Lead Opinion
In May 1950, William Remington was called before a federal grand jury for the Southern District of New York which was investigating possible violations of the espionage laws. While testifying before the grand jury, Remington denied that he at any time had ever been a member of the Communist Party. The grand jury returned an indictment for perjury against Remington on the basis of this denial. In the trial following, a verdict of guilty was rendered by the jury but on appeal we reversed the conviction and remanded the case for a new trial because of error committed in the charge to the jury. 2 Cir.,
The government, instead of continuing under the original indictment by going forward with a new trial, obtained a new or second indictment from the grand jury. This indictment, dated October 25, 1951, charged Remington with giving perjured testimony in his defense to the original indictment in the first trial. Specifically five counts were involved: (1) denial of attendance at Communist Party meetings; (2) denial of delivery to Miss Bentley of information to which she was not entitled; (3) denial that he had ever paid Communist Party dues; (4) denial that he had ever solicited members for the Communist Party; (5) denial that he had any knowledge of the existence of the Young Communist League at Dartmouth College where he had been a student from 1934 to 1939. Remington was convicted on counts two and five, acquitted on count four, and the jury was unable to-agree on counts one and three.
On appeal from this judgment of conviction the defendant Remington does not allege that any error was committed in the second trial under the new indictment and it is clear from the record that Judge Leibell conducted the trial with great care. However, the defendant has presented us with a rather new and novel argument in his demand for reversal of his conviction and dismissal of the indictment. It is charged that misconduct in the first grand jury proceedings by the government and the foreman of the jury and, further, an alleged concealment by the government during the course of the first trial of evidence of this misconduct, should force the first indictment to be quashed and that trial be declared a nullity. Moreover, if the first indictment and trial was the result of illegal conduct on the part of the government, it is argued that under the theory advanced in Nardone v. United States,.
This argument of course assumes that there is sufficient evidence of misconduct in the grand jury proceedings to support a motion to quash that indictment. While we need not decide this question in view of our disposition of the appeal, it should be noted in passing that it is far from clear that the minutes of the first grand jury proceeding support a charge of “undue influence” sufficient to make the first indictment illegal. 2 Cir.,
Assuming without deciding that the first indictment is bad because of misconduct in the grand jury proceedings, we can find no authority to support the defendant’s argument that perjury committed in a trial under a bad indictment cannot be prosecuted. Indeed, the opinion of the Supreme Court in United States v. Williams,
True, the instant case is distinguishable since here the previous indictment and trial is attacked because of government misconduct. The defendant seeks to make use of this distinguishing feature by introducing the doctrines outlined in Nardone v. United States,
It is argued that Remington would never have been in court but for the illegally procured indictment and that to preserve his rights and to rigidly supervise the federal enforcement of our laws, we must deny the government the right to prosecute here. See McNabb v. United States,
The doctrine of entrapment has been advanced to support the defendant’s position but it is not applicable here. The defense of entrapment has been defined as follows: “When the criminal design originates, not with the accused, but is conceived in the mind of the government officers, and the accused is by persuasion, deceitful representation, or inducement lured into the commission of a criminal act, the government is estopped by sound public policy from prosecution therefor.” Sorrells v. United States,
The doctrine of entrapment has only the most superficial applicability here. Remington was indicted by a grand jury for committing perjury before it. Instead of attacking the indictment for illegality he chose to lie in his defense, as the jury below found. As a result, he was reindicted and now stands convicted of perjury independent from his initial perjury. Remington has been entrapped, not by devious means and methods employed by the government, but by his own acts. He is caught in a web of his own duplicity and zealous prosecution by the government. We should not overturn his conviction where his guilt is clear and to do so would not serve to rigidly enforce a defendant’s constitu
Judgment of conviction affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
I agree that under United States v. Williams,
on the trial of the first; and, so far as appears, there were no irregularities in the proceeding that resulted in this indictment; nor does Remington seek to reverse the conviction under it because of anything that took place on the second trial. The questions, as I see them, are: (1) whether any misconduct of Donegan and Brunini at the grand jury proceeding that led to the first indictment made it subject to quashal; and (2) whether, if so, Remington could be convicted for testimony upon the trial of that indictment.
