Opinion ID: 304354
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Presumption of Importation of Narcotics

Text: 24 We turn next to the various contentions relating to the presumptions erected by 21 U.S.C. Sec. 174 and 26 U.S.C. Sec. 4704(a). 25 The first argument is that Cox, Branch and Miller cannot be presumed, pursuant to Sec. 174, to know the heroin they possessed was illegally imported because, it is alleged, the government failed to prove the basic fact of possession. None of these convicted conspirators were caught possessing heroin, so the usual evidence of scientific testing was absent. The prosecution relied instead upon the inexpert testimony of two co-conspirators turned informers who (1) said they had seen the defendants possessing substances they knew to be heroin, (2) admitted they personally had used heroin purchased from the defendants, and (3) identified the voices and colloquialisms in wiretapped conversations as being the defendants discussing their possession, use and sale of heroin. Additionally, scientific testing of heroin seized from other co-conspirators confirmed this testimony that what the conspirators dealt in was heroin. We think the foregoing evidence is sufficient for the jury to find the basic fact that these three defendants possessed heroin. 23 V. Instructions 26 All four appellants next contend the instructions were fatally erroneous in failing to use the words of the instructions approved in Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 406-407, 90 S.Ct. 642, 24 L.Ed.2d (1970), which emphasized that despite the permissibility of relying on the presumption; the jury, as the sole judge of the facts, is the final arbiter of the probative force of the presumption and can reject it as failing the burden of proving each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. We think, however, that the Supreme Court's approval of the instructions in Turner in no way limited instructions to use of those very words. Applying the usual test, the instructions here, when considered as a whole, fairly conveyed the governing legal principle to the jury. In any event, the defendants' failure specifically to raise this objection in a timely manner precludes their making this contention now. 24