Miranda v. United States

• Citation: 255 F.2d 9
• Decision Date: 30 April 1958
• Docket Number: No. 5240.,5240.
• Parties: Armando A. MIRANDA, Defendant, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

255 F.2d 9 (1958)

Armando A. MIRANDA, Defendant, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 5240.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard February 5, 1958.

Decided April 30, 1958.

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Robert D. Abrahams, Philadelphia, Pa., with whom B. F. Sanchez Castano, Cesar Andreu Ribas, Dr. Juan B. Soto and Jorge Ortiz Toro, San Juan, P. R., were on brief for appellant.

Ruben Rodriguez-Antongiorgi, U. S. Atty., San Juan, P. R., for appellee.

Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and MARIS and WOODBURY, Circuit Judges.

MARIS, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Armando A. Miranda, an attorney practicing in Puerto Rico, was convicted by a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico of subornation of perjury. The gravamen of the offense charged, which is punishable under section 1622 of title 18 United States Code, was that the defendant in court-martial proceedings held in Puerto Rico in which he acted as civilian counsel for three servicemen charged with burglary on a military post, suborned his clients to testify falsely with respect to the circumstances under which their confessions were procured. After conviction the defendant filed a motion in arrest of judgment and a motion for a new trial. The district court, after hearing argument, denied both motions. Sentence was imposed upon the defendant and judgment was entered thereon. This appeal followed.

The defendant, in his motion in arrest of judgment, contended that the district court lacked jurisdiction to try an offense against the United States committed in Puerto Rico. This attack on the jurisdiction of the court had been raised previously and had been rejected by the district court. See United States v. Long, D.C.P.R.1954, 118 F.Supp. 857. An attempt had then been made, without success, to have the Supreme Court of the United States consider the question. Ex parte Long, 1954, 347 U.S. 926, 74 S.Ct. 534, 98 L.Ed. 1079. When the question was raised by the defendant in this case, the district court again rejected, upon the basis of its holding in the Long case, the contention that the court lacked jurisdiction to try the defendant and impose sentence upon him.

The federal district court in Puerto Rico has had jurisdiction of criminal offenses since its creation by Congress in 1900. By the Foraker Act of 1900, 31 Stat. 77, a civil government was established for Puerto Rico and under section 34 of that Act Puerto Rico was constituted a judicial district and a district court of the United States was created. The Act provided that the statutory laws of the United States, not locally inapplicable, should have the same force and effect in Puerto Rico as in the United States. The powers of the federal district court were not enumerated, but it was provided that the court should have "the ordinary jurisdiction of district courts of the United States." It was clear that this grant of authority included the power to try offenses against the laws of the United States committed in Puerto Rico. Crowley v. United States, 1904, 194 U.S. 461, 24 S.Ct. 731, 48 L.Ed. 1075; Rodriguez v. United States, 1905, 198 U.S. 156, 25 S.Ct. 617, 49 L.Ed. 994.

When the second organic act, the Jones Act of 1917, 39 Stat. 951, 48 U.S.C. 1940 ed. § 731 et seq., was passed certain changes, notably the abolition of the former circuit courts, had been made in the federal courts system. See Munoz v. Porto Rico Ry. Light & Power Co., 1 Cir., 1936, 83 F.2d 262. Section 41 of the Jones Act, 48 U.S.C. 1940 ed. § 863, provided that Puerto Rico should constitute a judicial district to be called the district of Puerto Rico, that the district court for the district should be called the District Court of the United States for Puerto Rico, and that "Such district court shall have jurisdiction of all cases cognizable in the district courts of the United States, and shall proceed in the same manner." Upon reference to section 24 of the Judicial Code of 1911, 28 U.S.C. 1940 ed. § 41, in which were set out the cases cognizable in the district courts of the United States, we find that the second paragraph conferred jurisdiction of "all crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States." Thus jurisdiction, as this court held in Ramos v. United States, 1 Cir., 1926, 12 F.2d 761, 762, was possessed by the district court over criminal offenses against the laws of the United States committed in Puerto Rico.

