Giordano v. United States

9 F.2d 830, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2464
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedNovember 20, 1925
DocketNo. 51
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 9 F.2d 830 (Giordano v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Giordano v. United States, 9 F.2d 830, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2464 (2d Cir. 1925).

Opinion

ROGERS, Circuit Judge (after stating the facts as above).

The defendants ask to have the judgments against them reversed, and they assign 16 errors which they think were committed at the trial. Some of these alleged errors were not urged at the argument, and those of them which were urged, and which we think of sufficient importance to merit consideration, we shall pass upon.

The last of the errors assigned, and one which was urged at the argument, we shall consider first. It is said that the trial judge throughout the trial exercised his discretionary powers in a manner that was arbitrary and prejudicial to the defendants, “by putting suggestive and leading questions to the government’s witnesses, by restating and enlarging the import of testimony given by witnesses for the government and by commenting unfavorably and without justification upon questions put and testimony elicited by defendant’s counsel.” Nevertheless, in the brief submitted to this court, counsel say: “We, of course, admit that not only did the learned trial judge intend to be [832]*832scrupulously impartial, but also that the record shows that such was his intention.” Counsel, however, think that the record discloses “such a degree of bias in the judge’s comments upon the evidence and in his treatment of counsel as was certain to prejudice the jury,, and to prevent the impartial consideration by the jurors of the questions of credibility upon whieh the case necessarily turned.”

We have read the charge to the jury with care. It was in all respects absolutely fair. The judge might have expressed his own opinion as to the guilt of the defendants, if he had instructed them that they were not bound by any opinion he entertained on that subject, but he scrupulously refrained from indicating in the slightest manner what his own opinion was, or whether he had any opinion on the subject. Only one exception was taken to the charge. It was to a refusal to charge in the manner requested, and the refusal was because the subject had been already fully covered by the charge; and we find no reference to the matter in the assignments of error. If error had been assigned, we should not hesitate to disregard it. We have examined the record with care, and we find nothing in it to indicate the bias and the prejudice to the defendants, or to their counsel, whieh warrants the conclusion that the defendants by the conduct of the judge were deprived of the fair and impartial trial to whieh they were entitled under the Constitution of the United States.

The evidence discloses that the seven defendants, before referred to, left Italy on October 12, 1922, and they landed in Cuba. From there they went to Key West, in Florida, without passports to enter the United States. At Key West they were arrested and gave bonds for their appearance in New York for examination. They proceeded to New York City, where they met relatives and friends. Among those they met was one Di Salvo. He is engaged in the real estate business in New York City. He had known two of the seven aliens in Italy, and they came here from the same town he did. On their arrival in New York, they went to Di Salvo’s place of business, and explained to him their troubles in Cuba and Key West, and asked his help to save them, if possible, from being deported to Italy. Di Salvo interested Philip Giordano, one of the appellant defendants. He explained to him the situation in which these Italians found themselves. Giordano was 35 years old, and had been in this country 19 years. He is the publisher of an Italian daily newspaper, a graduate of an Italian University holding a degree in chemistry, and was regarded as having some political influence, at one time being president of the Italian National Republican League; and his testimony shows that he was known to the officials in. the Department of Labor at Washington. Witnesses testified at the trial that his reputation for honesty and truthfulness was very good. Among those so testifying was a judge of the Court of Special Sessions of the city of New York, as well as a justice of the Supreme Court of the state of New York. Di Salvo testifies that Philip Giordano told him he would try and h.elp these aliens out of their difficulties, and told him that he was to be in Washington on a certain day and asked him to meet him there. Di Salvo met him as agreed upon, and Giordano took him to the Department of Labor and showed him the files of the department, and that the aliens had been ordered deported, and that nothing could be done. Di Salvo testifies that a week later he again met Giordano in New York and told him that the aliens were willing to go to Mexico, if they could save themselves from being deported; that Giordano told him he would try to send them to Canada, but, if they wanted to go there, it would cost them for all seven $2,000. Di Salvo says he explained the situation to the aliens, and they stated that they were willing to go to Canada, if that would save them from being deported. The money was raised, and Mastrogiacomo, a brother of ,one of the seven indicted aliens, accompanied by Di Salvo, took the money to Philip Giordano’s residence and left it there for him with his father — Giordano being at the time absent. Later Di Salvo stated he met Giordano himself, who told him that the $2,000 was not enough, and that it would be necessary to have more money. And it appears that each of the seven paid the additional money, and that it was paid to Giordano’s father. Philip Giordano, according to Di Salvo, explained that the aliens could go to Montreal, Canada, and come back to the United States in a few days. The seven aliens thereafter, by direction of Philip Giordano, went to the Italian consul, and obtained their passports for Canada. They were accompanied to Canada by Alfred Giordano, one of the appellants, and a younger brother of Philip Giordano, and who two days later came back with them to the United States.

The testimony was that Alfred Giordano told the immigration inspector at Canada that his name was C. Morasco, that he was [833]*833a lawyer, and that he was taking the seven Italians into Canada to purchase jointly a farm, and that they intended to remain there and engage in farming. He also represented that the aliens had been in the United States several years, having entered in 1910 and 1911. The Canadian inspector ^passed them into Canada, hut directed them to report to him at the end of two days regarding their progress in purchasing a farm. Two days later the Canadian inspector and the United States inspector found Alfred Giordano and the seven Italians on a train returning to the United States. Alfred Giordano informed the United States inspector that he was a lawyer from New York City by the name of C. Morasco, and represented the aliens, and they were returning from Montreal where they had gone to purchase a shoe business, and that they had been in the United States from eight to ten years.

Di Salvo testified that, after he returned to New York from Washington, he had an interview with Philip Giordano, and was told by him that he would try to send the aliens to Canada. The following is an excerpt from his testimony:

“Q. Now, tell the jury what happened next. A. Then, if they want to go to Canada, they can go at their own expense, but it would cost them $2,000 for all seven.
“Q. This is a conversation had with Philip Giordano and you? A. Mr. Philip Giordano and Antonio Mastrogiaeomo. * * *
“Q. What was done next? A. Then those people, they go together, the aliens; they go and get that $2,000 ready. * * *
“Q.

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38 F.2d 406 (Ninth Circuit, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 F.2d 830, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giordano-v-united-states-ca2-1925.