U.S. v. Goodridge

• Decision Date: 08 December 1998
• Docket Number: No. 98-1042,98-1042
• Citation: 164 F.3d 687
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Ralph Arthur GOODRIDGE, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 687

164 F.3d 687

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Ralph Arthur GOODRIDGE, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 98-1042.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Dec. 8, 1998.

Decided Jan. 7, 1999.

Stephen Paul Maidman for appellant.

William M. Welch, II, with whom Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, Circuit Judge, GIBSON, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

BOUDIN, Circuit Judge.

Ralph Goodridge was tried in June 1997 for the robbery of a bank in West Springfield, Massachusetts, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Goodridge was also charged with using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, id. § 924(c), and with being a felon in possession of a firearm, id. § 922(g). On June 23, 1997, the jury found Goodridge guilty on all counts. After sentencing, Goodridge filed the present appeal, claiming that the district court committed plain error in allowing certain statements by government counsel during closing arguments to which Goodridge made no objection at the time.

The robbery was committed by two masked men, so no one inside the bank could identify the robbers conclusively. However, Goodridge was seen outside the bank, and a good deal of circumstantial evidence connected Goodridge to the crime. While the evidence was ample to permit a jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, it was perhaps not so certain that a serious trial error would have been patently harmless.

At the start of his closing argument, the prosecutor stated: "Ralph Goodridge is a bank robber. It is who he is. It is what he does." The same statement was repeated part way through the government's closing argument. In neither instance was any objection taken at the time. Defense counsel argued after trial, and asserts again on this appeal, that the government's comments wrongly insinuated to the jury that Goodridge had committed earlier bank robberies, and that the jury may have convicted in part based on the belief that someone who had committed prior bank robberies was more likely to have committed this one.

It would have been improper for the government to imply that it had private knowledge of other bank robberies committed by Goodridge. But the government says that the statement was intended to make a different, legitimate argument. One of the main themes in Goodridge's defense relied upon evidence that he had been unmarked later in the day of the robbery by red dye or tear gas which had been detonated in a concealed package when the robbers were transporting currency stolen from the bank. Cf. United States v. Brien, 59 F.3d 274, 275 (1st Cir.1995).

In response, the government says that the evidence permitted the jury to infer, from other aspects of the robbery, that the...