United States v. Kahaner

203 F. Supp. 78, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3182
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 16, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by121 cases

This text of 203 F. Supp. 78 (United States v. Kahaner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Kahaner, 203 F. Supp. 78, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3182 (S.D.N.Y. 1962).

Opinion

*80 WEINFELD, District Judge.

These are motions made by four of five defendants who are charged with conspiracy to obstruct the due administration of justice.

The single count indictment alleges that the five defendants conspired together with others, named as coconspira-tors but not as defendants, corruptly to influence and endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. It is charged that the conspiracy embraced attempts to obtain dismissal of charges against four of six individuals named in a criminal complaint filed before a United States Commissioner in that District, and, further, attempts to obtain suspended or light sentences for Moore, a defendant herein, and others who had been indicted in that District for crimes alleged in the complaint, to wit, fraudulent concealment of assets in a bankruptcy proceeding and conspiracy so to do. In the bankruptcy prosecution, Moore and two co-defendants (the latter being named herein as co-conspirators, but not as defendants) entered pleas of guilty. Moore was sentenced to three years imprisonment and the others to lesser terms.

MOTIONS FOR A SEPARATE TRIAL

The defendants Kahaner and Keogh move, pursuant to Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S. C.A., for a separate trial from the defendant Moore. He is one of the persons with respect to whom it is alleged that the defendant Kahaner, to carry out the conspiracy, would and did attempt to obtain dismissal of the complaint before the United States Commissioner and thereafter, following Moore’s indictment, would and did attempt to obtain a suspended sentence for him.

The basis of the motion for a separate trial is the contention, made upon information and belief by the respective attorneys for the movants, that Moore, after the termination of the alleged conspiracy and after he had been sentenced, made a statement or confession and also testified before the Grand Jury which returned the present indictment; that his statement and Grand Jury testimony not only inculpated him, but also implicated Kahaner and perhaps involved Keogh; that the prosecution intends upon the trial to offer Moore’s statement in evidence against him; and finally, that Moore’s defense is antagonistic to that of Kahaner.

Recognizing that Moore’s statement would be admissible against him upon the trial, but not against them, the moving defendants urge that it may be of such a highly prejudicial nature that admonitory instructions to the jury limiting it to Moore alone would be futile.

Defense counsel surmise the content of Moore’s statement and his Grand Jury testimony by reason of the fact that his sentence was reduced from three years to one year following his appearance before the Grand Jury. They suggest that Moore’s motion for a reduction, the file of which was ordered sealed by the sentencing court, was favorably acted upon because he has been and is cooperating with the' prosecution.

The problem presented — that of protecting an alleged co-conspirator against the prejudicial force of a hearsay statement incompetent as against him, but competent against the declarant, an alleged co-conspirator — is not uncommon, and arises in most conspiracy or joint trials. 1 The courts have had occasion to deal with it frequently. 2 The general rule is that persons jointly indicted should be tried together, 3 particularly so *81 where the indictment charges a conspiracy or a crime which may be proved against all the defendants by the same evidence and which results from the same or a similar series of acts. 4 But a single joint trial, however desirable, may not be had at the expense of a defendant’s right to a fundamentally fair trial. 5 Economy of judicial manpower and the prompt trial of those accused of a crime must be weighed against possible unfairness to a defendant. 6 However, the public interest in avoiding duplicitous, time-consuming and expensive trials is such that separate trials of jointly indicted defendants — with the inevitable disclosure of the Government’s entire evidence upon the first — should be granted only when it appears that a joint trial will prejudice one or more defendants. As stated by this Court in a similar situation:

“To be sure, since guilt is personal, the ideal of perfection would be that each defendant face a jury of his peers in a separate trial where evidence admissible only against him would be heard by the jury. Thus, any danger of transference of the illicit conduct of others to the defendant would be eliminated. Since the ideal is unattainable —either because of the nature of many crimes, or for other practical reasons — the defendant is entitled to a separate trial as a matter of right only upon a showing of prejudice * * United States v. Cafaro, 26 F.R.D. 170, 172 (S.D. N.Y.1960). 7

Thus, the court whose discretion is invoked must decide whether under the circumstances of a particular case the admonitory instruction to a jury will be sufficient to safeguard each defendant’s rights.

The fact that a declarant’s statement contains incriminating references to his alleged co-conspirators is not sufficient in and of itself to require a separate trial; 8 nor is the fact that there is hostility between one or more defendants, or that one defendant may try to save himself at the expense of another, conclusive on the issue. 9 More must be shown.

The ultimate question is whether, under all the circumstances of the particular case, as a practical matter, it is within the capacity of the jurors to follow the court’s admonitory instructions and accordingly to collate and appraise the independent evidence against each defendant solely upon that defendant’s own acts, statements and conduct. 10 In sum, can the jury keep separate the evidence that is relevant to each defend *82 ant 11 and render a fair and impartial verdict as to him ? If so, though the task be difficult, 12 severance should not be granted.

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Bluebook (online)
203 F. Supp. 78, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kahaner-nysd-1962.