Piemonte v. United States

• Decision Date: 19 June 1961
• Docket Number: No. 122,122
• Citation: 6 L.Ed.2d 1028,81 S.Ct. 1720,367 U.S. 556
• Parties: Armando PIEMONTE, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

367 U.S. 556

81 S.Ct. 1720

6 L.Ed.2d 1028

Armando PIEMONTE, Petitioner,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 122.

Argued March 21, 1961.

Decided June 19, 1961.

Mr. Melvin B. Lewis, Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.

Mr. Theodore George Gilinsky, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, Armando Piemonte, while serving a six-year sentence for the sale and possession of heroin, was brought by writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum before a federal grand jury inquiring into narcotics offenses. Having consulted his counsel prior to his appearance, before the grand jury he refused to answer all questions concerning his crime as well as other transactions in narcotics, under the claim of his privilege against self-incrimination. Three days later, the United States Attorney petitioned for an order directing Piemonte to answer the questions put to him. The petition stated that the grand jury was conducting an investigation of illegal narcotics activities, that Piemonte's testimony was required for the investigation in the public interest, that having been questioned on matters relating to narcotics Piemonte claimed his privilege against self-incrimination, wherefore request was made that Piemonte be required to testify pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1406, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1406. That provision of the Narcotic Control Act of 1956 gives immunity from future prosecution to any witness who is compelled by court order to testify before a federal court or grand jury concerning violations of the narcotics laws.¹ The section's breadth and constitutionality were considered earlier this Term in Reina v. United States, 364 U.S. 507, 81 S.Ct. 260, 5 L.Ed.2d 249.

The district judge, having granted Piemonte immunity from 'prosecution which might arise from any answers that you give to this Grand Jury concerning the matter of their investigation,' ordered him to testify 'relative to the aforementioned inquiry of said Grand Jury * * *.' Piemonte was granted an opportunity to consult his lawyer and his duty to appear before the grand jury was delayed for a day. The next morning he renewed his refusal to answer the questions propounded to him about narcotics activities and again invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege.

That afternoon he was taken back before the District Court to answer an order to show cause why he should not be cited for contempt for deliberately disobeying the previous order to testify. He was represented by his counsel at this proceeding. Having examined the transcript of the grand jury's morning proceedings, the judge asked petitioner if he persisted in refusing to answer the questions, to which Piemonte replied in the affirmative. The judge gave Piemonte's counsel four days to prepare for a plenary hearing of the charge of contumacy, but denied Piemonte's motion for a jury trial.

At the subsequent hearing, the Government stood on its case based on the grand jury transcripts and the court's order to testify. The judge again asked Piemonte if he persisted in his refusal to obey the court's order. Piemonte took the stand in his own behalf, and made the following explanation for his refusal to testify:

'Well. I am doing time in the penitentiary. I fear for my life. I fear for the life of my wife, my two stepchildren, and my family. I can't do something like that. I want to live, too.'

After his counsel's elaboration of this argument, the judge again asked Piemonte if he would testify. Upon his refusal, the judge declared him guilty of contempt of court for willful failure to obey a lawful order. After hearing argument on the sentence, the judge once again offered to give petitioner the opportunity to answer the questions. The refusal having been made definitive, sentence was fixed at eighteen months, to commence at the termination of the imprisonment he was serving.

The contempt judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 276 F.2d 148, and we granted certiorari 364 U.S. 811, 81 S.Ct. 46, 5 L.Ed.2d 44.

This record surely evinces the utmost solicitude by the trial court for the defendant's interests. His only claim for reversal here is based upon alleged defects in the proceedings which resulted in his conviction of criminal contempt.² Petitioner's first claim is that he was subjected to so many differing interpretations of whether he had a privilege to refrain from testifying as to certain questions that the order commanding him to answer lacked sufficient clarity. This is a sheer afterthought. Neither Piemonte nor his counsel ever claimed confusion in the District Court as a basis for his refusal to testify. Nor do the facts reveal that petitioner could have been misled by the out-of-context statements he pieces together for purposes of review.