The most vulnerable feature of the grand jury proceeding that resulted in the first indictment was the treatment of Remington’s wife, Ann, during her testimony early in the inquiry and before Remington had himself testified. She was questioned continuously for about four hours and was obviously reluctant to disclose what she knew of her husband’s connection with the Communist Party, and of his dealings with Elizabeth Bentley while she had been a Communist. The inquiry was particularly directed to what information, if any, Remington had given Miss Bentley, and, even more especially, to whether he had paid her his party dues. Ann Remington had very frankly given as her reason for not wishing to testify that her husband’s conviction would imperil the support he gave her and her children; and it was this unwillingness that caused the pressure that was put upon her. It is impossible to appraise whether the examination as a whole went beyond tolerable limits without reading all her testimony up to the point where she broke down and finally admitted that Remington did “give this money to the Communist Party.” After that she became generally complaisant, and gave testimony exceedingly damaging to him. However, I agree that, when faced with a patently unwilling witness, the grand jury was free to press her cross-examination hard and sharp; truth is more important than the sensibilities of the witness. Moreover, people will always differ as to the point where legitimate pressure ends
Even though the testimony so extracted had not so largely consisted of privileged communications, I should have hesitated a long time before I let an indictment stand that depended upon it. Especially important is the fact that the
However, I shall assume for argument that, had there been nothing more than I have mentioned, the indictment might have stood up. It is the added circumstance that, as I have already said, a very large part of Ann Remington’s testimony consisted of confidential communications from her husband to her, that satisfies any doubts I might otherwise have had. That was testimony as much privileged in a federal court,
I shall not consider the other alleged irregularities in the proceeding of the grand jury, because what I have recited would alone in my judgment have re
It was to escape this risk that that indictment was abandoned; but I do not believe that by this device a prosecution should escape the consequences of its wrong. For that conclusion I rely upon the doctrines laid down in Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States,
I think that the conviction should be reversed, and the indictment dismissed.
Notes
. By Mr. Donegan:
Q. Well, do we have to go through all this background? We are right down to the issue right now, after all this time we have just reached the question now. Why not answer that question, and then we’ll postpone it for another day; if you answer that question, we’ll postpone it for another day. That isn’t going to involve you, is it? It couldn’t involve you. All you have to do is say yes or no as to whether that money was fo.r the Oommunist Party. And your yes or no isn’t going to decide the issue, I’ll tell you that; it’s something else that exists. You know that I wouldn’t ask you questions — you can’t accuse me of fishing in here. I haven’t learned anything yet. A. Well, I don’t want to answer.
By the Foreman:
Q. Mrs. Remington, I think that we have been very kind and considerate. We haven’t raised our voices and we haven’t shown our teeth, have we? Maybe you don’t know about our teeth. A witness before a Grand Jury hasn’t the privilege of refusing to answer a question. You see, we haven.’t told you that, so far. You have been asked a question. You must answer it. If a witness doesn’t answer a question, the Grand Jury has rather unusual powers along that line. We are, to a certain extent, what you might call a judicial body. We can’t act, ourselves. Our procedure is, when we get a witness who is contemptuous, who refuses to answer questions, to take them before a Judge. Now, at that point there will be a private proceeding. He will instruct the witness to answer the question. Then we come back here and put the question again. If the witness refuses to answer the question, we take him back to Court and the Judge will find him in contempt of Court and sentence him to jail until he has prn-ged himself. “Purging,” in that case, is answering the question. Now, I have already pointed out to you that you have a question from the Special Assistant to the Attorney General: Did your husband or did he not give this money to the Communist Party? You have no privilege to refuse to answer the question. I don’t want at this time to — I said “showing teeth.” I don’t want them to bite you. But I do want you to know that. And remember, you have a very sympathetic body here. We want to avoid anything like that. I didn’t mention, of course, the second proceeding before a jury is of course a public hearing. And I mention that to you in fairness because I do know that you have a certain grave concern about what your obligations are, and I think in fairness to you we should tell you that. And in view of the time and, I think, the empty stomachs of all the Jurors — I know mine is very empty — I think we can very quickly dispose of things if you will just proceed now. I think you have in your heart answered the questions as to what your procedure should be. (To Mr. Donegan) Do you want to put the question again ?
Q. Can you find that question, Mr. Reporter? A. My answer is yes.
. Wigmore, § 2250.
. Wolfle v. United States,
. Blau v. United States,
. Wigmore, § 2341.
. Holt v. United States,
. Beavers v. Henkel,
The variant introduced by Field, J., in his Charge to the Grand Jury, Fed.Cas. No.18,255, has never taken root and may be disregarded.
