U.S. v. Hayes

• Decision Date: 21 April 1977
• Docket Number: No. 713,D,713
• Parties: 1 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 950 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Leroy HAYES, Appellant. ocket 76-1508.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 824

553 F.2d 824

1 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 950

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Leroy HAYES, Appellant.

No. 713, Docket 76-1508.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued Jan. 28, 1977.

Decided April 21, 1977.

Frederick H. Cohn, New York City, for appellant.

Sarah Schrank Gold, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City (Robert B. Fiske, Jr., U. S. Atty., S. D. N. Y., Lawrence B. Pedowitz, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel), for appellee.

Before FEINBERG, OAKES and GURFEIN, Circuit Judges.

OAKES, Circuit Judge:

This appeal is from a judgment of conviction following a jury verdict in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Irving Ben Cooper, Judge. Appellant was convicted on two counts each of robbing, 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), and using a weapon in connection with the robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2113(d), of a branch of The Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company on March 25, 1976, and a Chase Manhattan Bank branch on April 1, 1976. Similar act evidence was introduced as to another robbery by appellant of the Swiss Bank Corporation in the same general area of New York City on March 24, 1976. ¹ A fifth count, for assault on federal agents at the time of appellant's arrest, 18 U.S.C. § 111, was based on events occurring on April 2, 1976, on the sidewalk in front of a branch of the Irving Trust Company. We affirm on all counts. ²

Appellant does not question the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction on any count. Nor could he, for the evidence, from numerous eyewitnesses and surveillance photographs, was more than ample to warrant conviction. He does question the legality of the search of the briefcase he was carrying when arrested, on the basis that there was no probable cause to arrest him; the court's refusal to suppress evidence of a recent narcotics conviction so that he might testify; the judge's charge on the Swiss Bank robbery evidence and "the unnecessary admission of testimony under it"; and the court's supplemental charge on the amount of force permissible in respect to the assault count.

I.

We hold that there was probable cause to arrest appellant and hence that the search of his briefcase was lawful. Before arresting appellant, federal agents closely observed him and, standing at one point only five feet from him, compared his features with those in the concededly excellent quality bank surveillance photographs that they had with them. Such a photographic comparison may be sufficient evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, see United States v. Fernandez, 456 F.2d 638, 642 (2d Cir. 1972) (dictum), and thus a fortiori may constitute probable cause for an arrest. Here, moreover, the agents had descriptions from all three robberies: a tall, light-skinned, black man with sideburns and a moustache, wearing a ski cap and dark glasses, in the Manufacturers Hanover and Chase Manhattan robberies carrying a briefcase, in the Manufacturers Hanover and Swiss Bank robberies carrying a silver gun, and in the Swiss Bank robbery wearing white tape on his nose. Prior to Hayes's apprehension, as he was seen looking at, entering, and leaving the vestibule of the Irving Trust Co., in the same general area as the other banks, he was observed to be tall and light-skinned, to be wearing sideburns and a moustache, a business suit, dark glasses and tape on his nose, and carrying a briefcase. The motion to suppress was properly denied, ³ and hence the evidence that Hayes's briefcase contained a silver gun similar in appearance to that used in the Manufacturers Hanover and Swiss Bank robberies was properly admitted as the product of a search incident to a lawful arrest.

II.

We further hold that the court below did not err in refusing to suppress appellant's recent narcotics conviction. Appellant was convicted in early 1976 of one count of importation of cocaine. 21 U.S.C. § 952(a). Under Rule 609(a) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, he sought a ruling in the instant case that the Government would not be permitted to use this conviction in cross-examining him if he should testify in his own defense. He was unsuccessful and accordingly did not take the stand. Rule 609(a) established a two-pronged test of admissibility:

For the purposes of attacking the credibility of a witness, evidence that he has been convicted of a crime shall be admitted if elicited from him or established by public record during cross-examination but only if the crime (1) was punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year under the law under which he was convicted, and the court determines that the probative value of admitting this evidence outweighs its prejudicial effect to the defendant, or (2) involved dishonesty or false statement, regardless of the punishment.

