Caudillo v. United States, 15734.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1958
• Docket Number: No. 15734.,15734.
• Citation: 253 F.2d 513
• Parties: Ambrose Badillo CAUDILLO, Joe Romero, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

253 F.2d 513 (1958)

Ambrose Badillo CAUDILLO, Joe Romero, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 15734.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

March 26, 1958.

Claude Vibart Worrell, Frank E. Loy, Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants.

Laughlin E. Waters, U. S. Atty., Rembert T. Brown, Lloyd F. Dunn, Asst. U. S. Attys., Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee.

Before FEE and BARNES, Circuit Judges, and HAMLIN, District Judge.

BARNES, Circuit Judge.

Caudillo appeals from his conviction on three counts (two of sale and one of possession), and Romero appeals from his conviction on two counts (both of possession), charging violations of 21 U.S.C.A. § 176a.¹ Appellants were tried and convicted by a jury.

21 U.S.C.A. § 176a prohibits the importation of marihuana, or the receipt, sale or concealment, or the facilitation in any manner of the sale or transportation or concealment of such illegally imported marihuana. It also contains, after a description of the proscribed crime, the following language:

"Whenever on trial for a violation of this subsection, the defendant is shown to have or to have had the marihuana in his possession, such possession shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction unless the defendant explains his possession to the satisfaction of the jury." Emphasis added.

Both appellants urge that the provision above is unconstitutional because there is no rational connection between the statutory presumption and the facts proved thereby. Caudillo alone urges as a second ground that any presumption was defeated as a matter of law by evidence received in rebuttal.

There is an almost identical provision contained in 21 U.S.C.A. § 174, creating a presumption relating to possession of any narcotic drugs,² and a somewhat similar provision in 21 U.S.C.A. § 181, creating the same presumption with respect to opium prepared for smoking.³

The Supreme Court (Yee Hem v. United States, 1925, 268 U.S. 178, 45 S.Ct. 470, 69 L.Ed. 904) and this Court (Hooper v. United States, 9 Cir., 1926, 16 F.2d 868; Rosenberg v. United States, 9 Cir., 1926, 13 F.2d 369) have held the presumption of unlawful importation of narcotic drugs arising from possession not unconstitutional. "The statute has laid down a rule, not of substantive law * * * but merely of evidence." Stein v. United States, 9 Cir., 1948, 166 F.2d 851, certiorari denied 334 U.S. 844, 68 S.Ct. 1512, 92 L.Ed. 1768; Ng Choy Fong v. United States, 9 Cir., 1917, 245 F. 305, 307. Requirement of proof "to the satisfaction of the jury" is not unconstitutional; Gonzales v. United States, 9 Cir., 1947, 162 F.2d 870, 871. It is not unconstitutional as forcing defendant to testify; Yee Hem v. United States, supra; Dear Check Quong v. United States, 1947, 82 U.S.App.D.C. 8, 160 F. 2d 251; Mullaney v. United States, 9 Cir., 1936, 82 F.2d 638, 641; Rosenberg v. United States, supra.

The essence of appellants' joint claim of unconstitutionality is that marihuana, unlike opium, can be, and is grown in California and other southwestern states of the United States, and hence it cannot rationally be inferred from mere possession that that particular marihuana was knowingly illegally imported.

The evidence without question identifies the substance possessed and sold by the defendants as marihuana, and that neither defendant upon demand, produced the certificate or form relating to the taxation of the transfer of marihuana required by Internal Revenue Code § 4744.⁴ No direct evidence was produced as to whether the marihuana was grown within or without the United States.

However, there was testimony that the marihuana was "unmanicured," i. e., it had seeds and stems and sticks mixed with the marihuana leaves. The seeds, stems and sticks would indicate the marihuana was at least partly made up from the flowering top of a marihuana plant and not solely from the leaves. The plant so flowers at maturity. Very few mature marihuana plants are found growing in California. In the grower's haste to secure the marihuana, the leaves are used when the plants are immature and before they go to seed. A Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, called as an expert witness by defendants, testified he knew of about a dozen seizures of plants during the year before the trial in Los Angeles County. The number of plants seized ranged from one or two small plants to one seizure of two hundred and eighteen plants two years before. Only once had a mature (nine foot) plant with flowering top been seized to the memory of defendants' expert. In the manicured state one cannot tell the difference between marihuana grown in the United States and that grown outside it.

