United States v. Hoffa

307 F. Supp. 1129, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13392
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 2, 1970
DocketCrim. 11989
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 307 F. Supp. 1129 (United States v. Hoffa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Hoffa, 307 F. Supp. 1129, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13392 (E.D. Tenn. 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

FRANK W. WILSON, District Judge.

The defendants, James R. Hoffa, Thomas Ewing Parks, Larry Campbell, and Ewing King, were convicted on March 4, 1964, of willfully endeavoring to influence, intimidate, and impede jurors in the discharge of their duties, in violation of the Federal Obstruction of Justice Statute (18 U.S.C. § 1503). The subsequent history of this litigation is set forth in a footnote. 1 Suffice it here to say that the conviction of each defendant was affirmed by the Court of Appeals and by the United States Supreme Court and the defendants were ordered into custody to serve their respective sentences. Each defendant has now completed serving his sentence other than the defendant Hoffa.

The case-is presently before the Court upon the defendants’ fourth motion for a new trial. The motion was originally filed in this court upon February 28, 1967, one day following the action of the United States Supreme Court in affirm-mg the defendants’ convictions and in denying a rehearing thereon. The defendants’ fourth motion alleged that the defendants had obtained newly discovered evidence that they and their attorneys were subjected to unlawful surveillance by government agents by means of wiretapping, electronic eavesdropping, or other intrusions both prior to and during the trial in which they were convicted. The allegations of the motion being denied by the Government, the Court set an evidentiary hearing. Upon the date of the evidentiary hearing, however, counsel for the defendants declined to proceed, advising the Court that as a matter of legal ethics they did not feel that they could proceed with the evidentiary hearing, nor, as a matter of obligation to their clients, did they feel that they could disclose unto the Court the reasons for so declining to proceed. The Court thereupon overruled the fourth motion for new trial upon the default of the defendants and upon the record before the Court. United States v. Hoffa, D.C., 268 F.Supp. 732 (1967). No appeal was taken by the defendant King from the order of this Court denying the fourth motion for new trial. The other defendants did appeal. The Court of Appeals affirmed the action of this Court in denying the fourth motion for new trial. United States v. Hoffa, 6 Cir., 398 F.2d 291 (1968). A petition for certiorari was then filed by the defendants Hoffa, Parks and Campbell. While this petition was pending before the United States Supreme *1132 Court, and in response to the petition, the Solicitor General of the United States made the following representation unto that Court:

“In light of this Court’s decision in Kolod, we wish to disclose to the Court that although none of these petitioners was ever the subject of electronic surveillance directed against him, two of the petitioners did participate in conversations which were monitored during the course of electronic surveillance directed against others. (Brief for U. S. in opp. # 546 O.T. 1968)”

Upon this disclosure being made by the Government, the Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari, set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and remanded the case to this Court. See Giordano v. United States, 394 U.S. 310, 89 S.Ct. 1163, 22 L.Ed.2d 297 (1969). The directions on remand, as stated in the Giordano case, were:

“ * * * The judgments of the Courts of Appeals in these cases are vacated, and the cases remanded to the respective District Courts for further proceedings in conformity with Alderman v. United States, Ivanov v. United States, and Butenko v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176. It is not evident from the records in some of these cases whether the surveillances at issue were unlawful. It may be that the overhearings in some instances were not achieved by trespass, see Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967); Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 22 L.Ed.2d 248, and Kaiser v. New York, 394 U.S. 280, 89 S.Ct. 1044, 22 L.Ed.2d 274, or for some other reasons were not unlawful. As we held in Alderman, Ivanov, and Butenko, 37 U.S.L.W., at 4190, n. 3, 22 L.Ed.2d at 184, ‘the District Court must develop the relevant facts and decide if the Government’s electronic surveillance was unlawful.' Of course, a finding by the District Court that the surveillance was lawful would make disclosure and further proceedings unnecessary. Similarly, it is not clear that each petitioner has standing to assert the illegality of the surveillance or of the introduction of its fruits. As in Alderman, Ivanov, and Butenko, these issues are to be resolved by the District Courts in the first instance.”

Turning to the case of Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176, for further guidance on this remand, the record there reveals that the Government first disclosed in the United States Supreme Court that it had engaged in electronic surveillance of the defendants. Concluding that an issue might exist as to whether such electronic surveillance violated the search and seizure provisions of the Fourth Amendment and that, if so, a further issue might exist as to whether any evidence so obtained tainted the defendants’ trials, the Supreme Court remanded the case of each defendant to the District Court for determination of these issues. The Court defined the issues for determination on remand in the following language:

“The judgment(s) * * * are vacated, and each of the cases is remanded to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion, that is, for a hearing, findings, and conclusions (1) on the question of whether with respect to any petitioner there was electronic surveillance which violated his Fourth Amendment rights, and (2) if there was such surveillance with respect to any petitioner, on the nature and relevance to his conviction of any conversations which may have been overheard through that surveillance.”

In the light of the directions in Giordano and in Alderman, it is appropriate at this point to delineate certain of the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court for conducting proceedings of this nature. The Court does not here propose to undertake a general discussion of the developments in the law of *1133 searches and seizures, beginning with Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944, 66 A.L.R. 376 (1928), which have resulted in wiretapping, electronic surveillance and eavesdropping being considered a form of search and seizure subject to the Fourth Amendment limitations. 2

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Bluebook (online)
307 F. Supp. 1129, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hoffa-tned-1970.