United States v. Jorn
Opinion of the Court
announced the judgment of the Court in an opinion joined by The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Douglas, and Mr. Justice Marshall.
The Government directly appeals the order of the United States District Court for the District of Utah dismissing, on the ground of former jeopardy, an information charging the defendant-appellee with willfully assisting in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns, in violation of 26 U. S. C. § 7206 (2).
Appellee was_ originally charged in February 1968 with 25 counts of violating §7206 (2). He was . brought to trial before Chief Judge Ritter on August 27, 1968. After the jury was chosen and sworn, 14 of the counts were dismissed on the Government’s motion. The trial then commenced, the Government calling as its first witness an Internal Revenue Service agent in order to put in evidence the remaining 11 allegedly fraudulent income tax returns the defendant was charged with helping to prepare. At the trial judge’s suggestion, these exhibits were stipulated to and introduced in evidence without objection. The Government’s five remaining witnesses were taxpayers whom the defendant allegedly had aided in preparation of these returns.
After the first of these witnesses was called, but prior to the commencement of direct examination, defense counsel suggested that these witnesses be’warned of their constitutional rights. The trial court agreed, and proceeded, in careful detail, to spell out the witness’ right
The trial judge then asked the prosecuting attorney if his remaining four witnesses were similarly situated. The prosecutor responded that they had been warned of their rights by the' IRS upon initial contact. The judge, expressing the view that any warnings that might have been given were probably inadequate, proceéded to discharge the jury; he then called all the taxpayers, into court, and informed them of their constitutional rights and of the considerable dangers of unwittingly making damáging admissions in these factual circumstances. Finally, he aborted the trial so the witnesses could consult with attorneys.
The case was set for retrial before another jury, but on pretrial motion by the defendant, Judge Ritter dismissed the information on the ground of former jeopardy. The Government filed a direct appeal to this Court, and we. noted probable jurisdiction. 396 U. S. 810 (1969). The case was argued at the 1969 Term and thereafter set for reargument at the present Term. 397 U. S. 1060 (1970).
I
Appellee contends, at the threshold, that our decision in United States v. Sisson, 399 U. S. 267, 302-307 (1970), which followed our noting of probable jurisdiction in this case, forecloses appeal by the Government under
The statute provided, in relevant part, for an appeal by the Government direct to the Supreme Court “[f]rom the decision or judgment sustaining a motion in bar, when the defendant has not been put in jeopardy.” Appellee concedes, as indeed he must under the prior rulings of this Court, that his plea of former jeopardy constituted a “motion in bar” within the meaning of the statute.
Here the jury in the first proceeding had been impaneled before the mistrial ruling, but appellee’s motion to dismiss on grounds of former jeopardy was made prior to the impaneling of the second jury. The Government contends that the impaneling of the jury must be understood to apply to the jury in the proceeding to which the plea of former jeopardy is offered as a bar, rather than the jury whose impaneling was, in the first instance, essential to sustain the plea on the merits. Ap-pellee contends that the construction put on the statute ' in the Sisson opinion requires the conclusion that the Government may not appeal when a jury in the prior proceeding for the offense in question has been impaneled.
We think the Government has the better of the argument.
In the mistrial situation, the judicial ruling that is chronologically analogous to the Sisson, facts would be the declaration of a mistrial after the first jury has been impaneled. Obviously, the Government could not have appealed Judge Ritter’s. original declaration of mistrial. Since a mistrial ruling explicitly contemplates reprosecution of the defendant, the nonappealability of this judicial action fits with congressional action in excluding pleas in abatement from the class of cases warranting appellate review. The nonappealable status of rulings of this sort is fully explainable in terms of a policy disfavoring appeals from interlocutory rulings. See the discussion in Will v. United States, supra, at 96-98.
But it does not follow from the nonappealability of rulings' which are essentially interlocutory insofar as they expressly contémplate resumption of the prosecution, that Congress intended to foreclose governmental appeal from the sustaining of a later motion in bar on the trial judge’s conclusion that constitutional double
Consistently with the Court’s opinion in Sisson, the sustaining of a motion in bar based on a plea of former jeopardy would be appealable as long as the motion in bar was sustained prior to the impaneling of the jury in the subsequent proceeding.
The Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against placing a defendant “twice in jeopardy” represents a constitutional policy of finality for the defendant’s benefit.in federal criminal proceedings.
