United States v. Whitehorn

710 F. Supp. 803, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3820, 1989 WL 35676
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedApril 11, 1989
DocketCrim. 88-0145 (HHG)
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 710 F. Supp. 803 (United States v. Whitehorn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Whitehorn, 710 F. Supp. 803, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3820, 1989 WL 35676 (D.D.C. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

HAROLD H. GREENE, District Judge.

The defendants in this case — Laura Whitehorn, Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman, Susan Rosenberg, Marilyn Buck, and Linda Evans 1 — stand indicted in this Court of conspiracy 2 and four counts of bombing 3 the United States Capitol, the National War College Building at Fort McNair, the Computer Center at the Washington Navy Yard, and the Officer’s Club at the Navy Yard, 4 all in 1983 and 1984. 5 With the exception of Whitehorn, 6 all the defendants *808 have previously been convicted in other federal courts of such crimes as conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms and explosives, and one of them, Buck, was earlier convicted of armed robbery and bank robbery killing in connection with the robbery of a Brinks armored car in Nanuet, New York. Again, all defendants but Whitehorn are now serving substantial sentences with respect to these offenses. 7

The defendants 8 filed a considerable number of pretrial motions, and following the filing of oppositions by the government and of defendants’ replies, the Court heard oral argument on many of these motions for two days on March 16 and 17, 1989. Additional hearings — on motions requiring the consideration of evidence in addition to legal argument {e.g., motions to suppress) —will be held within the next two weeks.

In this Opinion, the Court disposes of the pending motions as follows. The first two sections deal with defendants’ challenge to the entire prosecution — Prosecutorial Misconduct (Part I), and Vagueness (Part II). This is followed by five sections on procedural claims and requests — Surplusage and Bill of Particulars (Part III); Witness and Evidence Lists (Part IV); Severance (Part V): Grand Jury Minutes (Part VI); and Exculpatory Evidence (Part VII); next is a motion on Courtroom Security (Part VIII); and the final two sections discuss motions filed on behalf of only some defendants— Dismissal of Conspiracy Count (Part IX) and Double Jeopardy (Part X).

As will be seen below, and for the reasons there stated, all but one of the motions will be denied in whole or in part. The one motion the Court is granting is that which claims double jeopardy, and the indictment will be dismissed on that basis as to the three defendants (Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman, and Susan Rosenberg) who were placed in jeopardy by their prior criminal trials and convictions based on the same evidence as that which the government expects to use in their trial on the current indictment in this Court. Part X of this Opinion discusses that double jeopardy issue.

I

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Initially, the defendants challenge the basic validity of the indictment in three related motions to dismiss based on claimed governmental misconduct. One of these is a joint motion of all defendants for a dismissal on account of unconstitutional delay and prosecutorial vindictiveness. In addition, defendant Rosenberg filed her own motion to dismiss because of alleged prose-cutorial vindictiveness. Finally, the defendants filed a joint motion to dismiss which alleges far-ranging prosecutorial misconduct and encompasses the allegations in the other two motions. Since the Court has determined that the indictment must be dismissed as to defendant Rosenberg based on double jeopardy considerations, it will not specifically address the issues raised in her motion. Instead it will consider the specific claims of unconstitutional delay and prosecutorial vindictiveness before moving to the defendants’ umbrella motion regarding misconduct.

A. Delay

Under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, a defendant is protected in the federal courts against oppressive pre-indictment delay. United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 324, 92 S.Ct. 455, 465, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971). The Supreme Court has established a two-part test for determining whether an indictment should be dismissed on account of such delay: (1) the delay must have caused substantial *809 prejudice to the defendant’s right to a fair trial; and (2) the delay must be the result of an intentional effort by the prosecutor to gain a tactical advantage over the defendant. Marion, 404 U.S. at 324, 92 S.Ct. at 465. The defendants assert that the three-year delay in this case between arrest and indictment satisfies that test.

There is little doubt that the defendants have suffered some prejudice as a result of the government’s delay in bringing the indictment. It is likely, for example, that the delay preceding the indictment in this case, combined with defendants’ trials in other courts, has strained their emotional and financial resources. Whatever prejudice they may have suffered, however, is not nearly as great as they claim.

The most substantial prejudice resulting from the delay in this case, it is said, has been to defendants’ ability to defend against the government’s charges. More specifically, defendants state that because of the delay, they “are faced with the almost impossible task of trying to reconstruct their whereabouts, locate witnesses and documents and prepare a defense to events which occurred years ago.” 9 Were this true, this would be precisely the type of prejudice that is relevant in the post-indictment Sixth Amendment context, and it would be an important due process consideration as well. See Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374, 380, 89 S.Ct. 575, 578, 21 L.Ed.2d 607 (1969).

However, the possibility of prejudice 10 is contradicted by the factual picture, for the delay in bringing the indictment in this case has not, as a practical matter, increased the defendants’ difficulty in preparing for trial even close to the level of “near impossibility” that they allege. As the defendants themselves repeatedly emphasize (even in the instant motion), several of them have spent much of the last three years in trials involving many of the same issues, evidence, and witnesses as are presented in the instant case.

The blunt fact is that, because of their incarceration, the defendants have apparently been able to do little else in the last three years other than to participate in trials concerning the events surrounding the alleged bombings or to prepare for such trials. The contention that they have lost track of witnesses or are unable to reconstruct events that happened in the past therefore strains credulity, and the Court is not persuaded that the delay has caused any significant prejudice to their ability to defend against the charges in the indictment here.

Moving to the second part of the test for unconstitutional delay, the Court concludes that the government did not purposely delay the return of the indictment to gain a tactical advantage.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
710 F. Supp. 803, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3820, 1989 WL 35676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-whitehorn-dcd-1989.