From the foregoing, there existed a factual situation from which the jury could draw the inference that it was extremely unlikely that parts of flowering tops would be found in marihuana grown in the State of California.

The jury was instructed that they must weigh the evidence produced by defendants as to the origin of the marihuana, and that the ultimate burden was on the government — that the statutory presumption merely created an inference in the government's favor.⁵

Appellants correctly argue that the second paragraph of § 176a creates a presumption which if followed supplies two elements of the crime charged: (1) illegal importation of the marihuana, and (2) knowledge by the defendants of the illegal character of the marihuana. Pon Wing Quong v. United States, 9 Cir., 1940, 111 F.2d 751.

Both appellants rely heavily in their constitutional defense on Tot v. United States, 1943, 319 U.S. 463, 63 S.Ct. 1241, 87 L.Ed. 1519. There, Section 2(f) of the Federal Firearms Act made it unlawful for one convicted of a crime of violence or who was a fugitive from justice to receive any firearms or ammunition which had been transported in interstate commerce, and that "the possession of a firearm or ammunition by any such person shall be presumptive evidence that such firearm or ammunition was shipped or transported or received, as the case may be, by such person in violation of this Act."⁶

The appellants there, as here, attacked the presumption created by the statute on the ground that there is no rational connection between the facts proved and the ultimate fact presumed, and that the statute casts an unfair and practically impossible burden on a defendant.

The Supreme Court states in the Tot case:

"A statutory presumption cannot be sustained if there be no rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed, if the inference of one from the proof of the other is arbitrary because of lack of connection between the two in common experience. Cases cited. This is not to say that a valid presumption may not be created upon a view of relation broader than that a jury might take in a specific case. But where the inference is so strained as not to have a reasonable relation to the circumstances of life as we know them it is not competent for the legislature to create it as a rule governing the procedure of courts." 319 U.S. at 467-468, 63 S.Ct. at page 1245.

The difficulty with appellants' reliance on the Tot case is that it provides no precedent in this, a factually different case. The possession of a firearm or ammunition is ordinarily lawful. There exists the possibility of lawful possession of opium derivatives, or other narcotics, for they have definite therapeutic medical values and a scientific need exists for their possession by many doctors and almost every hospital in the United States. But this Court knows of no medical or scientific use to be made of marihuana, save perhaps for occasional testing, in order to make scientific comparisons with other narcotics, barbiturates and amphetamines.

The statutory language in question has long existed in the narcotic laws. In Yee Hem v. United States, supra, the Supreme Court upheld the presumption in reference to opium. Appellants seek to distinguish the Yee Hem case on the ground that all opium is necessarily imported and therefore the presumption is reasonably accurate. However, the Court noted in that case that some opium is legally imported, but that the possibility of a defendant having in his possession legally imported opium would be so rare as to permit the legislature to establish the presumption and thereby shift the burden of going forward with rebutting evidence. Ultimately the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt remains with the government and the presumption is merely an aid in sustaining that burden. If we agree that by far the larger part of all marihuana found within the United States is imported then it is a reasonable inference that it is probable that one in possession of marihuana is in possession of imported marihuana. And, a fortiori, it can be inferred that the person in possession knows of the illegal importation. Further, the growing of marihuana is illegal in several states including California.⁷ The California prohibition has been on the statute books since 1929.⁸ If experience is the test of the validity of an inference, then the legislatively created inference in this case is well supported. "* * * The strength of any inference of one fact from proof of another depends upon the generality of the experience upon which it is founded."⁹ Though there might be differences of opinion, it can reasonably be argued that the facts of marihuana importation are so well-known, particularly to marihuana users, that there is a "rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed."¹⁰ It might even be urged that the inference could be said to exist independent of the statutory authority therefor. We believe a trial court could take judicial knowledge, in California for example, of such facts relative to the importation of marihuana.

Finally, the Supreme Court has held that merely because it might be possible to legally import opium...