Gordon v. United States

289 F. 552, 53 App. D.C. 154, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1999
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMay 7, 1923
DocketNo. 3938
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 289 F. 552 (Gordon v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon v. United States, 289 F. 552, 53 App. D.C. 154, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1999 (D.C. Cir. 1923).

Opinion

SMYTH, Chief Justice.

Rufus Gordon was jointly indicted with Roy Gordon and Aloysius Chase for the murder of Simon Miller. The Gordons were convicted. Rufus was sentenced to be hanged, and Roy to be imprisoned for life. The case against Chase was nolled.

The Gordons are brothers, and Chase is a brother-in-law of theirs. In September, 1919, the three being together at the home of the Gordons’ mother, 1621 Twelfth Street Northwest, Rufus said to the others that he had a good gun, and suggested that they go out and make some' money. They started, and when they reached the sidewalk he declared that he was going to hold up and rob somebody, and that he wanted them to watch. They went to the corner of Eamont street and Sherman Avenue Northwest. When they arrived there, Rufus told his companions to wait. Roy and Chase crossed the street and waited a little while. As they waited, a woman was seen to go into a grocery store on the corner. After she came out, Rufus Gordon went in. A minute later a shot was heard. Roy and Chase ran down the street together, while Rufus ran out of the store and into a nearby alley. The shot was heard by several persons in the neighborhood, and immediately afterwards the dead body of Miller was found behind the counter in a pool of blood, with a bullet hole in the neck. Within 10 or 15 minutes before the shot was fired, the Gordons were seen and recognized in the neighborhood of Miller’s store. The next day after the shooting Rufus Gordon told Chase that he shot the man because the latter made a dive as if he was reaching under the counter for a pistol. The Gordons bring the case here, in forma pauperis, for our review, and assign eight errors.

Appellants allege that the court erred in permitting Chase to be used as a witness by the state, since his name and address did not appear in the list of witnesses served upon them. They contend that under section 1033, R. S. (Comp. St. § 1699), the government was re[554]*554quired to deliver to them two days before the trial a list of the names and addresses of the witnesses to be used against them. The statute does require this, but it is for the benefit of the defendant, and he may waive it if he sees fit; and he. will be regarded as having done so unless _ he makes objection when the witness takes the stand. It was so decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in Hickory v. United States, 151 U. S. 303, 307, 14 Sup. Ct. 334, 38 L. Ed. 170. There, as here, the defendant did not object to witnesses testifying whose names had not been furnished to the defendant. The court, after calling attention to this fact, said it would have been error to have allowed them to testify if defendant had objected; “but,” added the court, “we think he did not do that here, and that the defect was waived.” In answer to the suggestion that the defendant objected as soon as he discovered that the witnesses’ names were not on the list furnished to him before the trial, the court said, “Counsel ought not to sit by and listen to the testimony in chief of a witness before inquiring whether his name has been furnished to the defendants,” and ruled that no error had been committed in permitting the witness to testify.

New Hampshire has a statute similar to section 1033, and construed it as extending a privilege to the defendant which he waives by not objecting at the time a witness is called. In discussing the point the court expressed itself thus:

“Tlie statute was intended to secure to persons indicted means of information which would enable them to make their defense, and not to furnish them an exception to be shrewdly used as a means of escape from justice.” Lord v. State, 18 N. H. 173, 176.

Perhaps counsel in the instant case did not object because they were of opinion that the testimony of Chase would be more favorable to their clients than to the state. If so, they took their chances and are bound by the result.

Three witnesses besides Chase, whose names were not furnished to the defendants, as required by 'section 1033, were permitted to testify, arid complaint is made of this fact. But they were called in rebuttal only, and the statute does not apply to such witnesses. It was so held in Goldsby v. United States, 160 U. S. 70, 76, 16 Sup. Ct. 216, 40 L. Ed. 343, wherein it was said that, if it did, it would be impossible to conduct any trial. This decision has not been reversed or modified, and it states the law of this jurisdiction at the present time.

The defendants offered to prove by a witness that, in a conversation between Chase and their counsel, Chase stated that he had not seen Rufus Gordon for three or four years, and that he knew nothing about the killing of Miller. The offer was objected to, and the objection was sustained on the score that no proper foundation had been laid for the question which preceded the offer. Chase had not been specifically interrogated with respect to the matter when he was on ■the stand. It is a well-settled principle that a witness cannot be discredited or his hostility or bias shown by proving statements made by him outside of court which do not harmonize with the statements made by him on the -witness stand, until his attention has been called specifically to .the .former statements, with particularity as to time, place, and [555]*555circumstance, so that he can deny or explain them. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Artery, 137 U. S. 507, 11 Sup. Ct. 129, 34 L. Ed. 747; The Charles Morgan, 115 U. S. 69, 5 Sup. Ct. 1172, 29 L. Ed. 316; Ayers v. Watson, 132 U. S. 394, 10 Sup. Ct. 116, 33 L. Ed. 378. Chase was in court. No application was made far leave to recall him, for the purpose of laying the proper foundation, after the court had sustained the objection. There was no error in the ruling.

Counsel urge that in no part of the charge of the trial justice was the jury told that there was a presumption of innocence which attended the appellants throughout the trial, and that the failure to so inform the jury is an error which affected the substantial rights of the defendants. But it was admitted at the bar that this claim is not supported by the record, which shows that the jury was fully instructed upon that point in the first and second requests made by the defendants, and granted by the court.

It is said that the trial justice told the jury that they could “take part of what a witness says as the truth and ■ * * * another part as not being true, without stating to them that, if they should find that any witness had sworn falsely to a matter within the knowledge of the witness, with willful intent, they were at liberty to disregard the whole of the evidence.” But the bill of exceptions is against counsel on that point. According to it the court charged the jury that, if they found that any witness had willfully and deliberately testified falsely to any material fact in the case, they were at liberty to disregard his testimony entirely or in part, but were not required to do either. From this it is clear that the learned trial justice did in effect what counsel say he should have done.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Cook
589 P.2d 616 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1979)
United States v. Anthony F. Wright
489 F.2d 1181 (D.C. Circuit, 1973)
United States v. Gregory
266 F. Supp. 484 (District of Columbia, 1967)
Swailes v. District of Columbia
219 A.2d 100 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1966)
United States v. White
225 F. Supp. 514 (District of Columbia, 1963)
Thompson v. State
186 A.2d 461 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1962)
United States v. Morris
178 F. Supp. 694 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1959)
United States v. Rosenberg
195 F.2d 583 (Second Circuit, 1952)
Burton v. United States
175 F.2d 960 (Fifth Circuit, 1949)
Michael v. Smith
68 F.2d 378 (D.C. Circuit, 1933)
Mostyn v. United States
64 F.2d 145 (D.C. Circuit, 1933)
In re Smolka
58 F.2d 403 (E.D. Michigan, 1932)
Stassi v. United States
50 F.2d 526 (Eighth Circuit, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 F. 552, 53 App. D.C. 154, 1923 U.S. App. LEXIS 1999, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-v-united-states-cadc-1923.