But it is also true that- a criminal trial is, even in . the best of circumstances, a complicated affair to manage: The proceedings are dependent in the first instance oh
Thus the conclusion that “jeopardy attaches” when the trial commences expresses a judgment that the constitutional policies underpinning the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee are implicated at that point in the proceed-' ings. The question remains, however, in what circumstances retrial is to be precluded when the initial proceedings are aborted prior to verdict without the defendant’s consent.
In dealing with that question^ this Court has,, for the most part, explicitly declined the invitation of litigants to formulate rules based on categories of circumstances which will , permit or preclude retrial. Thus, in United States v. Perez, 9 Wheat. 579 (1824), this Court held that a defendant in a capital case might be retried after the trial judge had, without the defendant’s consent, discharged a jury that reported itself unable to'agree. Mr. Justice Story’s opinion for the Court in
“We think, that in all cases of this nature, the law has invested Courts of justice with the authority to discharge a jury from giving any verdict, whenever, in their opinion, taking all the circumstances into . consideration, there is a manifest necessity for the act, or the ends of public justice would otherwise be defeated. They are to exercise a sound discretion on the subject; and it is impossible to define all the circumstances, which would render it proper to interfere. To be sure, the power ought to be used with the greatest caution, under urgent circumstances, and for very plain and obvious causes; and, in capital cases especially, Courts should be extremely careful how they interfere with any of the chances of life, in favour of the prisoner. But, after all, they have the right to order the discharge f and the security which the public have for the faithful, sound, and conscientious exercise of this discretion, rests, in this, as in other cases, upon the responsibility of the Judges, under their oaths of office.”. Id., at 580.
The Perez case has since been applied by this Court as a standard of appellate review for testing the trial judge’s exercise of his discretion in declaring a mistrial without the defendant’s consent. E. g., Simmons v. United States, 142 U. S. 148 (1891) (reprosecution not-barred where mistrial declared because letter published in newspaper rendered juror’s impartiality doubtful); Logan v. United States, 144 U. S. 263 (1892) (reprose-cution not barred where jury discharged after 40 hours of deliberation for inability to reach a verdict); Thompson v. United States, 155 U. S. 271 (1894) (reprosecution
But a more recent ease — Gori v. United States, 367 U. S. 364 (1961) — while adhering in the main to the Perez theme of a “manifest necessity” standard of appellate review — does suggest the possibility of a variation on that theme according to a determination by the appellate court as to which party to the case was the beneficiary of the mistrial ruling. In Gori, the Court was called upon to review the action of. a trial judge in discharging the jury when it appeared to the judge that the prosecution’s questioning of a witness might lead to the introduction of evidence of prior crimes. We upheld reprosecutiop after the mistrial in an opinion which, while applying the principle of Perez, appears to tie the judgment that there was no abuse of discretion in these circumstances to the fact that the judge- was acting “in the sole interest of the defendant.” 367 U. S., at 369; see also the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Douglas, id., at 370.
In the instant cáse, the Government, relying principally on Gori, contends that even if we conclude the trial judge here abused his discretion, reprosecution should be permitted because the judge’s ruling “benefited” the defendant and also clearly was not compelled by bad-faith prosecutorial conduct aimed at triggering a mistrial in order to get another day in court. If the judgment as to who was “benefited” by the mistrial ruling turns on the appellate court’s conclusion concern
Further, we think that a limitation on the abuse-of-discretion principle based on an appellate court’s assessment of which side benefited from the mistrial ruling does not adequately satisfy the policies underpinning the double jeopardy provision. Reprosecution after a mistrial has unnecessarily been declared by the trial court obviously subjects the defendant to the same personal strain and insecurity regardless of the motivation underlying the trial judge’s action. The Government contends, however, that the policies evinced by the double jeopardy provision do not reach this sort of injury; rather the unnecessarily inflicted second trial must, in the Government’s view, appear to be the result of a mistrial declaration which “unfairly aids the prosecution or harasses the defense.” Govt. Brief- 8.
