Court Opinion

ID: 9455804
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:34:03.373204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:44.634769
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM:
In a petition for rehearing, the Government contends that the eyewitness identification of Sutherland should be admissible — notwithstanding the impermissible suggestive picture spread — because of Section 701(a) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (18 U.S.C.A. § 3502). The point was not raised in the court below nor has it been previously raised in this court. Having tried and appealed its case on one theory, an unsuccessful party may not then use a petition for rehearing as a device to test a new theory. Minute Maid Corp. v. United Foods, Inc., 291 F.2d 577 (5th Cir. 1961); see Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Davis, 412 F.2d 475 (5th Cir. 1969) (on Motion for Attorneys’ Fees on Appeal). We certainly do not regard this case as presenting extraordinary circumstances which would justify our considering on petition for rehearing, issues which were not previously presented. See e. g. McKissick v. United States, 379 F.2d 754 (5th Cir. 1967). If on the retrial, the Omnibus Crime Act issue is raised, there will be adequate opportunity for the district court to determine if the act is applicable and, if so, if it is valid.
The government also argues that the evidence about the jailhouse seminar which placed Sutherland and Kump together in the Phoenix jail was merely cumulative to other evidence that these persons had been together previously in jail. The government contends that such cumulative evidence should not be grounds for reversal and, under the circumstances of this case, we agree.
Therefore, the third paragraph of Part III of the original opinion is withdrawn, and the following is substituted in its place.
As to the evidence of the jailhouse seminar, we hold that the substance of the conversations concerning the technique of robbing banks is admissible and should not be excluded merely because of the circumstance that the conversations occurred in a cell in Phoenix. The record contains other evidence, unchallenged on this appeal, which tends to prove that Sutherland was no stranger to the inside of a jail cell. Consequently he was not prejudiced by admitting the evidence of the jailhouse seminar.
However, we placed our reversal on the grounds that the district court permitted *1159an in-court identification, which that court had already condemned as tainted, to be considered by the jury.
It is therefore ordered that the petition for rehearing filed in the above entitled and numbered cause be and the same is hereby denied.