United States v. Phillip Kent Palmer, Joseph Philip Silverman, Ernest Smith, Freddie Daniel Milton, Edward Earl Dillingham and Wayne Franklin Dean

502 F.2d 1233, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 6655
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 2, 1974
Docket73-1717
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 502 F.2d 1233 (United States v. Phillip Kent Palmer, Joseph Philip Silverman, Ernest Smith, Freddie Daniel Milton, Edward Earl Dillingham and Wayne Franklin Dean) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Phillip Kent Palmer, Joseph Philip Silverman, Ernest Smith, Freddie Daniel Milton, Edward Earl Dillingham and Wayne Franklin Dean, 502 F.2d 1233, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 6655 (5th Cir. 1974).

Opinion

GEE, Circuit Judge:

The six appellants were found guilty by a jury under various counts of a fifteen-count indictment for their respective roles in an interstate automobile theft ring. 1 Each comes to us with several points on appeal, none of which requires reversal. Indeed, after considering all contentions we have concluded that our opinion on only one point of law raised by one appellant would have precedential value. 2

Appellant Dillingham’s right to a speedy trial

Edward Earl Dillingham was convicted on all fifteen counts. The evidence shows that he was instrumental in organizing the conspiracy, in promoting the thefts of the ears, and in effectuating their subsequent sale — principally through his crucial role in obtaining fraudulent title documents.

Dillingham was arrested on April 6, 1970, on a warrant charging a violation of the Dyer Act. On May 28, 1970, he was released on a $1,500 bond. He was indicted along with fifteen other defendants on February 9, 1972, by a federal grant jury in the Northern District of Georgia. He was arraigned on October 20, 1972, brought to trial on January 22, 1973, and found guilty by a jury verdict on February 2, 1973.

1. Post-arrest pre-indictment delay.

Dillingham’s most serious complaint is that the 22-month delay between his initial arrest, from which he was released on bond, and his indictment violated his Sixth Amendment right to speedy trial and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. 3

*1235 He argues that the delay should be evaluated according to the ad hoc standard discussed by the Supreme Court in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). Our reply must be the same as in United States v. Smith, 487 F.2d 175 (5th Cir. 1973):

The contention of appellant is that approximately three and one half years elapsed between the time he came to be in federal custody and the time he was indicted for the above-mentioned offenses and such pre-in-dictment delay is in violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Although appellant urges upon this court the test espoused by the Supreme Court in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1973), we find that test not to be applicable in this case. Here we are faced with a pre-indictment delay which, according to the Supreme Court, is not to be counted for the purposes of a Sixth Amendment motion absent a showing of actual prejudice. United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971), Hoskins v. Wainwright (5 Cir. 1973), 485 F.2d 1186. Therefore, the only question facing this court is whether actual prejudice did occur.

487 F.2d at 177.

We most recently ruled on the subject of post-arrest pre-indictment delay in United States v. Zane, 489 F.2d 269 (5th Cir. 1973). There Chief Judge Brown preserved the distinction which we made in United States v. Smith between the broad Barker v. Wingo test applicable to post-indictment delay and the more narrow United States v. Marion test applicable to pre-indictment delay. As stated by Judge Brown:

While post-arrest pre-indictment delay is within the scope of the speedy trial guarantee, a substantial showing of actual prejudice is required to establish a Sixth Amendment violation in this situation.

489 F.2d at 270.

Therefore, in applying the Sixth Amendment to a post-arrest preindictment situation, our attention is focused on “actual prejudice” — and only peripherally on such factors as length of and reason for the delay. Also, in order for the Sixth Amendment protection to apply there need not be a finding that the prosecutorial delay was intentionally employed to disadvantage the defense. We have interpreted the Supreme Court’s language in Marion, 404 U.S. at 324, 92 S.Ct. 455, to mean that the Fifth Amendment is concerned with intent. See United States v. Zane, 489 F.2d at 270. But, since here no contention or indication of prosecutorial intent to prejudice exists, we have no occasion to apply the Fifth Amendment beyond its overlap with the Sixth. 4

Subsequent to trial, a hearing was held on Dillingham’s motion to dismiss his indictment 5 at which he was given the opportunity to show that the delay caused him substantial actual prejudice. This he was unable to do to the satisfaction of the trial court; and, upon reviewing the transcript of the hearing, we agree with that decision.

We do not review the evidence with a narrow concept of what constitutes “actual prejudice.” Certainly, as pointed out in United States v. Smith, *1236 487 F.2d 175, 177 (5th Cir. 1973), the term includes impairment of the defendant’s capacity to prepare a defense — because, for example, of failure of memories or loss of records or disappearance of witnesses. 6 But, perhaps even more importantly, the term encompasses what we label personal prejudice as distinguished from prejudice to the defense. The adversities which follow an arrest were of uppermost concern to the Supreme Court in Marion.

Inordinate delay between arrest, indictment, and trial may impair a defendant’s ability to present an effective defense. But the major evils protected against by the speedy trial guarantee exist quite apart from actual or possible prejudice to an accused’s defense. To legally arrest and detain, the Government must assert probable cause to believe the arrestee has committed a crime. Arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant’s liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends.

404 U.S. at 320, 92 S.Ct. at 463.

Therefore, in our review of the record we have weighed Dillingham’s evidence of personal hardship along with that of damage to his defense in determining whether “substantial actual prejudice” was shown. We conclude that it was not.

Dillingham offered two witnesses, Mr. William Rogers and Mrs. Barbara Bennett, who were employees of Frank Vego Ford during the time he worked there and while he was making out-of-state runs for the stolen cars and obtaining title documents for them.

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Bluebook (online)
502 F.2d 1233, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 6655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-phillip-kent-palmer-joseph-philip-silverman-ernest-ca5-1974.