Opinion ID: 1498211
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The court erred in permitting the same offense to be charged in more than one count.

Text: Without citing any authority, the appellants complain that the testimony discloses that the so-called sugar stamps which were the subject of Count Eleven, and the red-point stamps, which were the subject of Count Ten, formed a part of the same transaction. Consequently, they argue, if there was any offense it was one offense and not two offenses and, therefore, permitting the Government to charge two offenses was contrary to law. The same transaction may be the subject of more than one count. In Dealy v. United States, 152 U.S. 539, 542, 14 S.Ct. 680, 681, 38 L.Ed. 545, the court used the following language: It is familiar law that separate counts are united in one indictment, either because entirely separate and distinct offenses are intended to be charged, or because the pleader, having in mind but a single offense, varies the statement in the several counts as to the manner or means of its commission in order to avoid at the trial an acquittal by reason of any unforeseen lack of harmony between the allegations and the proofs. [Authority cited.] Yet, whatever the purpose may be, each count is in form a distinct charge of a separate offense, and hence a verdict of guilty or not guilty as to it is not responsive to the charge in any other count. See also Thomas v. Hudspeth, 10 Cir., 127 F.2d 976, 978; Randall v. United States, 5 Cir., 148 F.2d 234, 235, certiorari denied, 325 U.S. 885, 65 S.Ct. 1579, 89 L.Ed. 2000. Before leaving the subject of the sufficiency of the information, we might do well to advert to the oft-quoted but oft-ignored statutory admonition  18 U.S.C.A. § 556: No indictment found and presented by a grand jury in any district or other court of the United States shall be deemed insufficient, nor shall the trial, judgment, or other proceeding thereon be affected by reason of any defect or imperfection in matter of form only, which shall not tend to the prejudice of the defendant   . While the foregoing section refers specifically to an indictment, the salutary principle underlying it has been extended to criminal pleadings generally. In Hagner v. United States, 285 U.S. 427, 431, 52 S. Ct. 417, 419, 76 L.Ed. 861, the court observed: The rigor of old common-law rules of criminal pleading has yielded, in modern practice, to the general principle that formal defects, not prejudicial, will be disregarded. Indeed, the principle has been specifically applied in information cases. Simpson v. United States, 6 Cir., 241 F. 841, 843, 844, certiorari denied, 245 U.S. 664, 38 S.Ct. 62, 62 L.Ed. 537, and the many cases there cited; United States v. Henderson, 73 App.D.C. 369, 121 F.2d 75, 79, and the cases there cited.