OPINION OF THE COURT
Fifteen years after this petitioner was convicted of mail fraud, the Supreme Court held that the governing statute does not permit prosecution solely on the theory that a governmental official’s wrongful conduct deprived the citizenry of his honest services. Petitioner then asked the district court to vacate his conviction in light of the Court’s holding but was denied relief because he had failed to raise the issue on direct appeal. In addition, the district judge noted that the jury had been charged that it also could convict if it found that the kickbacks petitioner received had caused economic loss to the municipality that had employed him. We will affirm.
In 1972, petitioner Maurice Osser, a City Commissioner of Philadelphia, was convicted on seven counts of mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 2, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 371, and one count of obstruction of justice, 18 U.S.C. § 1510. The court imposed sentences of imprisonment and fines on the mail fraud counts, a concurrent sentence of imprisonment on the conspiracy count, along with a fine, and a consecutive prison sentence and fine on the obstruction of justice charge. The judgments were affirmed by this Court on direct appeal.
United States v. Osser,
In 1987, the Supreme Court decided in
McNally v. United States,
Armed with the McNally decision, Osser sought to vacate his conviction by petitioning for a writ of coram nobis from the same district judge who presided at his 1972 trial. Osser asserted that the jury had been erroneously charged that it could convict if the government proved that “the citizens of Philadelphia were defrauded out of the loyal and faithful services of an employee” and that it need not “show an actual monetary loss to the City.” Arguing that the jury instructions invalidated his conviction, Osser contended that relief was due because he suffers collateral adverse consequences flowing from his conviction — possible impeachment as a witness, enhanced penalties for future convictions, and the denial of his city pension.
In reviewing the underlying conviction, the district court characterized the scheme as “a classic ‘bid rigging’ and ‘kick-back’ ” arrangement in which two printing companies submitted collusive bids on the city’s requests, ensuring that each firm would get certain contracts. In operation for fifteen years, the printers’ secret agreement prevented actual competitive bidding. Os-ser, by virtue of his position as City Commissioner, was able to influence the selection of printing firms and, for his part in the annual scheme, received “commissions.”
The trial record revealed that the jurors had been instructed on four separate postu *1058 lates that could lead to a conviction for mail fraud. One possibility was that the city had been defrauded of money in the form of “commissions” or kickbacks that Osser received; another was that the citizens of Philadelphia had been deprived of Osser's honest and impartial services. 1
In denying Osser’s petition, the district court observed that McNally proscribed only one of the two separate theories on which the mail fraud counts had been submitted to the jury; a conviction based on a monetary loss approach would still be valid. The court also noted that portions of the record were no longer available, that Osser had not raised the intangible rights issue either at trial or on direct appeal, and that he was not seeking to vacate the obstruction of justice conviction. Although the prosecution had presented “overwhelming evidence” to establish Osser’s guilt in the 1972 trial, it was doubtful that, fifteen years later, the government would be able to present sufficient proof to allow the case to go to a jury. The district court observed that, in these circumstances, granting a new trial would create a “manifest injustice to the City of Philadelphia and its citizens.”
On appeal, Osser argues that McNally is to be given retroactive effect and that because the issue of guilt was submitted to the jury on two theories, one of which was invalid, the conviction must be vacated. The government contends that the scheme established at trial had the inevitable result of causing property loss to the city, and hence, McNally does not affect the validity of the conviction. In addition, the government asserts that, because Osser had not previously contested the intangible rights theory, he is not now entitled to coram nobis relief.
I.
The retroactivity of Supreme Court holdings in criminal cases has proved to be a troubling concept, particularly as applied to procedural rulings and prophylactic measures.
See, e.g., Griffith v. Kentucky,
A ruling that a trial court lacked power to convict a defendant for proven activity must necessarily be retroactive. The Supreme Court stated in
United States v. United States Coin & Currency,
The Court has also determined that a verdict of guilty based arguably on alternative premises, one of which is erroneous, cannot stand on direct appeal where it is impossible to ascertain on which ground the defendant was convicted.
Chiarella v. United States,
These general principles, however, are not dispositive of the issues present in the case at hand. Even though McNally is retroactive, it does not always require the vacation of a mail fraud conviction tinged with intangible rights aspects.