Under the second prong of this rule, evidence of conviction of a certain type of crime one involving "dishonesty or false statement" must be admitted, with the trial court having no discretion, ⁴ regardless of the seriousness of the offense or its prejudice to the defendant. ⁵ Because this rule is quite inflexible, allowing no leeway for consideration of mitigating circumstances, it was inevitable that Congress would define narrowly the words "dishonesty or false statement," which, taken at their broadest, involve activities that are part of nearly all crimes. Hence Congress emphasized that the second prong was meant to refer to convictions "peculiarly probative of credibility," such as those for "perjury or subornation of perjury, false statement, criminal fraud, embezzlement, or false pretense, or any other offense in the nature of crimen falsi, ⁶ the commission of which involves some element of deceit, untruthfulness, or falsification bearing on the accused's propensity to testify truthfully." Conf.Rep.No. 93-1597, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 9, reprinted in (1974) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News, pp. 7098, 7103.

The use of the second prong of Rule 609(a) is thus restricted to convictions that bear directly on the likelihood that the defendant will testify truthfully (and not merely on whether he has a propensity to commit crimes). It follows that crimes of force, such as armed robbery or assault, United States v. Smith, No. 75-1920, at 362-365 (D.C.Cir.1976), or crimes of stealth, such as burglary, see id. at 364 n.28, or petit larceny, Virgin Islands v. Testamark, 428 F.2d 742, 743 (3d Cir. 1976); but see United States v. Carden, 529 F.2d 443, 446 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 848, 97 S.Ct. 134, 50 L.Ed.2d 121 (1976), do not come within this clause. If the title of an offense leaves room for doubt, a prosecutor desiring to take advantage of automatic admission of a conviction under the second prong must demonstrate to the court "that a particular prior conviction rested on facts warranting the dishonesty or false statement description." United States v. Smith, supra, at 364 n.28.

Appellant's conviction was for the importation of cocaine, a crime in the uncertain middle category neither clearly covered nor clearly excluded by the second prong test and thus one as to which the Government must present specific facts relating to dishonesty or false statement. If this importation involved nothing more than stealth, the conviction could not be introduced under the second prong. If, on the other hand, the importation involved false written or oral statements, for example on customs forms, the conviction would be automatically admissible. Because nothing more than the bare fact of conviction is before us, we must conclude that the prosecution has failed to carry its burden of justifying the admission of appellant's conviction under the second prong of Rule 609(a).

If a conviction may not be automatically admitted under the second prong, however, it may still be admitted in the court's discretion if it meets the criteria of the first. Under this test, a court must balance the probative value of the conviction against its prejudicial effect to the defendant. Unlike the rule that prevailed before Rule 609, see e.g., United States v. Palumbo, 401 F.2d 270, 273 (2d Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 947, 89 S.Ct. 1281, 22 L.Ed.2d 480 (1969), the Government has the burden of showing that probative value outweighs prejudice. United States v. Smith, supra, at 359 - 360; United States v. Mahone, 537 F.2d 922, 929 (7th Cir. 1976).

We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the conviction here. Several factors impel this conclusion. First, as Judge Cooper noted, the conviction was a very recent one (two months before the trial here, and after the bank robberies charged), and we have held that convictions have more probative value as they become more recent, see United States v. De Angelis, 490 F.2d 1004, 1009 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 956, 94 S.Ct. 1970, 40 L.Ed.2d 306 (1974); United States v. Puco, 453 F.2d 539, 543 (2d Cir. 1971). ⁷ Second, the conviction was for a type of crime smuggling that ranks relatively high on the scale of veracity-related crimes, see United States v. De Angelis, supra, 490 F.2d at 1009 (interstate transportation of untaxed cigarettes), although not so high as to fall clearly within the second prong of Rule 609(a), as discussed supra. The conviction here has more probative value on credibility than, for example, a conviction for mere narcotics possession, ⁸ or for a violent crime, id.; United States v. Smith, supra, at 365. Third, appellant testified in his own defense at the trial that resulted in his prior conviction, and his conviction can be viewed as "a de facto finding that the accused did not tell the truth when sworn to do so." Gordon v. United States, 127 U.S.App.D.C. 343, 383 F.2d 936, 940 n.8 (1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1029, 88 S.Ct. 1421, 20 L.Ed.2d 287 (1968). Finally, the conviction was for a crime substantially different from the instant prosecution, so that there was not here the prejudice to appellant that inevitably results from the...