Carrion v. Gonzalez

• Decision Date: 10 November 1954
• Docket Number: No. 8994 C.,8994 C.
• Citation: 125 F. Supp. 819
• Parties: Ramón Mirabal CARRIÓN, Petitioner, v. Balbino GONZALEZ, Superintendent of the San Juan District Jail, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

125 F. Supp. 819

Ramón Mirabal CARRIÓN, Petitioner, v. Balbino GONZALEZ, Superintendent of the San Juan District Jail, Respondent.

No. 8994 C.

United States District Court D. Puerto Rico, San Juan Division.

November 10, 1954.

R. V. Perez Marchand, Rio Piedras, P. R., and Santos P. Amadeo, Santurce, P. R., for petitioner.

Ruben Rodriquez Antongiorgi, U. S. Atty., San Juan, P. R., for respondent.

SNYDER, District Judge.

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Ramón Mirabal Carrión in which he alleges that he is being illegally restrained of his liberty by virtue of an indictment filed in this Court charging him with a violation of the Smith Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2385. He contends that said Act ceased to apply to Puerto Rico once the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico went into effect.

The petition is denied for substantially the same reasons stated in Cosentino v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n, D.C., 126 F.Supp. 420, decided by this Court on October 2, 1954. As in the latter case, which involved the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 141 et seq., the Smith Act was approved prior to 1952, clearly applied to Puerto Rico at that time, and has not been amended to date with reference to applicability. The Smith Act therefore still applies to Puerto Rico where as here it is being applied in the same manner as it would be applied in one of the States of the Union.

In the Cosentino case the Court left open, as unnecessary to decide in that case, whether the result would be different "* * * if this case had arisen in an industry which was not engaged in Interstate Commerce.", or "* * * if the statute before us had been enacted * * since the enactment and acceptance by the people of Puerto Rico of Act No. 600." For the same reason, similar questions are left open in this case. Cf. Magruder, The Commonwealth Status of Puerto Rico, 15 Pitts.U.L.Rev. 1, 18: "* * * May it possibly be contended that since the coming into effect of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Acts of Congress like the Mann Act 18 U.S.C.A. § 2421 et seq., and the National Labor Relations Act 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. can no longer be given any greater effect as applied to Puerto Rico than as applied to the States of the Union; that otherwise there would be continued regulation by Congress of purely local affairs confided to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico?"

At the oral argument of the Cosentino case it was contended that the author of this opinion, then an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, took a contrary position when he testified in 1950 before Committees of Congress in support of the bill which with minor variations became Act No. 600, 48 U.S.C.A. § 731b et seq.¹ However, that testimony does not conflict either with the holdings in this case and the Cosentino case or with the statement in the oral opinion of the Court in the Cosentino case that it was "* * * satisfied that Puerto Rico is no longer a Territory in the sense that the term is used in the Constitution and the cases." It is true that in the lengthy statement of the witness there is a sentence which reads as follows: "The economic and legal relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States remains intact."² But the latter sentence does not mean, as some seem to believe, that in the opinion of the witness Act No. 600 would result in no change in the status of Puerto Rico. Ideas are prisoners of the language used to express them. And perhaps the witness failed in his effort to state his views with unmistakable clarity and precision. But the above-quoted sentence should be read in its context. Throughout his entire statement the witness pointed out that, legally speaking, Puerto Rico was governed at that time by Congress.³ The witness advocated a change in the basis of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. His thesis was that, as provided in the pending bill, this relationship should be predicated on the consent of the parties. In this context, the above-quoted sentence meant that the principal terms of the relationship — certain provisions of the former Organic Act, by agreement of the parties, would become the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act — would not be changed under the pending bill. But the language and tenor of the statement as a whole spell out the view of the witness that the basis of the relationship — consent of both parties, as compared with the previous situation where Congress unilaterally enacted the Organic Act — would be completely different.⁴ The result was the "* * * present commonwealth status which is unprecedented in our American history and has no exact counterpart elsewhere in the world."⁵ Cf. Part I of People v. Figueroa, decided November 4, 1954, a copy of which is attached as an Appendix of this opinion.

For the reasons stated the petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the Smith Act does not apply to Puerto Rico is denied.