The first morning before the grand jury, the government attorney asked petitioner:

'Didn't your lawyer advise you, Mr. Piemonte, on those matters that you pleaded guilty to in the indictment that you have no Constitutional privilege against self-incrimination?'

However, the Government, in order to avoid any argumentative opportunities as to the scope of the area for which it sought immunity, did not attempt to secure an order directing answers for the particular questions relating to matters involved in his former conviction. It requested a broad order of immunity to cover the entire scope of what was under investigation by the grand jury. The United States Attorney told the district judge in seeking the order compelling testimony:

'(S)o that the Court would not have any misconception of the idea of the Government counsel on this matter, we, too, think that the constitutional privilege claimed by the witness is well taken in this matter.'

Petitioner plainly must have known—and gave every indication that he knew—that he was required to answer all questions put to him by the grand jury in return for equivalent, compensating immunity. We find no merit in an argument which is contradicted by petitioner's own assertion, supported by his counsel's argument, that he refused to testify solely because of fear.

Secondly, petitioner argues that the oral grant of immunity by the district judge was null and void, because the judge said 'this Court now grants you immunity from prosecution * * *' and 'I now grant you immunity from such prosecution * * *,' when in reality the statute, not the court, grants the immunity. The puerility of this contention is emphasized by petitioner's disregard of the judge's introductory basis of his pronouncement as 'in accordance with the provisions of the Narcotic Control Act.'

The remaining contentions of petitioner are of even less substantiality, and accordingly the judgment below is affirmed.

Affirmed.

Mr. Chief Justice WARREN, with whom Mr. Justice DOUGLAS concurs, dissenting.

This case represents another long step in the constantly expanding use by the federal district judges of their summary contempt power to mete out severe prison sentences without according the defendants the benefit of a jury trial and the other rights guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.¹ In an ordinary case of this nature, I would content myself with saying that the conviction should be reversed on the ground that a federal district judge has no power to impose such punishment in a summary proceeding. See Green v. United States, 356 U.S. 165, 193, 78 S.Ct. 632, 648, 2 L.Ed.2d 672 (dissenting opinion); Reina v. United States, 364 U.S. 507, 515, 81 S.Ct. 260, 265, 5 L.Ed.2d 249 (dissenting opinion). However, the facts of this case are so disquieting that I am compelled to add a few adi tional comments.

In 1958, the petitioner was convicted of selling and possessing narcotics in violation of the federal narcotics laws and was sentenced by a Federal District Court to six years' imprisonment. In 1959, while serving his sentence at the Leavenworth Penitentiary, the petitioner was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury conducting an investigation of possible narcotics offenses. He was asked to indicate where he had obtained the narcotics which he was convicted of having possessed and sold. Invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, the petitioner refused to answer the question.² He was then asked whether he knew several named individuals and whether he had obtained the narcotics from any of those individuals. Still relying upon his Fifth Amendment privilege, the petitioner refused to answer each of the questions. On petition of the Government, the District Court authorized the granting of immunity to the petitioner pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1406, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1406, and instructed him to answer the questions asked by the grand jury. Upon being recalled before the grand jury, the petitioner again invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to identify those from whom he had obtained the narcotics which constituted the basis for his 1958 conviction.³ In response to a subsequent order to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court, the petitioner asserted, as an additional reason for not answering, that the lives of his wife and children, as well as his own life, would be endangered were he to answer the questions. Having denied the petitioner's request for a jury trial, the district judge summarily found the petitioner guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to eighteen months' imprisonment, to be served after the completion of the six-year sentence imposed in 1958.

In my opinion, the Government has subjected the petitioner to unjustifiable harassment. The petitioner has been convicted for his admittedly illegal conduct and is presently paying his debt to society for that conduct. However, not being satisfied with this punishment, the Government sought to extract from the petitioner, under the threat of a contempt conviction, testimony which it could not have compelled at the original trial in 1958, and which it knows might well endanger peti...