Kotteakos v. United States/Dissent Douglas

by Wiley Blount Rutledge

United States Supreme Court

328 U.S. 750

Kotteakos  v.  United States

 Argued: Feb. 28, 1946. --- Decided: June 10, 1946

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom Mr. Justice REED agrees, dissenting.

It is clear that there was error in the charge. An examination of the record in Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 55 S.Ct. 629, 79 L.Ed. 1314, shows that the same erroneous instructions were in fact given in that case. But I do not think the error 'substantially injured' (Id., 295 U.S. at page 81, 55 S.Ct. at page 630) the defendants in this case any more than it did in the Berger case.

Whether injury results from the joinder of several conspiracies depends on the special circumstances of each case. Situations can easily be imagined where confusion on the part of the jury is likely by reason of the sheer number of conspirators and the complexities of the facts which spell out the series of conspiracies. The evidence relating to one defendant may be used to convict another.

Those possibilities seem to be non-existent here. Nothing in the testimony of the other defendants even remotely implicated petitioners in the other frauds. Nothing in the evidence connected petitioners with the other defendants, except Brown, in the slightest way. On the record no implication of guilt by reason of a mass trial can be found. The dangers which petitioners conjure up are abstract ones.

Moreover, the true picture of the case is not thirty-two defendants engaging in eight or more different conspiracies which were lumped together as one. The jury convicted only four persons in addition to petitioners. ^[1] The other defendants and the evidence concerning them were in effect eliminated from the case. We have then a case of two closely related conspiracies involving petitioners and two additional conspiracies in which petitioners played no part-but all of the same character and revolving around the same central figure, Brown. If, then, we look at what actually transpired before the jury rather than at what the indictment charged, we have a case approaching in its simplicity the Berger case. And the strong and irresistible inference that the jury was not confused is bolstered by their failure to convict six of the thirteen defendants on trial before them.

As I have said, it is plain that there was error in the charge as to the conspiracy. But I agree with Judge Learned Hand, speaking for the court below, when he said, 151 F.2d at page 174: 'There remains only the question of the court's error in directing the jury that they must find that there was one conspiracy, or that they should aq uit all. That was of course an error, as we have said, but it favored the accused. To suppose that these appellants suffered from it we should have to say that, if the judge had told the jury that they could convict any of the three for conspiring with Brown alone, they might have acquitted one or more of them, in spite of the fact that they convicted them all of a conspiracy with Brown and the other applicants. That is incredible; indeed, it is nonsense. Brown being the only liason between the appellants and the other applicants, the jury could not rationally have drawn the appellants into the net with all the others, unless they had believed that the appellants and Brown had conspired together. The rest was surplusage, which may be disregarded.'

The trial judge did improperly charge the jury not only that there was one conspiracy but also that the overt acts of any one conspirator were binding on all. But only if we consider the question in the abstract would we hold that was reversible error. For the charge made clear that before the jury could impute the acts of one conspirator to another, they were required to find that the particular defendant had first joined the conspiracy. The evidence shows that each of petitioners, acting through Brown, had made a fraudulent application for a loan. When the jury found that each of the petitioners had entered into a conspiracy with Brown, it made a complete determination of guilt as to that petitioner. The error in the other parts of the charge therefore did not reach the essential factors by which guilt or innocence must be determined. The situation would be different if membership in the conspiracy were shown by slight evidence of knowledge and association and the acts of others would need be imputed to a defendant in order to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And I would agree that reversible error would be established if the record left a lingering doubt on that score. But in view of the clear proof implicating petitioners, the simplicity of the transactions, and the fact that the jury must have credited evidence which completely established guilt in order to find that petitioners joined the conspiracy, I cannot believe the erroneous charge was prejudicial.

There are, of course, further possibilities of prejudice. As stated in the Berger case, supra, 295 U.S. at page 82, 55 S.Ct. at page 630, 'The general rule that allegations and proof must correspond is based upon the obvious requirements (1) that the accused shall be definitely informed as to the charges against him, so that he may be enabled to present his defense and not be taken by surprise by the evidence offered at the trial; and (2) that he may be protected against another prosecution for the same offense.' But no surprise is shown. The overt acts charged in the indictment against petitioners were those implicating them in the conspiracy in which each participated. All of the overt acts charged were established by the evidence. And it would seem evident on the face of the indictment that petitioners would know that they must be prepared to defend against proof that they conspired with at least one of the other defendants. It is difficult to see how petitioners would be more misled here than if a single conspiracy had been charged but some of the defendants were not shown to be connected with it. And it is clear that petitioners were adequately protected against a second prosecution. The indictment and the evidence are available to disclose the proof on which the convictions rested. Parole evidence is likewise available to show the subject matter of the former conviction. Bartell v. United States, 227 U.S. 427, 433, 33 S.Ct. 383, 384, 57 L.Ed. 583.

The several conspiracies could have been joined as separate counts in one indictment. For they were plainly 'acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses' within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 557, 18 U.S.C.A. § 557. The objection that they were not so joined but were lup ed together as one conspiracy is purely formal, as the Circuit Court of Appeals said, where, as here, it appears that there was no prejudice.

Notes

1. Before trial a severance was granted on motion of the prosecutor as to four defendants. The indictment was nolprossed as to one. Eight pleaded guilty before trial. Nineteen were brought to trial. One pleaded guilty during the trial and a nolle prosequi was entered as to another. The case was severed as to another who became ill during the trial. Verdicts of acquittal were directed as to three. Of the thirteen whose cases were submitted to the jury, two were acquitted. The jury disagreed as to four. The remaining seven, including petitioners, were convicted.