Certainly it is clear beyond question that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not guarantee a defendant that the Government will be prepared, in' all circumstances, to
The conscious refusal of this Court to channel the exercise of that discretion according to rules based on categories of circumstances, see Wade v. Hunter, 336 U. S., at 691, reflects the elusive nature of the problem presented by judicial action. foreclosing the defendant from going to his jury. But that discretion must still be exercised; ■ unquestionably an important
In sum, counsel for both sides perform in an imperfect world; in this area, bright-line rules based on either the source of the problem or the intended beneficiary of the ruling would only disserve the vital competing interests of the-' Government and the defendant. ■ The trial judge must recognise that lack of preparedness by the Government . to continue the trial directly implicates policies •underpinning both the double jeopardy provisión and the speedy trial guarantee. Cf. Downum v. United States, 372 U. S. 734 (1963). Alternatively, the judge must bear in mind the potential risks of abuse by the defendant of society’s unwillingness to unnecessarily subject him to repeated prosecutions. Yet, in the final analysis, the judge must always temper the decision whether or not to abort the trial by considering the importance to the defendant of being able, once and for all, to conclude his confrontation with society through the verdict of a tribunal he might believe to be favorably disposed to his fate.
III
Applying these considerations to the record in this case, we must conclude that the trial judge here abused his discretion in discharging the jury. Despite assurances by both the first witness and the prosecuting at
Affirmed.
These provisions of the Criminal Appeals Act have recently been amended. See n. 6, infra. However, the new amendment does not apply to cases begun in the District Court before the effective date of enactment. Ibid. Our jurisdiction over the present appeal is therefore controlled by the terms of the Criminal Appeals Act as codified at 18 U. S. C. § 3731.
The common-law equivalent of the motion in bar was used to raise the defenses of prior acquittal, prior conviction, and pardon. See United States v. Murdock, 284 U. S. 141, 151 (1931). Whether the motion-in-bar provision is construed broadly to reach any plea having the effect of preventing further prosecutions, see United States v. Mersky, 361 U. S. 431, 441-443 (1960) (BreiínaN, J., concurring), or narrowly to reach only pleas in the nature of confession and avoidance, see id., at 455-458 (Stewart, J., dissenting), appellee’s plea of former jeopardy based on the prior declaration of mistrial would be included. Cf. United States v. Blue, 384 U. S. 251, 254 (1966). See generally United States v. Sisson, 399 U. S. 267, 300 n. 53 (1970).
The portion of the Court’s opinion in Sisson under discussion here was joined in by only four members of the Court.
Mr. ■ Justice White’s , dissenting opinion contended that the jeopardy language applies to preclude governmental appeal only where the defendant’s reprosecution would be barred by the Constitution.
The Government relies in part on United States v. Toteo, 377 U. S. 463 (1964), and United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U. S. 85 (1916), as sustaining jurisdiction under 18 U. S. C. §3731 to review the trial court’s action- in granting a pretrial motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds after the prior proceeding ended in a mistrial. In Tateo, however, jurisdiction was neither raised by the parties nor considered by the Court; therefore, it is of little significance on the jurisdiction point. In Oppenheimer, the motion in bar in the second proceeding rested on an earlier pretrial motion based on the statute of limitations; the theory of the second plea ivas res judieata.
Appellee points out that Rule 12 (b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure permits the defendant to raise the defense of former jeopardy on motion before or after the impaneling of the jury. See Notes of the Advisory Committee, 8 J. Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 12.01 [2] (2d ed. 1970). Thus, it is suggested that the defendant may deprive the Government of its appeal simply by delaying his motion to dismiss until the jury has been impaneled. This' problem, of course,1 is inherent in the structure of the Criminal Appeals Act prior' to amendment; for example, the defendant under Rule 12 (b) (1) may also delay his statute of limitations plea until after the impaneling of the jury, see ibid., thereby depriving the Government of its § 3731 appeal to this Court. Soon after the passage of the original Act, the Attorney General recognized the problem and proposed that the Act be amended to require'counsel for the defendant to raise and argue such questions before jeopardy attaches. See Sisson, supra, at 305-306. A recently enacted amendment to the Criminal Appeals Act undertakes to. deal with the problem by allowing the Government to appeal “to a court of appeals from a decision, judgment, or order of a district court dismissing an indictment or information as to any one or more counts, except that no appeal shall lie where the double jeopardy clause of the United States Constitution prohibits further prosecution.” Omnibus Crime-Control Act of 1970, § 14 (a) (1), 84 Stat. 1890 (January 2, 1971). However, the amend
It is clear from the record in this case that Judge Ritter’s action cannot, as two members of the Court suggest, be classified as an “acquittal” for purposes of this Court’s jurisdiction over the appeal under 18 U. S. C. § 3731. First, Judge Ritter’s action at the original trial clearly contemplated reprosecution of the defendant after the witnesses had consulted with attorneys. See App. 46 and-Mr. Justice Stewart’s dissent, post, at 488-489, n. 1. Judge Ritter’s subsequent action dismissing the information was simply put on the ground of defendant’s plea of former jeopardy, without further explanation. App. 60. But the parties below put the question of former jeopardy to Judge Ritter exclusively in terms of the Court’s line of cases concerning reprosecutability after mistrial declarations without the defendant’s consent. See App. 55-59, which contain the entire post-mistrial proceedings before Judge Ritter.