II.
Osser seeks relief through the cor-am nobis route, a remedy reserved for exceptional circumstances. Coram nobis was available at common law in both the civil and criminal fields to correct errors of fact unknown to the court at time of the original judgment. Later, the writ was used to correct errors of law in criminal cases.
United States v. Morgan,
Citing its earlier opinion in
United States v. Mayer,
We reiterated this point in
United States v. Cariola,
Even so, other factors must be taken into account. The interest in finality of judgments is a weighty one that may not be casually disregarded. Where sentences have been served, the finality concept is of an overriding nature, more so than in other forms of collateral review such as habeas corpus, where a continuance of confinement could be manifestly unjust.
Morgan
indicated that coram nobis relief is not available if a sentence has been executed unless the conviction carries continuing penalties.
Morgan,
In
United States v. Keane,
Osser alleges that his mail fraud conviction has resulted in the denial of a pension from the City of Philadelphia but that the conviction for obstruction of justice has no such effect. We admit to some uncertainty that Osser has established the requisite showing of collateral consequences but the record on this issue is almost nonexistent and the government has conceded the point for purposes of the appeal. We are not completely satisfied that the prerequisites for coram nobis may be established by prosecutorial concession in this fashion.
See Mayer,
There is, moreover, another factor that poses serious problems here. The gravamen of Osser’s complaint is that the trial judge’s instructions to the jury were incorrect in offering as an alternative ground for conviction a theory that was later invalidated by McNally. Yet as the government argues, Osser did not raise that point at trial nor on direct appeal.
Relief is no more readily granted in a collateral attack by habeas corpus than one using coram nobis. Indeed, the jurisdictional basis of habeas corpus is that the petitioner be “in custody,” 28 U.S.C. § 2255, and the natural solicitude of the law to end expeditiously an unjust incarceration exerts a perhaps unacknowledged pressure for expansive review. In a coram nobis case, by contrast, where sentence has been served and nothing remains but some financial detriment, judicial incentive to excuse compliance with procedural prerequisites is of a lower order.
That is not to say, however, that substantial judicial constraints have not been observed in habeas corpus cases. In
United States v. Frady,
Similarly, in
Sunal v. Large,
“If defendants who accept the judgment of conviction and do not appeal can later *1061 renew their attack on the judgment by habeas corpus, litigation in these criminal cases will be interminable. Wise judicial administration of the federal courts counsels against such course, at least where the error does not trench on any constitutional rights of defendants nor involve the jurisdiction of the trial court.”
Id.
at 182,
Osser cites
United States v. Travers,
Osser also cites
Ingber v. Enzor,
Osser’s case is quite different. In 1972 when his trial took place and in 1973 when he appealed, deprivation of honest services as a basis for mail fraud was an open question in this circuit and nationally as well. It was not until 1982 in
United States v. Boffa,
At the time of the Osser trial there was no “entrenched precedent” in this circuit or elsewhere in the United States. Whether the statute covered such conduct presented a live question, and was hotly contested by the defense in
United States v. States,
Just as the
Ingber
case points up the weakness in Osser’s argument, so does
United States v. Sams,
In the case presently before us, the district judge noted the difficulty the government would face were it required to go forward with a new trial. Parts of the record are missing, witnesses may well be unavailable, and the lapse of fifteen years *1062 cannot but provide great difficulty. And in contrast to the Sams case, the remedy here would not be a vacation of the conviction but a new trial to correct an erroneous instruction so that the jury might pass on charges of criminal conduct not affected by McNally.
The argument for denying relief because the disputed question was waived by failing to appeal is much stronger here than in Travers, Ingber, and Sams. In our view, this case falls within the teachings of Frady and Sunal, and on that basis, the district court properly denied the writ. The issue that Osser brings at this late date should have been included in his direct appeal; to now excuse his failure to exhaust direct appellate procedures would disproportionately harm the prosecution.
III.
Affirmance is also compelled by
United States v. Asher,
In Asher, the jury had been charged, as in Osser’s trial, that either monetary loss or the deprivation of the right to honest government would support a conviction. We determined that the Asher jury “could not have found a fraudulent scheme that consisted solely of depriving the citizens of their right to honest government that did not also involve tangible losses by Pennsylvania.” Id.
