchell she had given, her description was he was taller than the rest of them, he was darker than the rest of them, and he had a round face. Now, I hope that at least some of you ladies and gentlemen will recall that that distinctly was the description which Miss Achey said she gave to the police of the man whom in court she identified as Esaw Mitchell.
Now, when Raymond Forchion was produced by the defendant Robert Lewis, just before he left the stand you may recall also that I asked him to come down and stand beside Esaw Mitchell. I hope some of you recall that. Now, if there was any difference between the height of those two men, I wasn’t able to see it. Of course, the Prosecutor asked Raymond Forchion if he had grown in height since the night of the attack, and he answered that he didn’t know. Well, of course, I don’t know either. I don’t know whether Raymond Forchi-on has grown in height since the night of the attack. But, certainly, I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, that there visibly — there wasn’t enough difference between the height of Raymond Forchion and the height of Esaw Mitchell for us to say that that was significant or that Esaw Mitchell was taller, even than Raymond Forchi-on, and, of course, all of the co-defendants mentioned in the indictments weren’t even here for comparison.
As to whether Esaw Mitchell was darker than any of the rest, we don’t know that, either. All of the defendants aren’t here. Looking at them now, there is some little difference. Of course, it is a little difficult. I guess in the three of us, the two defendants and me, there is some difference in color, of course, but, whether there is enough for that to be significant, for that to stand out, in the dark —in the dark — and everybody says it was very dark that night, no lights— how anybody could say, even between the three of us, let alone between the five men that are supposed to have been there, how Esaw Mitchell was so much darker than anybody else, that that is what fits the fact that that man that night and Esaw Mitchell, the defendant, today, are one and the same person, I submit to you isn’t significant.
Whether he has a round face, that, of course, is a relative term, as you look at it, whether you call his face round. Now, of course, I have a round face. It seems to me if somebody was going to identify me, they would say, ‘He’s got a fat face.’ I think we can all agree on that. But, whether Esaw Mitchell’s face is a round one, I don’t know, but that was the description that Miss Achey gave of Esaw Mitchell.
I ask you, from a description that he was darker than anybody else, that he was taller than anybody else, and that he had a round face, do you think such a description as that would permit any policeman, no matter how smart he was, to go and pick out a man?
Finally, on this matter of identification, you ladies and gentlemen for five days now have had an opportunity off and on, at least, to look even at these two defendants — not five, but two. *820You have been sitting there, they have been sitting here. You have had an opportunity to look at them for almost five days, off and on, for five days, in the light. Now I am wondering if some time when we had come in the courtroom they had changed places, so that Esaw Mitchell was sitting at the end of the table and Robert Lewis was sitting next to me, I am wondering if you would even notice it, if there is so much difference even between their appearance that it would stand out, in the light, and I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, whether there is enough difference between even just the two, not five, that in the dark that a difference could be seen to the point of permitting a positive identification.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, that, I think, is really the crux of this case.” After comment on another matter, Mitchell’s attorney, purported to explain why Mitchell did not testify:
“I am sure also that the Prosecutor is going to make a point of the fact that Esaw Mitchell didn’t take the stand to testify in his own defense. I am sure he is going to say that, because any good Prosecutor would say that.
The decision for Esaw Mitchell not to take the stand was my decision, rightly or wrongly. If he took the stand, I believed he would be accused of lying. The Prosecutors almost always do accuse a defendant of lying in a criminal trial. So, I decided that, rather than have to divide my comment between whether or not Esaw Mitchell was lying and the loose ends or weaknesses in the State's ease, I would rather just concentrate on the fact that the State has not proved this case against Esaw Mitchell beyond a reasonable doubt. That was my decision, and I think that if the other defendant, Robert Lewis, is accused of lying, that no doubt, perhaps, at least, my decision may be justified.”
It was in response to these comments that the prosecutor spoke to the jury as follows:
“Referring now to the defendant, Esaw Mitchell, the Judge’s comment concerning the quality of defense counsel was valid. Mr. Johnson is good. But, I want to point out something to you, and you just think a minute, and see whether or not you are judging Esaw Mitchell or whether you are judging Robert Johnson, because, if you are judging Robert Johnson, then you have seen goodness and you have seen a good, responsible human being.
Why do I say that?
Well, I say it because you don’t know Esaw Mitchell. You heard nothing from Esaw Mitchell. You have never seen him on that stand, so that you have an opportunity to judge his demeanor and what he is; and, who has the right to say, who has the right to say that Esaw Mitchell knew that he was recognized when he ran, and who has the right to say that Esaw Mitchell knew that Raymond Forchion was recognized when Esaw ran? Robert Johnson? No. It has to be Esaw Mitchell, and there is your smoke screen.”
******
“And what about the failure of Esaw Mitchell to take the stand?
Well, it’s nice for his lawyer to come up and say, ‘Well, this was my decision,’ but, remember this, he is as smart as I am, and I think the purpose of it was exactly what I outlined to you, and that is that you wouldn’t judge Esaw Mitchell, you would be judging what you heard from Robert Johnson, and there is the mark of an excellent advocate, but, I don’t think he has fooled you. I don’t think he has fooled you.
You are entitled also under the law of this State to consider, if you so desire, that Esaw Mitchell’s failure to take the stand was because he couldn’t deny the incriminating evidence proved against him, and, if I understand it, there is no evidence in Mitchell’s defense, because I get the distinct impression that Forchion is *821Lewis’ witness, and this is the way he has been referred to.”
Except for the italicized sentence, the prosecutor’s remarks constituted a fair response to the arguments made by counsel. Had the trial judge not erroneously charged on the consequences of Mitchell’s failure to testify, the italicized language by the prosecutor-— uttered in the midst of an otherwise fair rebuttal — would present a difficult issue. First, these comments may not rise to the “constitutional proportions” found by the majority. But even if the quoted sentence did raise a constitutional problem, it might well be subject to the rule of harmless error under the doctrine enunciated in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967) ; see also Harmless Constitutional Error: A Reappraisal, 83 Harv.L.Rev. 814 (1970). As the majority opinion ably demonstrates, however, the statements by the trial judge alone constitute a sufficient basis for reversal of Mitchell’s conviction. Accordingly, we need not, and in my view should not, reach the issue whether the remarks by the prosecutor amount to reversible error.
Judge VAN DUSEN concurs in this opinion, but goes further in stating his view that the language of the prosecutor was not reversible error of constitutional proportions on this record.