In the face of these authorities, the defendant does not seriously contend that the district court did not have criminal jurisdiction under these organic acts. He does contend, however, that its previously existing criminal jurisdiction was withdrawn when on June 25, 1948 Congress codified and revised the Criminal and Judicial Codes by the enactment of revised titles 18 and 28 and in that connection amended section 41 of the Jones Act of 1917, 62 Stat. 989, 48 U.S.C.A. § 863, so as to strike therefrom the language which granted to the federal district court in Puerto Rico "jurisdiction of all cases cognizable in the district courts of the United States." This amendment was part of a general revision of section 41 under which the provisions of the section which had constituted Puerto Rico a judicial district and had provided for the appointment of a district judge and the establishment of a district court were all eliminated from the Jones Act in view of their inclusion in revised title 28. As amended, section 41 now merely provides in this regard that "The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico shall, in addition to its other jurisdiction," continue to have certain special jurisdiction in naturalization and diversity of citizenship cases which had previously been conferred upon it by section 41 of the Jones Act and which was not being included in revised title 28.

The Government says that the use of the term "other jurisdiction" in amended section 41 of the Jones Act was a recognition of the fact that the federal district court in Puerto Rico was to continue to exercise its existing jurisdiction which was thereafter to be derived by it, in common with all other federal district courts, from revised titles 18 and 28 of the United States Code. The defendant argues, however, that the term refers only to the civil jurisdiction conferred upon the court, along with all other federal district courts, by sections 1331 et seq. of revised title 28. He concedes, of course, that section 3231 of revised title 18 of the United States Code provides that:

"The district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States."

His contention is, however, that the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is not a district court of the United States, within the meaning of section 3231 because it is not a true United States district court and is not specifically mentioned in that section. In this connection he points to the definitions contained in section 451¹ of revised title 28 under which the federal district courts in Hawaii and Puerto Rico are specifically included in the definition of courts of the United States and he relies on the fact that the definitions of that section are stated to be for use in title 28 which in his view excludes their use in determining the meaning of terms in title 18.

We do not agree with the defendant's contentions. On the contrary we are satisfied that Congress intended when it used the term "district courts of the United States" in section 3231 to include the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. We think that the legislative history of revised titles 18 and 28 supports this view and we find no intimation there or elsewhere that Congress intended to withdraw from that court its long established criminal jurisdiction and leave a vacuum of federal criminal jurisdiction in Puerto Rico. Quite to the contrary, we find it to be assumed by Congress that the federal district court in Puerto Rico is and continues to be in all respects equal in jurisdiction to all other United States district courts.

The purpose of Congress in enacting titles 18 and 28 of the United States Code in 1948 is clearly evident from the committee reports.² It was to revise and systematically codify in these two titles all the current law relating to crimes, the judiciary and judicial procedure which was then to be found in the Revised Statutes of 1874, the Criminal Code of 1909, the Judicial Code of 1911 and a great number of other statutes. The two titles were enacted at the same time and one of their purposes was to present all this material in the two titles in a logical and consistent way. Broadly speaking this meant that title 28, entitled "Judiciary and Judicial Procedure," should contain the provisions for the establishment of the federal courts and for their jurisdiction in civil cases, while title 18, entitled "Crimes and Criminal Procedure," should contain the provisions for the definition and punishment of crimes and for the jurisdiction of the courts in criminal cases. Accordingly the provisions of law relating to the jurisdiction of the district courts, all of which had formerly been included in the Judicial Code of 1911, were now necessarily divided between the two revised titles.

At the same time Congress decided to bring the federal district courts which had been established by the territorial organic acts in Hawaii and Puerto Rico fully into the federal judicial system. Accordingly by sections 91 and 119³ of title 28 Hawaii and Puerto Rico were constituted judicial districts on a parity with the federal judicial districts in the States, by section 132(a)⁴ of title 28 district courts were established in those districts by the same language which established the district courts in the federal judicial districts located in the States, and by section 133⁵ of...