NOTE No. 15537

Opinion of the Court delivered by Mr. Chief Justice Snyder, November 4, 1954.

Manuel Figueroa was tried in the Superior Court in 1953 by the court without a jury and convicted on a felony charge of buying personal property knowing it was stolen, in violation of § 438 of the Penal Code, 1937 ed. He has appealed from the judgment sentencing him to imprisonment of 4 to 6 months. The only assignment is that the trial court erred in permitting one of the attorneys for the defendant to waive the right of the defendant to a trial by jury. The defendant concedes that trial by jury on a felony charge may be waived in this jurisdiction; his theory, however, is that the waiver must be by the defendant personally and not through counsel.

Art. II, § 11, par. 2 of our Constitution provides that the defendant in a felony case "* * * shall have the right of trial by an impartial jury * * *". 48 U.S.C.A. § 731d note.¹ Previously, there was no guaranty in our Organic Acts for trial by jury, either in civil or criminal cases. The matter was left for the Legislature of Puerto Rico to determine. Balzac v. People of Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 42 S.Ct. 343, 66 L.Ed. 627. The Legislature exercised this power by providing that a defendant shall have the right to trial by jury in felony cases and certain misdemeanors; but if the defendant did not affirmatively elect trial by jury, this right was waived. Section 178, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1935 ed.²

Article II, § 11, par. 2 converted the previous statutory right to a trial by jury in a felony case into a constitutional right. Informe de la Comisión de Carta de Derechos, XXI Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico 1, 15-16; Notes and Comments on the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 42. But the debate in the Constitutional Convention made it crystal clear that par. 2 was not intended to make trial by jury in felony cases mandatory in Puerto Rico. The right to a trial by jury in such cases — although now a constitutional rather than a statutory right — remains as in the past a privilege of the defendant who may waive it. Diario de Sesiones, Convención Constituyente de Puerto Rico, 605; Ramos v. Rivera, 68 P.R.R. 509, 520. The result is that § 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is no longer needed to guarantee the right to trial by jury in felony cases. But § 178 remains in effect not only for the purpose of giving a defendant the right of trial by jury in certain misdemeanor cases, but also to provide the method of waiver of the right of trial by jury.

The defendant concedes that in Puerto Rico trial by jury may be waived by the defendant. He argues, however, that the waiver must be by the defendant personally and not through counsel. His theory is predicated (a) on a proposition of constitutional law and (b) on a matter of statutory interpretation. We examine first the constitutional question.

I

Under Article III, Section 2, clause 3 and the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution a defendant is entitled to trial by jury in a criminal case in the Federal Courts. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that these Federal constitutional provisions do not establish the jury as a part of the frame of government or as a jurisdictional element of a trial court. On the contrary, trial by jury under the Federal Constitution is a privilege of the defendant, which the latter may waive. Patton v. United States, 281 U.S. 276, 50 S.Ct. 253, 74 L.Ed. 854. See State v. Hernández, 1942, 46 N.M. 134, 123 P.2d 387; Oppenheim, Waiver of Trial by Jury in Criminal Cases, 25 Mich.L.Rev. 695; Griswold, The Historical Development of Waiver of Jury Trial in Criminal Cases, 20 Va.L.Rev. 655; 30 Col.L. Rev. 1063.³

The Patton case also prescribed the conditions for waiver of trial by jury. It said, 281 U.S. at page 312, 50 S.Ct. at page 263: "* * * before any waiver can become effective, the consent of government counsel and the sanction of the court must be had, in addition to the express and intelligent consent of the defendant." Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C. A., restates the method of waiver outlined in the Patton case, with the addition that the waiver must be in writing. See Whitman, Federal Criminal Procedure 167-168, 170.⁴

The defendant contends that the right of trial by jury provided in Article II, § 11, par. 2 of our Constitution may be waived only in the manner established in the Patton case. His reasoning is as follows: Public Law 600, authorizing the people of Puerto Rico to adopt a constitution, provided that it shall contain a bill of rights. 64 Stat. 319, 48 U.S.C.A. §§ 731b-731e. This indicated the special interest in a bill of rights. The latter, including the right to a trial by jury in felony cases, was approved by Congress when it accepted the Constitution. According to the defendant, "Therefore, the right to trial by jury exists in Puerto Rico by express provision of ...