In the Matter of David Dellinger

461 F.2d 389
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 6, 1972
Docket18294
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 461 F.2d 389 (In the Matter of David Dellinger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Matter of David Dellinger, 461 F.2d 389 (7th Cir. 1972).

Opinion

CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge.

After this Anti-riot Act ease against seven of these defendants was submitted to the jury, acting under Rule 42(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the trial judge summarily convicted them and their two trial attorneys of contempt of court in violation of 18 U.S. C. § 401(1). All nine now appeal from the findings of contempt and the sentences imposed upon them.

In the certificates of contempt, the court found that the 5-month trial was “marred by continual disruptive outbursts in direct defiance of judicial authority by defendants and defense counsel.” It found that “throughout this case * * * the behavior of the de *392 fendants was aimed at baiting the judge and inciting and harassing the U. S. Attorneys in an attempt to stop the trial.” The entire record of the trial was made part of the contempt proceedings.

The contempt sentences ranged from 2 months and 18 days for defendant Weiner to 4 years and 13 days for Attorney Kunstler. Many of the arguments raised by the parties were also raised in the contempt case against Bobby Seale, who was a co-defendant in the Anti-riot case until a mistrial was declared as to him, resulting in his severance. In the interest of brevity, we will incorporate the rulings in our opinion in United States v. Seale, 461 F.2d 345, when dispositive of arguments herein.

Electronic Surveillance as to Seale

Appellants argue that their contempt judgments should be reversed because of the Government’s allegedly illegal electronic surveillance as to Seale. As co-defendants and counsel, they have no standing to complain that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated where, as here, their conversations or conversations on their premises were not involved. Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176.

We have seen in United States v. Seale, supra, that the only conversation possibly bearing on his contempt is contained in the first paragraph of the earliest of the three logs. There was nothing in any of the logs which could conceivably be deemed an intrusion into councils of the defendants other than Seale. There not only was no “direct intrusion * * * into attorney-client discussions” (Hoffa v. United States, 387 U.S. 231, 233, 87 S.Ct. 1583, 1584, 18 L.Ed.2d 738), but also there was no indirect intrusion, however remote, that could possibly give appellants standing to complain of these logs under the Fifth or Sixth Amendments. Cf. Gran-ello v. United States, 386 U.S. 1019, 87 S.Ct. 1367, 18 L.Ed.2d 458; United States v. Fannon, 435 F.2d 364, 368 (7th Cir. 1970).

If United States v. United States District Court for Eastern District of Michigan, 444 F.2d 651 (6th Cir.), certiorari granted, 403 U.S. 930, 91 S.Ct. 2255, 29 L.Ed.2d 708 (1971), is reversed by the Supreme Court, then under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (18 U.S.C. § 2511(3)), the surveillances were lawful and need not be disclosed for this additional reason.

We hold that the Seale logs require neither reversal nor dismissal of the contempt charges against appellants.

Trial Before Another Judge

As a result of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Mayberry v. Pennsylvania, 400 U.S. 455, 91 S.Ct. 499, 27 L.Ed.2d 532, the Government has conceded that the contempt convictions „ of all of these appellants, except the two trial counsel, should be reversed and remanded for consideration by another trial judge. The convictions of counselors Kunstler and Weinglass are asserted to stand on a different footing. We disagree.

The Government argues that the post-trial summary contempt punishment of the lawyers in this case was proper under Sacher v. United States, 343 U.S. 1, 72 S.Ct. 451, 96 L.Ed. 717. That case involved a trial judge’s summary contempt conviction, after trial, of several attorneys who had represented eleven Communist Party leaders convicted of Smith Act violations in the celebrated Dennis trial. 1 It is clear that the lawyers’ contemptuous conduct in that case included an attack upon the trial judge personally. 343 U.S. at 4-5, 72 S.Ct. 451 and 343 U.S. at 33-35, 72 S.Ct. 451. (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). 2 Never *393 theless, the Supreme Court majority upheld the post-trial summary procedure, deciding that “summary” as used in Fed.R.Crim.Pro. 42(a) was not synonymous with “instantly” but rather referred to the informality of the procedure. 343 U.S. at 9, 72 S.Ct. 451. If the trial judge could have cited the lawyers instantly, he was entitled to do so at the end of the trial since “no possible prejudice to them can result from delaying it until the end of the trial if the circumstances permit such delay.” 343 U.S. at 10, 72 S.Ct. at 455. Responding to the argument that post-trial summary procedure was inappropriate where the conduct in question included a personal attack on the judge, Mr. Justice Jackson, speaking for the Court, said Rule 42(a) contained “no such limitation” and found any distinction between personally offensive contempts and impersonal contuma-cies illusory. Predicating the applicability of Rule 42(a) upon such a distinction, he stated, “would nullify, in practice, the power it purports to grant.” 343 U.S. at 12, 72 S.Ct. at 456.

Were Sacher the Supreme Court’s latest pronouncement on the subject, we would affirm the trial judge’s use of summary procedure in the instant case since, as the Government argues, the factual postures of the two cases are closely akin. However, as Judge Me-Gowan has convincingly elaborated in United States v. Meyer, 149 U.S.App.D.C. -, 462 F.2d 827 (1972), cases subsequent to Sacher have considerably undermined its vitality. 3

In Offutt v. United States, 348 U.S. 11, 75 S.Ct. 11, 99 L.Ed. 11, the Supreme Court forbade the use of summary contempt power post-trial by a trial judge who had become “personally embroiled” with the lawyer whom he cited. 348 U.S. at 17, 75 S.Ct. 11. The Court, speaking through Mr. Justice Frankfurter, held under its “supervisory authority over the administration of criminal justice in the federal courts” (348 U.S. at 13, 75 S.Ct. at 13) that a trial judge so embroiled could not proceed summarily after the completion of the trial but must recuse himself to allow another judge to adjudicate the contempt. 4

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461 F.2d 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-david-dellinger-ca7-1972.