Of course, as we noted in Sisson, supra, at 290, the trial judge’s characterization of his own action 'cannot control the classification of the action for purposes of our appellate jurisdiction. But Sisson goes on to articulate the criterion of an “acquittal” for purposes of assessing our jurisdiction to review: the trial judge’s disposition is an “acquittal” if it is “a legal determination on the basis of facts adduced at the trial relating to the general issue of the case . . . .” Sisson, supra, at 290 n. 19. The record in this case is utterly devoid of any indication of reliance by Judge Ritter on facts relating to the general issue of the case, thereby surely distinguishing this case from Sisson, and, one would think, under the very reasoning of Sisson, compelling the conclusion that whatever else Judge Ritter may have done, he did not “acquit” the defendant in the relevant sense:
Two Terms ago the double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment was made directly applicable to the States. See Benton V. Maryland, 395 U. S. 784 (1969).
See also Annotation,: Double Jeopardy — Mistrial, 6 L. Ed) 2d 1509; J. Sigler, Double Jeopardy 39-47 (1969).
And see Annotation, supra, n. 9, at 1511; Sigler, supra, n. 9, at 44-45.
We think, that nothing said in United States v. Tateo, 377 U. S. 463, 467 (1964), can properly be taken as indicating a contrary view. For there, even though defendant’s ■ guilty plea which aborted the trial was subsequently held to have been coerced by judicial action, the defendant nonetheless was hot foreclosed of his option to go to the jury if he chose to do so, and thereafter rely on post-eonvic
Conversely, where a defendant’s mistrial motion "is necessitated by -judicial or prosecutorial impropriety designed to avoid an acquittal, reprosecution might well be barred. Cf. United States v. Tateo, supra, at 468 n. 3; n. 11, supra.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
The plurality opinion today says that whenever a trial judge in a criminal case has “abused his discretion” in declaring a mistrial on his own motion, the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy categorically operates to forestall a trial of the casé on the merits. I cannot agree.
The District Judge’s decision to declare a mistrial in this case was based on his belief that the prosecution witnesses, who were to testify that they had submitted false income tax returns prepared by the defendant, had not been adequately warned that they might themselves incur criminal liability by their testimony. The judge apparently intended simply to postpone the case so that the witnesses could be. fully apprised of their constitutional rights,
It is, of course, common ground that there are many circumstances under which a trial judge may discharge a jury and order a new trial, without encountering any double jeopardy problems. One example is where the judge acts at the instance of the defendant himself. See United States v. Tateo, 377 U. S. 463, 467. Another is where the jury cannot reach a verdict, and there the trial judge may proceed on his own initiative, even over the active objection of the defendant, to declare a mistrial. United States v. Perez, 9 Wheat. 679, Cf. Simmons v. United States, 142 U. S. 148; Wade v. Hunter, 336 U. S. 684. On the other hand, there are situations where the circumstances under which the mistrial was declared may be such as to bar a future prosecution. One example is where a “judge exercises his authority to help the prosecution, at a trial in which its case is going badly, by affording it another, more favorable opportunity to convict the accused.” Gori v. United States, 367 U. S. 364, 369. I should suppose that whether misconduct of this kind occurs at the instance of the prosecutor or on the trial judge’s sole initiative, there is no question but that the guarantee against double jeopardy would make another trial impermissible.
