Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/160
Timestamp: 2014-08-01 00:28:20
Document Index: 605315530

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2833', '§ 2810', '§ 2834', '§ 2803', '§ 550', '§ 2833', '§ 2833']

BOZZA v. UNITED STATES. | LII / Legal Information Institute
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330 U.S. 160 (67 S.Ct. 645, 91 L.Ed. 818)
BOZZA v. UNITED STATES.
Argued: and Submitted Jan. 7, 1947.
[HTML] Syllabus from pages 160-162 intentionally omitted
The petitioner and one Chirichillo were convicted in a Federal District Court on all counts of a five-count indictment against them which charged violation of the Internal Revenue laws in connection with the operation of a still. The Court of Appeals reversed petitioner's conviction on counts four and five because of insufficient evidence, but affirmed as to counts one, two, and three. 3 Cir., 155 F.2d 592. We granted certiorari. 329 U.S. 698, 67 S.Ct. 58. Count one charged that the defendants had carried on 'the business of a distiller * * * with intent willfully to defraud the * * * United States of the tax on * * * spirits so distilled * * *' in violation of 26 U.S.C. 2833(a), 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2833(a). Count two charged them with having had possession and custody of the still in violation of 26 U.S.C. 2810(a), 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2810(a). Count three charged that they had made and fermented mash for the production of alcohol in violation of 26 U.S.C. 2834, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2834. It is argued that the evidence was insufficient to support any of the three counts here at issue. The Government concedes its insufficiency as to counts two and three.
There was testimony to show the following: Chirichillo rented a farmhouse under an assumed name and installed a 300-gallon still with all equipment necessary to ferment mash and distill alcohol. The still was operated day and night. Chirichillo himself mixed the ingredients to make the mash in the attic of the 2 1/2-story frame building, but the alcohol distillation was carried on in another part of the building. Petitioner was at the house two or three times a week. When there he took instructions from Chirichillo and helped him in the operation of the still; he helped manufacture the alcohol. When Chirichillo carried his products to Newark, the car in which he carried the illicitly distilled alcohol would follow along behind another carsometimes petitioner's, sometimes another helper's. The farmhouse where the illicit business was carried on appeared from the outside to be deserted; the windows were without shades and the house had been practically stripped of furniture.
The sufficiency of the evidence as to count two which charged that the petitioner had custody or possession of the still is a closer question. It might be possible that petitioner's helping to make the alcohol aided and abetted in its 'custody or possession.' But that would be a very strained inference under any circumstances. Here again the statutes treat custody or possession as a wholly distinct offense. Yet there was no testimony that the petitioner ever exercised, or aided the exercise of, any control over the distillery. His participation in carrying the finished product by car does not fit the category of 'custody and possession' so nearly as it resembles the transportation of illegal liquor, 26 U.S.C. 2803, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2803an offense which the Circuit Court of Appeals has found the evidence insufficient to prove. Nor was there any testimony that the petitioner acted in any other capacity calculated to facilitate the custody or possession, such as, for illustration, service as a caretaker, watchman, lookout, or in some other similar capacity. Under these circumstances, we accept the Government's concession that a judgment of guilty should not have been rendered on the second count.
We think there was adequate evidence to support a finding of guilt on the first count which charged operation of the business of distilling to defraud the Government of taxes. There was certainly ample evidence to show that Chirichillo carried on the business of a distiller and that the petitioner helped him to do it. 18 U.S.C. 550, 18 U.S.C.A. § 550, provides that one who aids and abets another to commit a crime is guilty as a principal. Consequently, the jury had a right to find, as it did, that the petitioner and Chirichillo were equally guilty of operating the business of the distillery. See United States v. Johnson, 319 U.S. 503, 515, 518, 63 S.Ct. 1233, 1239, 1240, 87 L.Ed. 1546.
The only statute for violation of which petitioner's conviction is sustained by us carries a minimum mandatory sentence of fine of one hundred dollars and imprisonment, 26 U.S.C. 2833(a), 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2833(a). In announcing sentence at a morning session, the trial judge mentioned imprisonment only. Thereafter the petitioner was taken briefly to the U.S. Marshal's office and then to a local federal detention jail awaiting transportation to the penitentiary where he was finally to be confined. But about five hours after the sentence was announced, the judge recalled the petitioner and according to stipulation, stated in the presence of petitioner and his counsel that 'in the imposition of sentence this morning * * * it has been called to my attention that there are certain mandatory fines and penalties which I omitted to impose. For the record now minimum mandatory fines and penalties will be imposed.' Thus a one hundred dollar fine was fixed as required by law, along with the imprisonment sentence. Petitioner charges that this action constituted double jeopardy forbidden by the Federal Constitution.
