United States v. James

I dissent.

The essence of the majority opinion is that a surprise witness, whose testimony is crucially important to the Government’s case, may be sprung on the defense in the midst of a trial without affording the latter any opportunity to investigate or prepare to meet this new development. “To do that is not to proceed promptly in the *251calm spirit of regulated justice but to go forward with the haste of the mob,”1 and if the defense is to be denied forty-eight hours in which to seek out a possible answer to the solid blow which has been unexpectedly dealt his case, the concept of judicial…