Court Opinion

ID: 9451995
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:28:37.934472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:01.115892
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
At the trial of this indictment the taking of government property was clearly proved and not disputed. On all counts, both those for criminally converting government property to the wrongdoers’ use and the one for conspiracy to commit the substantive offense, the only disputed use was the intent of the accused. Acquittals on the substantive counts were decisions that the disputed criminal intent was lacking. The conviction on the conspiracy count, from which this appeal has been taken, is a decision that the same criminal intent was present.
Recognizing the authority of Dunn v. United States, 1932, 284 U.S. 390, 52 S.Ct. 189, 76 L.Ed. 356, I concur in the affirmance of the conspiracy convictions despite their inconsistency with the simultaneous acquittals on the substantive counts. However, in doing so I express my opinion that an enlightened jurisprudence should not thus permit the jailing of accused persons on a record exhibiting verdicts in which a jury simultaneously says “yes” and “no” in answer to a single critical question. In these circumstances, a judge of an inferior court can do no more than' express his hope that the rule of the Dunn case will soon be reconsidered and abandoned.