It is well established that a sentence which does not comply with the letter of the criminal statute which authorizes it is so erroneous that it may be set aside on appeal, Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 168, 169, 8 Otto 145, 168, 169, 25 L.Ed. 244; Murphy v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 177 U.S. 155, 157, 20 S.Ct. 639, 640, 44 L.Ed. 711, or in habeas corpus proceedings. In re Bonner, 151 U.S. 242, 14 S.Ct. 323, 38 L.Ed. 149. But in those cases it was recognized that an excessive sentence should be corrected, even though the prisoner had already served part of his term, not by absolute discharge of the prisoner, but by an appropriate amendment of the invalid sentence by the court of original jurisdiction, at least during the term of court in which the invalid sentence was imposed.
Cf. De Benque v. United States, 66 App.D.C. 36, 85 F.2d 202, 106 A.L.R. 839. In the light of these cases, the fact that petitioner has been twice before the judge for sentencing and in a federal place of detention during the five hour interim cannot be said to constitute double jeopardy as we have heretofore considered it. Petitioner contends, however, that these cases are inapplicable here because correction of this sentence so as to make it lawful increases his punishment. Cf. United States v. Benz, 282 U.S. 304, 309, 51 S.Ct. 113, 114, 75 L.Ed. 354. If this inadvertent error cannot be corrected in the manner used here by the trial court, no valid and enforceable sentence can be imposed at all. Cf. Jordan v. United States, 4 Cir., 60 F.2d 4, 6 with Barrow v. United States, 54 App.D.C. 128, 295 F. 949. This Court has rejected the 'doctrine that a prisoner, whose guilt is established by a regular verdict, is to escape punishment altogether because the court committed an error in passing the sentence.' In re Bonner, supra, 151 U.S. at page 260, 14 S.Ct. at page 327, 38 L.Ed. 149. The Constitution does not require that sentencing should be a game in which a wrong move by the judge means immunity for the prisoner. See King v. United States, 69 App.D.C. 10, 98 F.2d 291, 296. In this case the court 'only set aside what it had no authority to do, and substitute(d) directions required by the law to be done upon the conviction of the offender.' In re Bonner, supra, 151 U.S. at page 260, 14 S.Ct. at page 327, 38 L.Ed. 149. It did not twice put petitioner in jeopardy for the same offense.
The sentence as corrected, imposes a valid punishment for an offense instead of an invalid punishment for that offense.
We are of the view that to convict one as an aider and abetter in engaging in or carrying on a distillery business with intent 'to defraud' the United States of the tax on the distilled spirits, 53 Stat. 319, 26 U.S.C. 2833(a), 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 2833(a), evidence is necessary which shows that by some act of concealment he promoted the fraud, or by counsel and advice furthered the unlawful scheme, or in fact had some interest in the project.
See United States v. Cooper, 25 Fed.Cas. pages 627, 629, No. 14,863; United States v. Logan, 26 Fed.Cas. pages 900, 992, No. 15,624; Seiden v. United States, 2 Cir., 16 F.2d 197, 199; Partson v. United States, 8 Cir., 20 F.2d 127, 129; Anderson v. United States, 5 Cir., 30 F.2d 485, 487. Aiding and abetting in the illicit manufacture of liquor is one thing.
Aiding and abetting in carrying on the business with intent to defraud the United States of a tax is quite a different matter, and requires a different test, if the two offenses are not to be blended. The evidence in the case and the instructions given the jury
seem to us inadequate to sustain a conviction under count one, charging Bozza with aiding and abetting in a tax fraud scheme.
Judge Learned Hand, after reviewing the various definitions of aiding and abetting, said: 'It will be observed that all these definitions have nothing whatever to do with the probability that the forbidden result would follow upon the accessory's conduct; and that they all demand that he in some sort associate himself with the venture, that he participate in it as in something that he wishes to bring about, that he seek by his action to make it succeed. All the words usedeven the most colorless, 'abet'carry an implication of purposive attitude towards it.' United States v. Peoni, 2 Cir., 100 F.2d 401, 402.