Court Opinion

ID: 9445046
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:18:53.558824+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:06.660389
License: Public Domain

CAMERON, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially).
The thread of conspiracy upon which this conviction depends is thin indeed. After reading the briefs and hearing the oral argument I was in great doubt whether appellant’s conviction should stand. But reading the record revealed that five of the persons with whom appellant was alleged to have conspired were Negroes, one of whom had been employed by him as a farm laborer and automobile mechanic; another was a close confederate in liquor deals, whose fines appellant had paid on one or more occasions.
The relationship thus depicted, known to the Court below, and to us, and the understanding of its implications furnish an ingredient of proof which fills the interstices so evident without them, and explain much in the record which otherwise is without probative significance. Supplementing the facts otherwise appearing by this knowledge and understanding, it is rather plain that appellant furnished the brains and the money and the leadership in the conspiracy and the others were pliant pawns responding to his will and desire. This added element makes it possible for me to concur in affirming the judgment of conviction.