The present case does not fall neatly into any of these conventional categories. There was no request for a mistrial from defense counsel (although his suggestion that the witnesses be warned of their constitutional rights
The plurality opinion purports to resolve the matter by adopting a rule of “abuse of discretion” by the trial judge. This standard is said to derive from the statement of the Court in the leading case of United States v. Perez, supra, at 580:
“We think, that in all cases of this nature, the law has invested Courts of justice with the authority to discharge a jury from giving any verdict, whenever, in their opinion, taking all the circumstances into consideration, there is a manifest necessity for the act, or the ends of-public justice would otherwise be defeated. They are to exercise a sound discretion on the subject; and it is impossible to define all the circumstances, which would render it proper to interfere. To be sure, the power ought to be used with. the greatest caution, under urgent circumstances, and for very plain and obvious causes .... But, after all, they have the right to order the discharge; and the security which the public have for 'the faithful, sound, and conscientious exercise of this discretion, rests, in this, as in other cases, upon the responsibility of the Judges, under their oaths of office.”
The plurality opinion appears to construe this passage to mean that an appellate court, in determining the applicability of the double jeopardy guarantee, must measure the trial judge’s action in declaring the mistrial against a
In that case, the trial judge had discharged the jury during the first day of trial, taking such action apparently to forestall prejudicial error after inferring that the prosecuting attorney’s line of questioning presaged inquiry calculated to inform the jury of other crimes by the accused. The Court of Appeals held that the declaration of a mistrial under these circumstances did not prevent a new trial on the merits:
“Here the defendant was in no way harmed by the brief trial which, indeed, revealed to him the prosecution’s entire case. He was thus in a position to start anew with a clean slate, with all possibility of prejudice eliminated and. with foreknowledge of the case against him. The situation was quite unlike the more troublesome problems found in various of the cases, as where the prosecution desires to strengthen his case on a new start or otherwise provokes the declaration of mistrial, or the court has acted to the prejudice of the accused, or the accused has actually been subject to two trials for essentially, the same offense. On the other hand, for the defendant to receive absolution for his crime, later proven quite completely, because the judge acted too hastily in his interest, would be an injustice to the public in the particular case and a disastrous precedent for the future.” 282 F. 2d 43, 48 (CA2 1960).'
This Court declined to pass on the Court of Appeals’ judgment that there had been no abuse of discretion, noted that the case involved neither harassment nor an
“Suffice that we are unwilling, where it clearly appears that a mistrial has been granted in the sole interest of the defendant, to hold that its necessary consequence is to bar all retrial. It would hark back to the formalistic artificialities of seventeenth century criminal procedure so to confine our federal trial courts by compelling them to navigate a narrow compass between Scylla and.Charybdis. We would not thus make them unduly hesitant conscientiously to exercise their most sensitive judgment — according to their own lights in the immediate exigencies of trial — for the more effective protection of the criminal accused.” 367 U. S., at 369-370.
Gori established, I think correctly, that the simple phrase “abuse of discretion” is not enough in itself to resolve double jeopardy questions in cases of this kind. Whether or not there has been an “abuse of discretion” sufficient to bar retrial cannot be determined without reference to the purpose and effect of the mistrial ruling. The real question is whether there has been an “abuse” of the trial process resulting in prejudice to the accused, by way of harassment or the like, such as to outweigh society’s interest- in the punishment of crime. It is in this context, rather than simply in terms of good trial practice, that the trial judge’s “abuse of discretion” must be assessed in deciding the question of double jeopardy.
I respectfully dissent from the judgment of the-Court.
The trial judge stated:
“So this, case is vacated, setting is vacated this afternoon, and it will be calendared again; and, before it is calendared again, I am*489 going to have these witnesses in and talk to them' again before I will permit them to testify.” App. 46.
I agree that the Court has jurisdiction of this appeal, for the reasons set out in Part I of the plurality opinion.
Downum v. United States, 372 U. S. 734, is not to the contrary. As the plurality opinion today points out, that case recognized that “lack of preparedness by the Government to continue the trial directly implicates policies underpinning both the double jeopardy provision and the speedy trial guarantee,” ante, at 486. Failure of the prosecution to go forward with its case in an expeditious and orderly manner is quite different from even a serious error in trial procedure by the presiding judge. It is, of course, well settled'that when a jury
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I join in the plurality opinion and in the judgment of the Court not without some reluctance, however, since the case represents a plain frustration. of the right to
Reference
- Cited By
- 2203 cases
- Status
- Published