Court Opinion

ID: 9842886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:20:39.369664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:04.773298
License: Public Domain

MEDINA, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment of conviction and agree with the reasoning of my brother Friendly’s opinion and the principles stated therein. What troubles me somewhat is the statement: “If the books of Stern’s Express had contained a column labelled as payments to Chait, that would have been enough to support a conviction without the testimony of any witness save as to their authenticity.” The facts of the two cases cited in support of this statement, United States v. Wood, 1840, 14 Pet. 430, 10 L.Ed. 527, and United States v. Collins, 2 Cir., 1959, 272 F.2d 650, appear to me to be “far stronger, more cogent and more convincing,” 272 F.2d at page 652, than the direct testimony of one witness together with some corroborating proof, in accordance with the rule commonly applied in perjury cases. Whether or not this would be the case on my brother Friendly’s hypothesis might well depend upon a variety of attendant circumstances, and upon what constitutes the proof of authenticity in a particular case. I would prefer to cross that bridge when we come to it.