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United States of America, Appellee, v. Alfred Erdos, Appellant
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. - 474 F.2d 157
Argued Oct. 30, 1972.Decided Feb. 14, 1973
William E. McDaniels and Aubrey M. Daniel, III, Washington, D. C. (Williams, Connolly & Califano, Washington, D. C., on brief), for appellant.
Justin W. Williams, Asst. U. S. Atty. (Brian P. Gettings, U. S. Atty., on brief), for appellee.
Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, and CRAVEN and WIDENER, Circuit Judges.
CRAVEN, Circuit Judge:
On August 30, 1971, in the American Embassy in the new Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Alfred Erdos killed Donald Leahy. Both were American citizens and embassy employees, with Erdos occupying the position of senior diplomat or charge d'affairs.
Returned to the United States, Erdos was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter1 in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. On appeal, the more important issues raised are whether the district court: (1) had jurisdiction to try Erdos for a crime occurring within an American embassy located in a foreign country; (2) erred in holding that venue lay in the Eastern District of Virginia rather than the District of Massachusetts where the plane bearing Erdos first landed; and (3) improperly curtailed the cross-examination of a psychiatrist from a psychiatric treatise. We conclude there was jurisdiction and venue, and that the district judge's error in curtailing cross-examination was not sufficiently prejudicial to require reversal. We have also considered the other 13 assigned points of error and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, the judgment below will be affirmed.
Jurisdiction
The district court based jurisdiction upon 18 U.S.C. Sec. 7, which provides in part:
The term "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States", as used in this title, includes:
18 U.S.C. Sec. 1112 provides:
(a) Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. It is of two kinds:
Voluntary-Upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
Involuntary-In the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or in the commission in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection, of a lawful act which might produce death.
(b) Within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States,
Whoever is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, shall be imprisoned not more than ten years;
Whoever is guilty of involuntary manslaughter, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
See e. g., 42 Cong.Rec. 590, 1186 (1909) (remarks of Senator Heyburn and Congressman Sherley)
18 U.S.C. Sec. 3238 provides:
The trial of all offenses begun or committed upon the high seas, or elsewhere out of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district, shall be in the district in which the offender, or any one of two or more joint offenders, is arrested or is first brought; but if such offender or offenders are not so arrested or brought into any district, an indictment or information may be filed in the district of the last known residence of the offender or of any one of two or more joint offenders, or if no such residence is known the indictment or information may be filed in the District of Columbia.
See Orfield, Venue in Federal Criminal Cases, 17 U.Pitt.L.Rev. 375, 393-398 (1956)
The following colloquy between counsel for Erdos and the district judge demonstrates agreement that Erdos's movements after his arrival at Dulles were not restrained
THE COURT: [T]hey claim when he landed he was never in custody, that they did give a summons, just like a parking ticket, to appear on a certain day, but he was not arrested, he was free to go where he wanted to.
MR. McDANIELS: That is correct.
THE COURT: And he did go where he wanted to.
MR. McDANIELS: That is correct.
See Proposed Rules of Evidence for United States Courts and Magistrates, R. 803(18), 56 F.R.D. 183, 302 (1972); 6 Wigmore on Evidence Secs. 1690-1700 (3d ed. 1940)
28 U.S.C. Sec. 2111 provides:
On the hearing of any appeal or writ of certiorari in any case, the court shall give judgment after an examination of the record without regard to errors or defects which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.
Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a) provides:
Any error, defect, irregularity or variance which does not affect substantial rights shall be disregarded.
See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 22, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).