United States v. Smith

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Melvin Carl Smith was found guilty in this court of two counts involving unlawful possession of firearms in violation of 18 U.S.C., App. § 1202(a) (possession of a firearm by a person previously convicted of a felony). He was sentenced to two years in prison on each of the two counts, to begin and run consecutively. Defendant appealed his conviction on October 31,1969.

While the appeal was pending, the government disclosed to the Court of Appeals that it had searched its files and discovered that the defendant had participated in conversations which were monitored by electronic surveillance conducted by the federal government to gather intelligence information relating to the national security. In light of this, the circuit court granted the government’s motion for a limited remand to this court “for proceedings required by Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165 [ 89 S.Ct. 961 , 22 L.Ed.2d 176 ]”.

The Supreme Court held, in Alderman , that “surveillance records as to which any [defendant] has standing to object should be turned over to him without being screened in camera by the trial judge”. 394 U.S. at 182 , 89 S.Ct. at 971 . In a per curiam opinion,…