The instructions in
Asher
and the present case differ from those in
United States v. Piccolo,
This Court adopted reasoning similar to
Asher
in an earlier case,
United States v. Catena,
The
Catena
opinion cited
Anderson v. United States,
We have carefully reviewed the factual basis for Osser’s conviction. The net result of the bid rigging was to deprive the City of Philadelphia of substantial sums of money over a period of years. That this is so is demonstrated conclusively in 1968 when the bid rigging scheme was suspended. During that year, one of the printing companies submitted a competitive bid 17% lower than that of the other firm the year *1063 before. The other printer then placed a bid 45% lower than its preceding one. The next year, the scheme was reinstated and the contract price came in 40% higher.
Unquestionably, the arrangement worked out by Osser resulted in a substantial monetary detriment to the City, and no rational juror could conclude otherwise.
See United States v. Perholtz,
Here, the trial judge specifically instructed the jury that Osser’s receipt of secret payments could constitute an offense under the indictment. The court charged that if Osser had participated in a scheme to receive commissions as a result of his position with the City, “such commissions would have been due and owing to the City of Philadelphia” and he could be found guilty of “a scheme devised to defraud the City of Philadelphia out of secret commissions and moneys.”
This charge was consistent with Pennsylvania law as set out in
Kribbs v. Jackson,
“All profits made and advantage gained by the agent in the execution of the agency belong to the principal. And it matters not whether such profit or advantage be the result of the performance or of the violation of the duty of the agent.... [I]f profit accrues from his violation of duty, that likewise belongs to the principal ... because the agent cannot be permitted to derive advantage from his own default.”
We do not overlook Osser’s argument that in
United States v. Zauber,
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in
United States v. Holzer,
Unlike the Zauber, Holzer, and McNally trials, the jury in this case was charged explicitly that it could find financial detriment to the City as a result of the kickbacks and commissions received by Osser. Thus, the trial court did not rely on a constructive trust doctrine as explicated in Zauber and Holzer.
Osser’s conviction can be properly aligned with those
post-McNally
decisions where Courts of Appeals have held that a charge and evidence of monetary or property loss will sustain a conviction for mail fraud, even if the intangible rights theory was presented as an alternative basis for conviction.
E.g., United States v. Bonansinga,
We are aware that some courts have vacated convictions on the authority of
McNally
in cases where the jury was charged on the intangible rights theory as the basis for conviction.
E.g., United States v. Shelton,
Ochs
was decided on direct appeal and the court did not charge on the municipality’s entitlement to the kickback moneys. Similarly, in
Shelton,
a habeas corpus case, “[t]he Government did not charge that the counties lost money because of the kickbacks.”
Shelton,
Osser is not entitled to coram nobis relief. The judgment of the district court will be affirmed.
Notes
. The judge read to the jury the relevant portion of the indictment, which charged that Osser “devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud:
"a. The City of Philadelphia and its citizens of their right to the conscientious, loyal, faithful, disinterested and unbiased services, decisions, actions, and performance of official ’ duties of Maurice S. Osser in his capacity as City Commissioner of Philadelphia:
"b. The City of Philadelphia and its citizens of their right to have the City’s business and its affairs conducted honestly, impartially, free from deceit, craft, trickery, corruption, fraud, undue influence, and conflict of interests;
"c. The City of Philadelphia out of secret monies obtained by Maurice S. Osser in the performance of his official duties as City Commissioner of the City of Philadelphia:
"d. The City of Philadelphia and its citizens of their right to have contracts for the printing of election ballots and material for the City Commissioners and the contacts for printing the official documents of City Council bid upon and awarded by free and competitive bids, without fraud and collusion.”
. Congress has since amended the mail fraud statute by adding, "the term ‘scheme or artifice to defraud’ includes the scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub.L. No. 100-690, § 7603, 102 Stat. 4181, 4508 (1988) (to be codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1346).
. We need not, and do not, decide here that the possibility of heavier punishment in the event of a conviction in the future may be a cognizable collateral consequence.
