United States v. Crawford
| Decision Date | 17 February 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 20310.,20310. |
| Citation | 438 F.2d 441 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Roy Lee CRAWFORD, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Ivan E. Barris, Joseph W. Louisell, Detroit, Mich., for appellant.
Robert G. Renner, U. S. Atty., Neal J. Shapiro, Asst. U. S. Atty., Minneapolis, Minn., for appellee.
Before VAN OOSTERHOUT and HEANEY, Circuit Judges, and HANSON, District Judge.
Roy Crawford was convicted on all four counts of an indictment charging him with the sale of cocaine and heroin to a government informant on September 26 and September 30, 1969, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4704(a) and § 4705 (a). He was sentenced to ten years on each count, the sentences to run concurrently.
Crawford contends on appeal that the trial court erred in (1) permitting the prosecution to cross-examine the defendant about his association with persons who were addicts or convicted drug sellers, (2) admitting evidence of and allowing the prosecutor to comment upon Crawford's alleged sales of narcotics to the government informant on occasions other than those charged in the indictment, and (3) refusing to permit the defense counsel to ask the government informant whether or not she had some hope of leniency by virtue of the testimony she was giving against the defendant.1
The government established its case through the informant Geraldine Parker, and Special Agents of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Mrs. Parker, a confessed addict and drug dealer, was arrested on September 25, 1969, for selling heroin to a Special Agent. In return for preferential treatment, she agreed to cooperate with the government in building a case against Crawford. At trial, Mrs. Parker testified, over defense objections, that her husband had purchased heroin and cocaine from Crawford on a regular basis from March, 1967, to September, 1969, and that she had purchased narcotics from Crawford on about six occasions during the same period. She stated that the drugs had either been used by her or her husband, or had been resold to others. Mrs. Parker testified that she purchased heroin and cocaine from Crawford on September 26 and September 30, 1969. Her testimony with respect to these purchases was corroborated by Special Agents who observed the contact between Mrs. Parker and Crawford on both dates. The agents testified that they gave Mrs. Parker money to make the purchases, searched her before the contact, and received narcotics from her after the contact.
Crawford, who took the stand on his own behalf, testified that he had known Sam Parker since 1967, but that he first met Mrs. Parker on September 26, 1969. He stated that Mrs. Parker had sought to purchase narcotics from him on that date but that he had told her he knew nothing about narcotics. He denied meeting Mrs. Parker on September 30. Crawford's direct examination ended with the following colloquy:
He was asked the following questions on cross-examination:
An unsuccessful objection to the above line of questioning was taken at an early point in the cross-examination.2
We turn first to:
THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF CRAWFORD
We hold that the trial court exceeded its discretion in permitting the government to cross-examine Crawford with respect to his alleged acquaintance with Golden, Tanksley, Boyd and Bannarn, who were identified in the questioning as having been convicted for the possession or sale of drugs.
The questions prejudiced the defendant in the eyes of the jury by insinuating that he was a member of a ring of narcotics users and peddlers. Whatever the truth of the insinuations, it was not proper to raise and explore the issue in this manner.
The defendant, by testifying that he had not met Mrs. Parker until September 26 and that he had never sold narcotics to her or her husband, opened himself to a searching examination of his dealings with them in narcotics. But testimony with respect to the Parkers and his denial that he handled narcotics did not place his general character in issue, so as to permit cross-examination into matters beyond the scope of the direct examination which the prosecution could not prove on direct examination and which tended to prejudice the defendant.3 Specifically, he did not open the door to questions regarding his association with unsavory characters, i. e., convicted drug users, possessors and sellers.4
This holding establishes no new principle. We follow a long line of precedents in which we have held that it is improper to ask a defendant, who has not placed his general character in issue, whether he has been previously arrested,5 jailed,6 indicted,7 convicted of a crime other than a felony,8 whether he has committed acts of misconduct,9 or whether he is in possession of stolen property other than that which is the subject of the prosecution.10
The government argues that the defendant "opened the door" to the cross-examination in question by his direct testimony. While we agree that a defendant can open the door to otherwise impermissible cross-examination by his direct testimony, we do not believe that the cross-examination can be so justified in this case. In our view, cross-examination in response to statements of the defendant made on direct examination must either clarify the point raised or tend to directly impeach the defendant on that point. The cross-examination here did neither. It merely threw a shroud of suspicion over the defendant and his knowledge of the drug traffic.11
The cases cited by the government are distinguishable on their facts on this basis.
In Hayes v. United States, 407 F.2d 189 (5th Cir. 1969), the defendant had testified in his direct examination that:
In light of this testimony, the prosecutor was allowed to ask the defendant whether he had escaped from prison. The question was one of mere clarification.
In United States v. Whiting, 308 F.2d 537 (2nd Cir. 1962), the prosecutor was permitted to question the defendant about a non-felony conviction in the military, where earlier, on direct examination, the defendant had made the bald assertion that he had never been convicted of a crime. The cross-examination directly refuted the defendant's testimony and was thus a permissible attack on his credibility.
The defendant in Burrows v. United States, 371 F.2d 434 (10th Cir. 1967), testified in his defense that he had been in Des Moines, Iowa, in order to join the Marine Corps and had then decided to travel to California for that purpose. While the facts in the case are briefly drawn, it appears that the prosecutor, in subsequent cross-examination, sought to show that the defendant had actually been in Des Moines for a parole violation investigation and that such a violation would disqualify the defendant from the Marine Corps. It is clear that the prosecutor's line of questioning tended to directly impeach the defendant's testimony concerning the reason for his presence in Des Moines. For this purpose, we would have permitted the cross-examination.
The last case cited by the government is United States v. Taylor, 312 F.2d 159 (7th Cir. 1963). There, the defendant was charged with facilitating the sale of narcotics. A government agent testified that the defendant, when arrested, admitted his guilt stating that he had allowed his...
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Brown v. Haynes
...defendant's character has not been "placed in issue." United States v. Parker, 491 F.2d 517, 523 (8th Cir. 1973); United States v. Crawford, 438 F.2d 441 (8th Cir. 1971). A defendant in turn, to whom the law does not invest with a presumption of good character, is accorded the privilege or ......
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