RICHARD H. WARD, APPELLANT
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE

D.C. Cir. | 1961-05-04
No. 15744
289 F.2d 877 United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1961) Negative Treatment
Cited by 39 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the joinder of unrelated charges against multiple defendants, even if one defendant is acquitted on some charges, is prejudicial and requires reversal.


Facts & Procedural History

Appellant was indicted with a co-defendant, Lyons, on multiple narcotics sale counts. Some counts involved both defendants, while others involved only…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
BURGER, Circuit Judge.

BURGER, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was indicted, tried and found guilty on six counts for narcotics violations. He was tried with a co-defendant, Curtis Lyons, who was indicted jointly with appellant in counts 4, 5 and 6 for a narcotics sale on September 1, 1959. Lyons was not charged under counts 1, 2 and 3 which charged appellant alone for a narcotics sale on July 31, 1959. However, Lyons was indicted for a narcotics offense on December 11, 1959, which was the subject of count 7. The December 11 sale under count 7 was charged only to Lyons and was unrelated to the July 31 transaction.

Thus counts 1, 2 and 3 of the indictment charged appellant alone. Counts 4, 5 and 6 charged Lyons and appellant together in common transactions and count 7 charged Lyons alone.1 The indictment did not allege that the transactions were connected or that they were pursuant to a conspiracy. Appellant’s timely motion for severance, claiming prejudicial misjoinder, was denied.

Lyons was found not guilty as to count 7 and guilty on counts 4, 5 and 6. Appellant, as we have noted, was found guilty on counts 1 through 6 inclusive.

Rule 8(b) of the Fed.R.Crim.P., 18 U.S.C.A. provides that “two or more defendants may be charged in the same indictment * * * if they are alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction * * Thus joinder under counts 4, 5 and 6 was proper as to both Ward and Lyons, for they were alleged to have participated jointly in the September 1 transaction. But the indictment did not allege that the 7th count, against Lyons, was in any way related to the counts linking the two defendants.

The government contends that Lyons’ acquittal on count 7 demonstrates that Ward did not suffer prejudice by the joinder. But “where multiple defendants are charged with offenses in no way connected, and are tried together, they are prejudiced by that very fact, and the trial judge has no discretion to deny relief.” Ingram v. United States, 4 Cir., 1959, 272 F. 2d 567, 570. See also Schaffer v. United States, 1960, 362 U.S. 511, 80 S.Ct. 945, 4 L.Ed.2d 921; McElroy v. United States, 1896, 164 U.S. 76, 17 S.Ct. 31, 41 L.Ed. 355; United States v. Welsh, D.C.1953, 15 F.R.D. 189, 190.

Since count 7 is disposed of, on a new trial appellant will be tried on counts 1 through 6, which Rule 8(a) allows to be joined against the single defendant.

Reversed and remanded.

. Approximately one-fourth;:of the transcript covers evidence relating to Lyons’ acts under count 7.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (19 total)

Previewing 3 of 19 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw